Angelo Conti Rossini, one hundred years after the birth of one of Ticino's greatest chefs 

Mayor Roberto Ponti, who was his colleague at City Hall: "Thanks to his strong and exuberant personality, he managed to get us all on the same page".

Angelo Conti Rossini is undoubtedly one of Brissago's most famous and celebrated chefs. He was born a century ago, on 31 July 1923. He died at only seventy years of age while riding his bicycle on Sunday, 21 March 1993, in Porto Val Travaglia, struck down by a heart attack while riding around the lake.

"My first memories of the Angel date back to when I was still a child," says mayor Roberto Ponti. "My father was an antique craftsman and had done some work for him. The Angel and his wife Miriam were family friends. In 1990 I joined City Hall and found him as a colleague'.

Ponti describes him as a dynamic man, with incredible connections and relationships at every level, cantonal, federal, international: 'I remember that one evening the Federal Council arrived in his restaurant. As a town councillor, he had planned a network to bring gas to Brissago from Italy and had come very close to his goal... Thanks to his strong and exuberant personality, he managed to get everyone at the town hall on the same page. And for Brissago, well... he had created such a great reputation for himself that he honoured and still honours our municipality'.

An anarchist - the 'Cantiere biografico degli anarchici in Svizzera' describes him as 'perhaps the most famous cook that Ticino has ever had' - but of socialist faith, Conti Rossini was elected to the Town Hall in 1988. Incidentally, his older brother Cesarino, a baker and pastry chef like his father, was mayor of Brissago for 18 years.

Son of art - his father Cesare was an innkeeper and baker, his mother Stella an accomplished cook - he was one of the greatest chefs in Ticino, if not the greatest. At the end of a long apprenticeship in prestigious kitchens, he took over the Giardino from his parents, the restaurant that he later called Agorà and that still faces the Muro degli Ottevi. In December 1968, the Michelin Guide awarded him the 2 Stars of Good Food, an exceptional accolade that no chef in Ticino has since received.

Today the 2 Stars in Ticino are held by Marco Campanella - chef of Brezza, the restaurant of the Hotel Eden Roc in Ascona, but who is of Apulian origin and trained in his parents' restaurant on Lake Constance - and Rolf Fliegauf, born in Germany, chef of Ecco, the restaurant of the Hotel Giardino, also in Ascona.

And when he moved to Ascona in the mid-1980s, bringing the 2 Stars with him, Angelo Conti Rossini landed at the newly opened Giardino. He managed the hotel kitchen for three years, then returned to his native Brissago and opened the Agorà. He went back to being an innkeeper, offering simpler dishes, but always characterised by the great chef's touch. He also started a cooking school, where he welcomed customers and friends eager to learn the secrets of his art.

In addition to the 2 Stars, in the 1970s Angelo also obtained the Poêle d'or from GaultMillau, the Clé d'or from the Comité National de gastronomie, and the Mérite agricole awarded to him by the French Ministry of Agriculture.

In 2018, Chef Andrea Trinca took over the management of Agorà and, having overcome the initial 'performance anxiety' linked to the comparison with the Maestro - 'which then turned into the pride of paying homage to him' -, he decided to reintroduce some of Conti Rossini's dishes. "His,' he explains, 'was the cuisine that was once made and that in my opinion is the best that exists, an old-school French cuisine, nice and heavy and tasty as I like it. Now the fish in red wine, the sweetbread croquettes, the stuffed quails... I can no longer take them off the menu. And several customers who used to frequent L'Angelo's restaurant told me: what good memories you've given us! And I told myself that at the end of the day, cooking is simple, you just need to put in a good technique and a lot of passion, but here, in this kitchen, passion is born on its own'.