Ep. 2109 George Michael Grima Interviews Ludovica Colombo | The Next Generation

They offer foods from Bologna for a very cheap price. So they're students oriented or young people oriented. So my father wouldn't eat tortellini in a paper box, but I would because it spares me fifteen euros. So I think it's a good exchange. So I think in Bologna, we have a lot of four young people right now. Tao, welcome to the next generation with me. You're opposed George Michael Grima. Join me as we explore Italian Kingdom Weinstein to the eyes of young individuals with fantastic experiences to share. Alright. Let's go. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the next generation on the Italian wine podcast. You might recognize a new voice because this is George Michael Grima, your new host for the next generation. I'm so excited for my very first podcast. And more importantly, my very first guest on the interview which is Little Bika Colombo, a close friend of mine from DBS where we studied together doing our masters over the past year. So I am so excited to introduce her. So as I said, she has a digital marketing master student, and now she is also a working working at web ranking here in Italy. She has lived the majority of her life in Balonia, but was also traveled quite a bit, going from one country to the other and is a really great fan of local cuisines, but also exploring new cuisines. But, of course, She will tell us all about this and more. So, hi, Lodwika. How are you? Hi. Thanks, George. As George said, we're close friends from our studies, and I'm very excited to be here as well. Can't wait to answer all of your questions. Yes. Course, I'm so excited. Alright. So just to start us off, can you introduce us a little bit yourself? So what you have you done all your life? What are you doing now? What, you know, is your relationship to food and wine, especially here in Italy? Yeah. Sure. So as you said, my name is Ludovic. I'm twenty seven, and, I'm Italian. I was born in Bologna, but I've always been a passionate traveler. Like, I started traveling at a very young age. Thanks to my parents at university. I started translation. And, this law for languages and culture has taken me to several different countries around the world. I believe in Northern Ireland in, Germany, in Lisbon, I've been traveling quite a lot. And as you said, like, I came back to Italy, one year and a half ago, and now I work in SEO for this big Italian agency. And my job still allows me to use not all Italians, but also other languages that I speak, like German, English, French, Portuguese with all my clients. Outside of, my career, I'm involved in, the local community here in Bologna, but, for what concern, for example, volunteer work. I'm involved with refugees, people in need, but I also love life in general. So I'm a I like to hang out. I like hanging out with my friends, trying new food, trying new cuisine, and I'm also part of an Afrobee dance crew. So quite a full life. Yeah. It's a really color for life, you're really, you know, you're really busy with a lot of different things. And I feel that really gives you a unique perspective, especially on the food scene, you know, coming from all these different places that you've lived in, and also I can imagine that you've tasted a lot of different winds from all of these different places as well. Is that correct? Yeah. One of the things which struck me when I arrived in both in Germany and in Vienna, it's that those, like, I I was living in Westburg in Germany and there. There's a huge wine scenery. Like, it's one of the places where they produce the most wine in Germany, and it's exported all over the world. And both in, Germany and in Austria was living close to a wine yard. Like, my like, when I opened my window, I could see literally grave, and it was so cool. And I also had no idea that they also produced such good wines in Germany and Oscar. Of course, it's completely different from Italian ones. For example, in Babari, in Germany, they produce, like, a frozen wine. So you don't have to expect something like the typical Italian white wine, but I had the chance to try very different things. And for example, I also have a lot of context to Middle East and Africa. And I also tried palm wine, which I think Okay. Would give, a headache to Italians. But it's a thing. Like, they really drink it. So, and it's not bad. Like, you don't have to think it's wine, but it's something very typical. Yeah. But, you know, that's what's so fun about the wine scene. You know, not only in Italy, we have such a diverse wine scene, you know, throughout all of the regions. Each region has its own reality has its own, you know, typical wine, but then even if you go outside of Italy, it's a whole new world. Every country has its own thing that they do for wine, you know, whether it's rice wine towards Asia, towards Japan, or whether it's on wine, like you're saying now or frozen wine, you know, there's so many different things, and that's why we love the wine scene because it's so diverse. Okay. Now let's let's reel it back a bit and start, okay, from where it all starts, and so to speed. So bologna is often described as the food capital of Italy. You know, it's where, you know, not only a bunch of tourists, but also a bunch of Italians, you know, come here to taste the cuisine. How will you describe it, you know, as a person lived here and, you know, grown up here. How would you describe the bolognese cuisine? I think until maybe ten to fifteen years ago, the food in bologna was not what tourists were looking for when coming from abroad, like I always thought the equivalent of the German breakfast would be the pizza or pasta carbonara or something like that, like those evergreens that everybody coming to Italy is looking for. But I think around, like, fifteen to ten years ago, people started to have an interest toward the cuisine in bologna. Like, of course, lasagna or bolognese sauce were already, very famous. But I think there's so much more in our cuisine here. I think the most famous ones, as we said, is like, Takoo or lasagna or mortadella, but we have a very wide range of fresh of fresh pasta. So as the first dishes. We have totally, which nobody knows. They're like, field pasta, filled with, ricotta cheese and, and they're served with Armigiana creams. Yeah. Then we have some delicious. Yeah. They're so good. I mean, I would eat, I mean, winter, but they're so good. Then we have tortelloni, which are always filled with ricotta cheese and spinach. So these are the first courses. Then you have the so called second courses, and you find which is a different type of couplet and you have like, bolito Vista, which is literally boiled meat in a broth. And also very typical from here, you have the meatballs with a special tomato sauce, and we're not real fans of desserts, but we have a special chocolate cake, which is very typical. And my grandma used to make, like, a cake made of rice. It's called torta de Riso. Which is so good. So I think the cuisine from bologna is much more varied than we would think. On the note, you mentioned something which I find very sweet and I find, you know, that's something that I can only ask you, you know, a person who grew up here. You mentioned your non house used to bake this, you know, the specific torta delviso. So growing up, are there any other foods? For example, that's the tours don't see or that you just don't see in restaurants, you know, in public, that maybe you grew up with, or you know, that your friends grew up, that, you know, like local foods of bologna? This is, hard questions. I think it's, more about the cake because you wouldn't need a slice of cake at to lunch or dinner. I think it's something maybe Yeah. I would. I would, of course, you know, but yeah. It was something that you would eat in the morning or in the coffee break, like Miranda, as you say in Italian, So this for sure, then we have other types of cakes like prostata filled with, jam, for sure. There are, there's one one dish with nobody knows. Oh, Simballonia. Oh. Many times. That's okay. Is called, which literally means, like, if you're super something like that, and it's a broth with, cubes, like, cubes made on fresh dough. I know it doesn't sound very good if I explain it like this, but you have to try it because it's so good. And if the broth is good, is one of the best things you could eat in in winter. Yeah. It takes all the flavor of everything I can imagine. Like the little pieces of dough are nice and chewy and doughy, but then it takes on the flavor of the broth. What is the what is the broth usually flavored with? Is it the type of meat or mostly vegetables? Okay. It takes a lot. You have to consider two days to do the proper broth. Oh, wow. So you put different types of, meat inside. Normally, some chicken, some beef, this is this may sound disgusting, but also the tongue. Okay. It will come. Oh, I need to use it all up so might as well. So, and you let it boil for, like, six, seven hours. We'd also have a bunch of vegetables, like carrots, onions, many things. And once he's done, you have to leave it outside in the cold, or if he's not cold outside in the fridge overnight. So that, like, all the, fat of the broth will be floating on top. Oh, okay. And in the end, you have to take the fat out of the broth to make it a bit less lot lighter. Yeah. A bit lighter. Oh, that's so interesting. Then obviously, you know, considering the whole process that you described, it's it's quite understandable that you wouldn't find something like this in a restaurant because, you know, restaurants are not gonna spend two days making something and have it fresh every day? No. I I I think no restaurant would take the fat part of the broth. I think it's something that housewives do, like, or my mother, my grandmother, Not even me. That's so interesting, though. It's a really particular dish and that was something, you know, that I was looking for, you know, something that you will never see anywhere. So thank you for that. So moving on to something else, you've already described it somewhat. I would really like to go deeper into it. So, you know, you've lived here at least, you know, for twenty, twenty five years, you've been traveling. But growing up, have you seen the food seen changing over the years. So, you know, there's always been the traditional food, but even in terms of maybe new restaurants that have opened or, you know, what people are eating in their day to day. Fifteen to twenty years ago, I think, bologna, there were so many tourists or internationals as now. So I think the food scene was a bit more dedicated to people from here. So there were less restaurants, less cafes. Of course, we we were less. So we didn't need as many Ranches we have now. And it was more concentrated on Italian cuisine from bologna. So I think now the scene is much more varied. You can find almost food from anywhere. Of course, if you go to Milan or Rome, you can find so much more, but bologna is still a small city, and I think it offers a lot in terms of food, which is also not Italian food. And this was not the case, I think, ten to fifteen years ago. And also concerning food from here, I think it has become so crowded with restaurants and stuff like that. And also there was recently this a Italian journalist who writes for the New York Times. I don't know if you read recently, but she she wrote, a huge attack to bologna. Oh my god. Yeah. I'll steal the tea. She wrote that bologna is literally the, like, hell of a mortadella eaters, and nobody cares about culture anymore. And, it's just a restaurant selling and selling and selling. And for me, It's not so true. Like, still, bologna, we have a big university. We have so many things to do, museums, cultural events. I think it was a bit dramatic. It's true that the food industry has grown a lot in the past few years, but She she was very sharp on it. And I partially don't agree. I mean, I know that, we're very concentrated on, food, and you can see a charcuterie platters in any corner nowadays, but there's still so much to do. Like, we have open air cinemas, we have cultural events, we have museums, university conferences. I think in Malonia, you can you can find anything new on. So Yeah. I feel like, you know, maybe she's staying there because it's It's such a small place as well. The center is quite small, you know, living there. I I know it firsthand. Yeah. And, you know, the more places that's open, maybe that's why she thinks it. But it's just become more and more concentrated. You know, there are just more places within a small, in such a small space. Yeah. It's it's so it's just so crowded. Like, I think what's that's what she meant. And she felt she was very nostalgic about, the real authentic Italian cuisine that we have made we had, like, ten years ago. But, yeah, it's very interesting. Of course, this has changed a lot. And, you know, even you and your life have changed from being a younger student than to a university student. And, you know, we all know what that entails being out all day, you know, going from one lecture to another, especially if it's during your bachelor's, eating maybe not the best food, or, you know, drinking maybe not the most expensive wine, but I think it will be fun if you could maybe run us through kind of what would be the usual day or, you know, a usual week day when you have lectures, when you're out, and when then at the very, you know, at the end of the day, you're out arting or out drinking, what will that look like in terms of food in terms of wine, maybe you're in terms of what you're drinking throughout the day, stuff like that? Like, what would that look like? I think when it comes to students, as you said, it really depends on budget, but there are areas in Malonia, which are, let's say, dedicated to students in which you could find something to eat relatively little money. Many students normally have breakfast at home, with something very fast, like, coffee and some biscuits. But then I think it's very common to go out to drink a coffee in the coffee break. Like, I think it's something typical both for students and homes So, for employees who find themselves in the, in the city center, for example, bank employees, stuff like that. They just go out around ten thirty and take a coffee or cappuccino or the cafe. And then for lunch, I think students mainly bring a lunch from from home. We call it a Skishita. It's like a packed lunch and, or you can also take some takeaway food from the university area where you can find the ethnic food, like, Syrian, Indian, kebab, but also more traditional or healthy options like, Carolina, or a vegan food. And after classes, I would say it's so common to have an affidavit with your friends. You know it very well. Yeah. That's good. Around, like, six six thirty. We just stop at the nearest bar to have a drink with friends, for example, on Apple Street or a glass of wine. We love it for Fortiva, and normally we also take advantage of this, drinks, drink time to also have some snacks like, for catches slices, small pizzas or also cheese and circulatory platters if we want to really properly something. And I think normally, during the week, you would eat home for dinner because you take more time to cook and have, like, a proper meal after rushing the whole day. But on the contrary, in the weekends, people are more focused on drinking than eating, and there's like a strong drinking culture, I think, in Italy, but, drinking for enjoyment, like, what really was a cultural shock for me when I arrived in Germany or Austria. And I also met people, for example, from Sweden, Norway, is that sometimes they drink because they want to get high. I don't know how to explain that. But Just for the rest of it. Yeah. Exactly. But I think in Italy, normally, you drink to enjoy. Like, you just sit there with your small glass, which is, like, maybe three sips of wine, but you make it last, like, one hour to chat to have some time with your friends. So I think it's a different concept of drinking. Of course, we also drink for the rush of it, but it's it's less frequent. Like, we also enjoy doing it. I think it's very nice. So, yeah, I think the main difference is this one. And also, like, for example, my boyfriend is a chef, and there's so many restaurant now, which also is restaurant. They offer foods from bologna for a very cheap price. So they're students oriented or young people oriented. So my father wouldn't eat tortellini in a paper box. But I would because it spares me fifteen euros. So I think it's a good exchange. So I think in Bologna, we have a lot for young people right now. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. And I agree as well because, you know, being there, I really got to taste the local cuisine, you know, almost on a daily basis, even from, even from what was available in the grocery store that I was able to cook myself. I think it's really accessible and, you know, with bologna, which with it being such a student city, I think it makes the industry in general a lot more approachable. The students are there knowing that it's the, so to speak, the food capital of Italy and, you know, seeing a restaurant on every corner, seeing a a face, seeing somewhere you can buy food in every corner. So I think it's more easy to get into it, you know, whether it's a chef, whether there's a server on that, you know, though, do you think, for example, even if not in bologna about outside of Italy or throughout Italy in other in other cities and other bigger cities. Do you think something can be done to attract more students and more people of a young age from the gen z or even younger to the food and wine industry? For sure, sometimes, especially in bigger cities, as I said, like Milan or Turin or Venice, Florence, those big cities with, a lot of tourists, the food industry can look a bit too much for us because we don't have the money. Like, we don't have the the the money to approach it. Like, as customers, sometimes it can be hard to approach those nice, bougie, fence restaurants with good ones, good food. So I think one thing about bologna that everybody likes is that there's something for every pockets. So any any type of budget that you have you can find something that you like and you that you enjoy. So for sure, it's not easy for young people to really take advantage and enjoy the real food industry on the other side concerning people working in it. I think normally as students, we normally take part time jobs as, waiters or cashiers in cafes. So we don't consider it a real job, like, a real a web page job in which you can have a career and also have, I don't know, like, a family within. Like, it's more of, a ritual you have to pass through just to, make it through your studies and have some spare money to spend for your holidays and stuff like that. So I think it's more of a side job for us. Maybe this doesn't apply to the chef. Like, if you want to be a cook, like, a professional chef. There's a school for it, and it can be more rewarding also because salaries are higher. But despite all of these, I think, is a very stressful in the three. Like, it's very hard to be in it. You have to be so patient, so motivated. And as I said, my boyfriend is a chef, and that's very retiring. Like, you have to work in the weekends. You have to work in the times where every which everyone else is outside drinking and eating, and you have to prepare for them. So you're, like, the other side of the coin. I don't know how to explain that, but it's hard. And on top of this, if you want to open your own restaurant, like your own activity is even harder because the initial capital is very high. Like, it's not something which is accessible to someone who is twenty five years old. Like, if you want to open your activity, you know, that you have to be as subordinate, worker first. You have to learn everything, go to school, do an apprenticeship, something like that. And then in the end, maybe later on in life, you can open your own place. Is not so easy to be part of this industry, I think, and you really need to be very motivated because there's a lot of competition also because everybody knows how much this industry is growing and how much money you can make out of it if you take the right track. Like, for example, my boyfriend's bosses, they opened a very small takeaway restaurant, and now they have five in, like, eight years. So I think you have to you have to take the right track. Yeah. They would also have more motivation maybe if this job had more stability. Like, I think there's also a responsibility of maybe the Italian government or the policy makers to make this job more attractive also for young people. Like, if you're giving them more stability, better conditions for sure they would love to do it. Like, that's what we're all looking for, like, a nice job in which we can also have fun, enjoy it, and a stability, and good con contract conditions. Yep. Yep. Hundred percent. Hundred percent. And now before we start closing things off, I really want to spend some good time talking about wine because, you know, the Z Italian wine podcast, and we've mentioned it here and there, but we haven't really dealt into it. So starting from bologna. So what you've mentioned already. Firstly, as students, okay, throughout the day, you said there's usually the aperitivo or on the weekends, there's some drinking involved. What kind of wine show up there? Maybe even at home. Kind of like what you grew up with if you want to start from there? Like, what did you see your family drinking? And once you were amazed, like, what were you drinking in terms of wine? I have to confess. I'm not a huge fan of, wines from Emilia Romania. So I I I like other wines from other region more, but, for example, my grandfather used to drink, every day either or which are quite typical from here or at least a lot of people drink it. And when I was leaving, in Fort Lee, which is a city close by for university, and everybody will what's going crazy about, San Jose, which I which is a red wine from Norovania and the albana, which is a white wine. I remember all the students used to buy the same, albana wine every weekend. So, yeah, there's a lot of, passion about it for me, in particular, my favorite wine, for Aminia Romania, which is my my my guilty pleasure because I think you either love it or hate it. So it's Lambrusco, the king. You either love it like me, like, or you hate it because it's not easy. Like, it's the only sparkling red wine, and you serve it cold, which is not, what you usually do with red wines. So I think people can not really appreciate it, but for me, like, a blatter of charcuterie and cheese and a good bottle of Lamrozco is, like, perfect, like, heaven. I also had it yesterday, honestly. Okay. That's your that's your little just like go to appetitivo. Okay. And then we've looked at some Italian wines and obviously, you know, there's different foods. You can pair with them. I don't know if you can mention a couple of that you that you just mentioned now. So, like, the and kind of like what you've seen throughout your life that these are kind of like eaten with, whether it's local cuisine or, you know, Italian cuisine in general or even foreign cuisine. Since we are born, I think we are we are told that, like, red wine goes with meat. White wine goes with fish. And now that I'm starting to approach the wine seen. I understand it. Like, it makes more sense because the red wines are normally they're tougher in your mouth. Like, you need something fat and they clean these fat filling from your mouth while on the other side, why why wines are more delicate, with fish, which is a lighter flavor. So it makes sense. Of course, like, all the people they hit maybe pasta with meat and then a glass of red wine. Same thing with the second courses. And normally, like, for what I've seen so far, for example, in, celebrations, birthdays, weddings, stuff like that, we use prosecco to celebrate something. So, you would use prosaic. For example, with a cake or with a dessert, also as under Perickivo. And then my other guilty pleasure is a Moscato wine. I really love it because it's sweeter than the other ones. And, the other, like, pairing that I love is Muscato wine with the tenerina, which is our chocolate cake, from bologna. Like, at all of my birthdays since I remember, like, since maybe when I was ten years old, I've been eating Kanerina with Muscard Vonage he is on the side and drinking Moscow wine for sure. Oh, that sounds heavenly. That sounds so good. And now for a final question just to close everything off. Since you've been, you know, such a person that travels all over and tasted different cuisines and different wines, could you just tell us What's your favorite cuisine? I know it's hard to make a pick, but what's your favorite cuisine besides it today because we're just going to assume that it really always stays on top. What's your favorite cuisine? Maybe your favorite dish from that cuisine? And what Italian wine would you pair with it? So from the ones that you've mentioned or maybe ones that you've been trying recently? I think, this question is very hard. Like, I I love food, like, any food, but I think maybe, my choice would be food from, like, West Africa. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but but for example, mafia or jollof rice or chicken yas or plantain for food. It's all dishes from there. And I really love them because they're, like, they're just easy. Like, it's what you would cook home. It it gives me that traditional vibe. And among those, I think my favorite is chicken yasa. Or maybe fish yassa, like, is rice with basically, vegetables and fish on top. And as most of the African dishes, it takes, like, maybe three, four hours to cook, like, anytime I have to cook it. It takes so long and they say that, like, the the guy the the people I work with at my volunteer work, like the refugees taught me how to cook it, and we used to cook it together. So maybe I was asked see it nice memory suite, and you have to put love in it. So I think this is what makes it special. And I would pair it with a white wine as we said because I'm a bit, biased. Like, if it's fish for sure. It would be a white wine. And my favorite would be either chardonnay, like, from maybe the Burstraminer. I really love the wines from, like, white wines from the north. This could be a good pairing, I think. Yeah. No. That sounds really good, and I definitely need to try it now, and I hope you will cook it for me. I will for sure. For sure. Okay. So that's our time, you know, the week. This has been such a lovely catch up, such a lovely conversation about food, wine, living, and growing up in Bologna. We really covered all the bases, and we might have been a little bit over time as well. But it just yet it just shows that you have so much talk about in terms of, you know, everything that we mentioned. It was so nice. Thank you for inviting me. It was such a great opportunity. Of course. Of course. I'm really happy with this. Thank you very much to everyone for listening, coming along on this journey throughout bologna throughout different countries towards food and wine. And we'll hope to see you for the next episode of next generation on the Italian wine podcast. Thanks for tuning in today for another episode of the next generation of Italian wine podcast. See you for the next one.