Vite restaurant sits atop a low hill in northern Italy surrounded by verdant vineyards and boasting a panoramic view of the Adriatic sea.

However the view and glossy and trendy inside are removed from the one attracts. The restaurant has simply been awarded a Michelin Inexperienced star making it simply certainly one of 48 eating places to obtain the accolade in Italy.

For the employees right here, that is greater than an award for cooking.

Unbeknownst to most diners, nearly all the employees at Vite are recovering substance abusers. Not way back, they had been preventing to flee a spiral of drug dependancy, now they’re a part of a Michelin-starred kitchen group.

The largest drug rehabilitation centre in Europe

Vite restaurant is a part of the broader San Patrignano group situated within the Emilia-Romagna area.

This centre is devoted to serving to people with substance issues to get well and reintegrate into society, and it’s the greatest of its sort in Europe.

Arianna Merlo is Vite’s restaurant supervisor in addition to an ex-member of the San Patrignano programme. Like a lot of the restaurant’s employees, she joined the three-year course after growing an dependancy to medication.

“I arrived right here as an addict having already tried one other pharmacological programme that didn’t work for me,” Merlo stated. “The truth is, half an hour after leaving that programme I instantly returned to medication.”

The San Patrignano method – a psychotherapeutic programme that doesn’t make use of prescribed drugs – helped her “discover an equilibrium”, she stated.

At San Patrignano, sufferers can convalesce freed from cost, however throughout their keep, they’re anticipated to affix completely different actions to study abilities for rehabilitation.

The centre has a spread of sectors from meat and cheese manufacturing to furnishings making and leather-based work. Members of the programme undertake a stint at Vite restaurant on the finish of their keep at San Patrignano.

“A few of the group have already labored in hospitality earlier than turning to medication, however others change into passionate throughout their keep right here,“ Merlo informed Euronews.

“They’ll keep so long as they really feel they want working on the restaurant as a way to conclude their time on the centre and reintegrate into the surface world.”

‘They’re so stimulating and motivating’

The group at Vite is led by three staff which are exterior to the San Patrignano programme.

Chef Davide Pontoriere runs the kitchen together with his second in command whereas there’s a skilled maître d’ to guide the group of waiters.

In any other case, all the employees are there as a part of their restoration programme.

“It’s not easy for me as an outsider to work with the girls and boys, there may be a variety of duty as a result of many are studying from scratch,“ Pontoriere stated.

“However they’re so stimulating and motivating, it’s unbelievable to see their progress from all-time low after they arrive to refinding themselves on the finish of the course.”

The group may be very younger and lots of had succumbed to a substance dependancy earlier than even turning 18. Regardless of this, they’re a slick and extremely skilled group.

Importantly, although, they’re additionally very open about their previous.

“As they’re on the finish of their course right here, they’re completely satisfied to speak to you about something,“ Pontoriere stated. “The truth is, it’s individuals like me from outdoors who’re shy about asking them questions.”

Sommelier Emanuele Franchi is one ex-member of the San Patrignano group who has returned to work at Vite after finishing his three-year course.

“I used to be working in a nightclub after I had simply left faculty, and that was the start of my journey to San Patrignano,” he defined.

Now, he’s answerable for stocking the restaurant’s formidable wine cellar and has ambitions to open his personal cocktail bar.

Loads of Vite’s employees have gone on to search out prestigious positions within the hospitality business.

“One of many guys who left in August is now working in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Modena,” Pontoriere stated.

Pastry chef Alice Olfi has simply a few weeks left earlier than she hopes to take up the place in one other restaurant. If her mini lemon cream-filled profiteroles and white chocolate macarons are something to go by, she’s simply starting what could possibly be an illustrious profession.

Solely the start

Vite was awarded a Michelin Inexperienced star final month, 4 years after it first opened its doorways.

The accolade recognises the zero-kilometre produce that makes up 80 per cent of the restaurant’s main components.

Delicate breadsticks and fluffy focaccia come from the San Patrignano bakery, salami and cheese is produced on-site and the wine is constituted of vineyards seen from the restaurant home windows.

Though Pontoriere acknowledges that the award doesn’t maintain the identical weight as a ‘actual’ Michelin star, he stated he and the group are ecstatic.

“We had been all watching the dwell stream of the award bulletins in our properties,” he stated. “After they stated Vite I wasn’t certain I had heard proper, however then all of the group began calling me, actually completely satisfied and even in tears.”

“It felt like a recognition for the group of simply how a lot they’ve turned their lives round.”

Regardless of the challenges of getting a kitchen crew that modifications commonly and is usually studying from scratch, Pontoriere has a transparent goal: “I’d like to go for the total Michelin star now.”