The best Italian Restaurant in Amsterdam

Amsterdam [ENA] I meet Milos Pesole at his restaurant "Quattro Gatti", in the ancient heart of Amsterdam. I've been waiting for this moment for months. In Holland, since the harshest culinary critic, Johannes van Dam, a leading authority in his field, gave him a 10-, people have been obliged to wait for a while before being able to have a table in his restaurant. But it's definitely worth waiting.

The place is small and intimate, full but not crowded, the service is very good, Christiane's job as a sommelière very well done and the food excellent. After 23 years in Holland I can finally recommend a real, high-level Italian restaurant to those friends who have been asking me for a long time. The fresh home-made bread and pastries are not only a detail but a sign of a 100% attention to customers. Passing from client to friend of Milos Pesole is easy. He is a very amiable, genuine and modest person, like only great people can be. Even his food says a lot about him and his honesty. Milos talks about himself and we love to listen.

How did you come to Holland? In 1997, following Dario Broglia when, after Marbella, he came and opened "Bice" the restaurant at Barbizon Hotel here in Amsterdam and wanted me as first pastry chef. Did you have already any experience in such a job? When I still was at school (Istituto Alberghiero) I had already worked at the "Pasticceria Baratti" in Turin, one of the historical factories that boasts of being the creator of Gianduiotti chocolates. I was very fond of my job and rapidly became first pastry chef.

And then did you remain? Well it was not so simple! Milos laughs. Since then I've been changing many times. I went back to Italy to work at the Spinnaker in Porto Cervo, Sardinia, and then back to Turin with Sandro Pedica; in 1999 I came back to Caruso in Amsterdam to work for Fulvio Platini, then to Vermeer, the restaurant with one Michelin star. At that point I decided to leave. Not only Holland but also Europe and go to Polinesia. After a short working experience in Singapore, in 2004 I came back to Holland to work at Roberto's, the restaurant at Hilton Hotel.

- And then the "Quattro Gatti?" Working in the kitchen of a big hotel is not always easy; you need to deal with administration and management problems. I instead wanted to cook, cook and cook! So I looked for a small restaurant where I could use all my skills and talent; I found it in Hartenstraat 3, the Heart street. After some time I took it over together with my friend Niko, we renovated it and then started to work. It was July 26, 2006. We were the first ones to try to distinguish ourselves being real and stating to be the first Italian bakery in Amsterdam. We chose this nice name to be different. The place was small, there was room for only four cats, the Italian way of saying, so it was easy to choose the name "Quattro Gatti".

It is a real Italian restaurant and bakery. We worked out the logo too! Starting from the beginning we've always used very good ingredients and always made everything at home: from bread to cakes. People in the neighbourhood immediately realized that and starting from the 2nd month we had the first "sold out". Some time later the culinary expert van Dam came, his 10 reported in the most important Dutch newspaper and, as a consequence, the uninterrupted telephone ringing that lasted for months: clients who wanted to book!

And now, how is the situation? I can't complain; when Niko decided to stop I asked my girlfriend Christiane to help me. She worked for a big Swiss hotel as a sommelier and now she's helping me in the kitchen. I thought it could be difficult to mix private and work but it is going very well instead. I can finally dedicate to my passion for cooking and she can apply her oenological knowledge.

Widely recognized knowledge, not only from the numerous clients but also from media and experts? We received much attention from national and international media such as for example Figaro Voyage, and also important awards like "Marchio di qualità" and "Premio Buona Cucina", the highest award abroad by Accademia della Cucina Italiana that defined us as the best restaurant in Amsterdam and surroundings. And now the award by "Cucchiaio d'Argento" in the Flemish/Dutch edition.. We can define it as the icing on the cake: the next edition that will be issued in July 2012 will contain an entire menu that I worked out.