Francesco Pittala

Everything began almost eight years ago. I started a job in a restaurant where I was known as the owner’s nephew, but I turned myself into an employee. The kitchen was one of my passions and I was finally getting the opportunity to learn. So I left my office job to start working in a kitchen where I spent 2 months, more or less. After that, I learned to work on the floor as a waiter and then behind the bar as a barista. After a few months I started to serve Rum, and in that moment my curiosity about the bartending world was born. I enrolled in a bartending course just to better understand the work I was doing (or trying to do). When they closed the restaurant after almost two years, I returned to my office job because it was the only choice that I had. It became too small and boring for me to spend the whole day behind a desk, it wasn’t something that I could do anymore. I decided to enrol in another bartending course to learn more skills, gain more knowledge and to find more work places. I continued my studies at Party in Bottle, where I learned even more while trying to find the right job. Eventually, I had the opportunity to become a bar back at Fluid, one of the best cocktail bars in Rome. There, I got the chance to meet bar manager Mattia Perciballi, one of the greatest teachers in Italy. It was tough in the beginning because for eight months I was working as a bar back at night and at an office in the morning, but it was once I began to work as a bartender that everything really started. The next part of my journey started when Mattia, Daniele (my friend and colleague) and I left for London. I have since worked at Skylon, Mr. Fogg’s Residence, Barts, Four Degree, Quaglinos and now here we are. I’m a globetrotter, an arrogant egocentric but I’m still hungry and in love with this job. After I was involved in my first opening at Four Degree, I understood that anything was possible and I decided to do this again at Rockwell, The Trafalgar Hotel. It was a challenging decision to work at a five star hotel and it is not simple, especially when you don’t want to follow procedure or authority. But all the best things in life are not easy. Who likes things simple and easy anyway?