Giulio Terrinoni reflects on the first decade of his restaurant: his kitchen staff, his family, the X menus, and the challenges of running a business. A portrait of a chef who has established a model of exceptional hospitality in the capital.
Photo credits: Alessandro Barattelli
Ten years of running a restaurant, twenty employees, a wife and two children, a Michelin star, three tasting menus, and an entire neighborhood that has grown up around him in the meantime. Giulio Terrinoni does a quick calculation, but only to put it out of his mind right away. He’s not the type for anniversaries with all the usual rhetoric. Rather, he’s the kind of person who, even while celebrating, already has the next task on his mind. In the oldest part of Rome, between Via Giulia and Banchi Vecchi, in a narrow cobblestone alley, Per Me - Giulio Terrinoni opened at the end of 2015—the restaurant where the chef, originally from Fiuggi, chose to bring to life a precise vision of cuisine and hospitality.
The Michelin star arrived in 2017, less than a year after opening, and since then Per Me has established itself as one of the most recognizable names in Rome’s contemporary dining scene. Not only for its seafood cuisine, which has become Terrinoni’s hallmark, but for a restaurant concept built day by day with great practicality: open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, ‹‹the only Michelin-starred restaurant in Rome to do so››.
By his side from day one has been his wife Flaminia Francia, “his secret weapon” in building the business and maintaining family harmony. Together, they have shaped a restaurant that today, ten years after opening, appears in full bloom. Because the point, as Terrinoni explains, is that here we are not merely celebrating an anniversary, but the weight of a hard-won continuity. And in an industry where simply surviving is already difficult, growing while staying true to one’s vision is even harder.
Ten years of Per Me. How does it feel to look back?
“First of all, we’re glad we’ve made it this far, because keeping a business going today is by no means a given. Putting down roots in a community, building a customer base, and maintaining credibility over time is one of the hardest things to do. But these ten years didn’t happen by chance: I’ve been out among people for a long time, and I’ve gradually built up my own following.”
How much has the restaurant changed since the very beginning?
“It’s constantly changing. We even made some changes just last week. We’re hands-on people—I always say that. We invest a lot in the business; sometimes my wife jokes and says, ‘Maybe we could even take one more vacation…’ But that’s just who we are. At first we had two storefronts, then we took over the space next door—not so much to expand as to make things more comfortable. And we discovered that a hundred years ago, this place had exactly that layout: same openings, same feel. It was like putting history back in its place.”
The team has grown a lot too
“A tremendous amount. At first, for months on end, we never left the restaurant: there were four of us in the kitchen and three in the dining room. Today, our numbers have tripled. This is a source of pride for me, because it means building a business and creating jobs. Behind every employee there are families, responsibilities. It’s easy to talk about a restaurant’s sustainability, but for me, true sustainability is a “sustainable” work environment: never missing a paycheck, training the staff, and keeping them at ease. I don’t want toxic environments. Whenever I realized there was a troublemaker ruining the team, I let them go immediately.”
But you also said that you never left the restaurant…
“That’s true, I won’t deny it, but it was necessary. We had to get the project off the ground, and we’d even opened ten months late. Giorgio Armani wouldn’t have become Armani if he hadn’t worked hard. Today, however, we have a balanced work schedule: five days a week, with two days off that the staff can manage freely. For example, I asked to have Sundays off for my family—that’s all I ask.”
Exactly. Chef, entrepreneur, but also husband and dad. How do you manage to juggle it all?
“With a ‘zero-mile’ approach to organization. My wife Flaminia and I bought a house 50 meters from the restaurant. It was a deliberate choice. Either I live in Rome this way, or I go back to the countryside. This morning, for example, I took the kids to school, then to the gym, then to the restaurant. Home and work, in short. Today after lunch I’ll spend time with them and even make dinner for them. On Saturdays and Sundays, when they don’t have school, I’m a full-time dad.”
And what does a Michelin-starred chef cook for his kids when he gets home?
“The most ordinary things in the world. Last night, for example, stewed San Pietro with cherry tomatoes and rice salad. At home I’m not a chef, I’m a dad.”
“TODAY’S CUISINE IS DETERMINED BY THE CUSTOMER. BUT THE NUMBERS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES”
Is the era of tasting menus really coming to an end?
“No, quite the opposite. I look at the numbers: yesterday, out of thirty covers, only one table ordered à la carte. But we’ve always offered that option, even in the good old days. For instance, ten years ago we already offered a “tappi” (small tastings) option at lunch, and now we’ve put it back on the menu. The customer must feel free. Do they only want two dishes? Okay, as long as they leave happy.”
Today, however, there are three tasting menus, and they really capture the restaurant’s current spirit
“Yes, there’s the vegetarian ‘Think Green’ menu, and then the two ‘X me’ menus, which are the big new addition for our tenth anniversary. Everyone kept telling me: ‘Make a menu with your ten signature dishes.’ But I didn’t. X stands for ten (years) in Roman numerals; it stands for the unknown; it stands for “For (you)” in the sense thatthe menu is a mirror where the guest sees themselves reflected, so it’s as if it were made just for them. There will be new daily creations based on the variable X—availability, the catch of the day, and inspiration—because “at sea, you fish; you don’t go grocery shopping.” A fisherman friend of mine always used to tell me that. Today, my cooking starts with the method. After thirty years of work, I’m no longer interested in talking only about individual recipes. I’m interested in the approach to the raw ingredients. How you look at them, how you use them, how you try not to throw anything away.”
And it’s from that approach that some of his most famous dishes were born, right?
“Yes. When I was filleting fish, I saw how much stuff ended up in the trash. That’s where a lot of ideas came from, like seafood carbonara, tripe made with fish stomachs, and sauces thickened with collagen from the eyes. What used to be waste has become an opportunity. And when you think that way, creativity never ends. “Well, this has nothing to do with it (or almost nothing), but do you remember the movie *The Legend of 1900*?” he says. “Of course,” I reply. “For a long time, I felt like the protagonist, Novecento: I was always on the ship and never got off. For the first fifteen years, I practically never left the kitchen. But, just like in the movie, the world came to me.”
In what way?
“Through the customers.” People who came here and told me stories, shared their travels, recipes, and customs. The German customer who shared his grandmother’s recipe with me. A Japanese woman at the fish market who explained how they cook the outer part of the scallop. I traveled without leaving my spot. And I brought all of these things into my kitchen.
It all sounds so easy the way you tell it. Yet… in these ten years, have you ever made a misstep?
“Yes, taking on another place right across the street, thinking I could launch a project quickly. It didn’t work out. It was a financial and emotional blow. But we’re doers: we licked our wounds and started over. The point is that being a chef doesn’t just mean knowing how to cook well; you also need to have a good understanding of finance. Restaurants are businesses, and hospitality schools don’t teach you any of that.”
What about the future?
“I only want one thing: to continue being seen as serious, respectable people. And every now and then I joke with the kids that maybe in a few years I’ll step back and the restaurant will be theirs.”
Is that just a tease, or is there some truth to it?
“Well, it could also be a wish—at some point, it’s time to make way for the younger generation. I certainly can’t be in the kitchen at seventy; I’m 51 now. We need to start thinking about these things.”
But are you thinking about that second star?
“I believe in merit. If we earn it, it will come. The most important thing is still the customer.” I always tell the staff during interviews: I’m not above you, I’m right here with you. At the center is the person sitting at the table. If the customer is happy, maybe Michelin will be happy too,” he laughs.
It’s clear that, ten years after opening, Per Me is a restaurant that continues to ask itself how to grow while remaining true to a very specific nature: down-to-earth, welcoming, curious, deeply Roman even as it speaks an international language. Giulio Terrinoni describes it without rhetoric, with the dry candor of someone who prefers facts to statements. “We keep doing what we’ve always done: work. We’re people of action—did I already tell you that?” I’d say so, more than once, in fact.
Contacts
Vicolo del Malpasso, 9, 00186 Roma RM;
Phone: 06 687 7365;
