His mission at the Quirinale ended on April 30th. Having turned sixty-seven on April 10th, Pietro Catzola bid farewell to the presidential palace's kitchen by preparing tomato gnocchi, thyme-flavored amberjack, and gratinated spinach flans. Finally, before bidding farewell to a thirteen-thousand-day adventure, he served a sebada, a dessert synonymous with his beloved Sardinia. The Triei-born chef was embraced by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and, in a small ceremony on the Lungotevere, by Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, Chief of Staff of the Italian Navy, in whose ranks Catzola was enlisted before his appointment (November 1989) to the Quirinale.
The leave
"What an adventure it was? Wonderful. I'll miss the Quirinale." Pietro Catzola would need a dictionary of adjectives to describe what it was like to work at the presidential palace, where Francesco Cossiga asked him after meeting and appreciating him on the Amerigo Vespucci. He chooses one adjective—wonderful, indeed—that sums up a brilliant career that has led him to prepare lunches and receptions for the world's most important figures, from Prince Charles to Mikhail Gorbachev, from the 2021 European champions Italy to Jannik Sinner. He admits to shedding tears during his last aperitif with Mattarella. "With a president like him, whom I truly loved, as well as his predecessors, it was fantastic to be there."
The adventure
On May 1st, Pietro Catzola's third life began. He was born into a modest, hard-working family (a farmer father and a housewife mother) and the eldest of four brothers in Triei's oldest neighborhood, Sa Caladorgia. In a book published by Solferino, Catzola recounts his personal story, complete with recipes, memories, anecdotes, dishes, and advice. The future? "Maybe I'll write another book. Then I'd like to meet the students of the hotel management schools and return to my hometown more often. Above all, I'll be a grandfather."