Mario Lupi's Life in Sorano
Mario's first cafe belonged to his family and was located in the old town od Sorano, operating from 1957 to 1980. In 1980, he and his Wife Nadia opened a new bar in the main square and kept it open for 40 years. At the age of 13, Mario was already working in his family's cafe.
After his military service, he returned and began making pizza in the cafe. A friend of his, who had become a pastry chef in Rome, suggested that he also make desserts. Although he didn’t know how to make them, his friend taught him the secrets of pastry-making.
Mario Lupi has worked in restaurants since he was 13.
One day, Mario was invited to dinner by his future wife’s family in Orvieto, and while stopping at a pastry shop, he spoke to the pastry chef, who invited him to help out a couple of times a week. This is how Mario perfected his craft, learning to make gelato, buiscuit pastries, cakes for special occasions, and traditional holiday sweets.
As for pizza, he had learned how to make it in Naples during his time in the Carabinieri. For years, he would go to bed early, leaving his wife and children to manage the bar, and would wake up at three in the morning to prepare his pastries.
During the Christmas season, he made panettone, pandoro, and typical Sorano sweets like sfratti and cavallucci. The process for making panettone was long and meticulous: it started at three or four in the afternoon and was baked the evening of the following day, around seven. Throughout the year, he made crostatas, brioche, his famous ricotta crostata and many other delights.
Mario and his wife ran a restaurant in Sorano for decades.
For years, he would go to bed early, leaving his wife and children to manage the bar, and would wake up at three in the morning to prepare his pastries.
He fondly recalls when, in the old town of Sorano, there were four ovens. The women treated the sourdough starter as if it were a child, feeding it and nurturing it every day. The bakers, who handled the baking, would arrive early in the morning, and the oven would be ready to use by four o'clock.
If they told you that you were "at the third oven," it meant your bread would be baked at seven. The ovens remained in operation until 1965, when a community oven was opened to bake bread for everyone. Initially, this oven also did some baking for others, but over time, the situation changed, and the tradition of baking bread privately began to disappear.
During Christmas Eve, it was a tradition to prepare typical dishes such as chickpea soup, salted cod, cod stew, tagliatelle with walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon, and macaroni with sugar and cinnamon. It was considered a true sacrilege not to follow this tradition. Christmas lunch was always a great occasion for solidarity: the table was abundant, even for those who usually didn’t have much, and there was always mutual help between families.
Houses would be locked up if the homeowners weren’t present, but the keys were always left available to neighbors, in case they needed anything. Until he became an adult, Mario didn’t even know what money was, as in his community, people practiced barter.