Davide Fiorentino, a student of the fourth D/Eno at the San Paolo Institute of Sorrento, is the recipient of the third scholarship in memory of Alma Ambrosi, for decades the soul of the Old Lugana (Lugana di Sirmione, Brescia), initiated by her granddaughter Allegra Hampel Ambrosi.
Davide Fiorentino will undertake a work internship at the Don Alfonso 1890 restaurant in Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi owned by the Iaccarino family. The award ceremony took place this afternoon at the San Paolo Institute, with the participation of Alfonso and Livia Iaccarino, Edoardo Raspelli, Pierantonio Ambrosio, and the director of the Isu San Paolo, Amalia Mascolo. Davide Fiorentino, in addition to the internship, will receive a check for 2,500 euros.
The initiative aims to promote the importance of vocational training for young people, to make them understand the beauty of a profession that is a cornerstone of the Italian economy. One of our most important traditions, admired and appreciated all over the world. Alma Ambrosi was the beating heart of the famous restaurant Old Lugana, on Lake Garda, in the province of Brescia, in Sirmione, later carried on by her son Pierantonio and becoming a very important name for all lovers of good food.
The Old Lugana has been managed by the Ambrosi family since 1911, has been a part of the Le Soste association since its founding year, 1982, when the patrons of 18 restaurants met in Milan, on Via Bonvesin de la Riva, under the aegis of Gualtiero Marchesi. Edoardo Raspelli used to dine there with Clara, his former girlfriend who later became his wife; with them, their dear friend Toni Cuman. The Old Lugana, which left Le Soste in 2004, the year the activity ended, is one of the oldest Italian restaurants. Vatican maps certify its existence already in 1600 and the German poet Heine in the 1800s, in his Diary of a trip to Italy, mentions it to remember the onion soup tasted.
Today the name of Alma Ambrosi returns as a symbol of a new energy that revives her great love for cooking, so strong that it was transmitted to Pierantonio and has reached Allegra, his daughter: it is precisely from her that the desire to dedicate this award to her deceased grandmother arises, making her memory live today more than ever in the training paths she promotes. In 2022, the award of the first edition went to a deserving student who had the great opportunity to have a work experience at the Pescatore restaurant of the Santini family in Canneto sull'Oglio, Mantova. In 2023 to Da Vittorio in Brusaporto, Bergamo, of the Cerea family. This year to Don Alfonso 1890 in Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi and in 2025 it will go to Dodici Apostoli Casa Perbellini in Verona.
All the restaurants of the scholarship are part of the Le Soste association, which brings together all the most important Italian restaurants. An association of about a hundred members, born in 1982 in Milan in Via Bonvesin della Riva in the restaurant of Gualtiero Marchesi. Among the 18 founding restaurants was also the Old Lugana of the Ambrosi family.