The cuisine that respects: searching for balance between innovation and tradition

A double interview with Siria Fedrigucci and Michele Talarico, owner and chef of Tea del Kosmo and Ristorante Kosmo, who open up about sustainability, territory, creativity and the uniqueness of Livigno

There are places where cooking is not just a craft, but a way of reading the territory. In Livigno, this happens in two restaurants that share the same root: Kosmo, where sustainability becomes a daily gesture, a form of concreteness, an attention to raw materials; and Tea del Kosmo, where the mountain becomes essential elegance, an intimate and rarefied narrative shaped by light and altitude. Bringing these two souls together are Siria Fedrigucci, who leads the gastronomic and entrepreneurial
vision, and Michele Talarico, the chef who interprets cuisine as a poetic language built on rigor, subtraction
and balance.
We placed them side by side, letting their words tell the story of the new Alpine gastronomy at 1.816mt.

Q: What does sustainable cuisine mean to you?  

Siria Fedrigucci - “For me, sustainable cuisine is first and foremost a matter of responsibility: it means respecting the product, the territory and the people who work with it. It means choosing seasonal ingredients, reducing waste systematically  without ever losing sight of environmental impact. We work closely with local producers and with what our summer garden provides, because sustainability isn’t an abstract concept. It’s a daily practice that begins with selecting raw materials and continues through every gesture in the kitchen.”

Michele Talarico - Sustainability, for me, is an act of respect toward the mountain. It’s listening to what the territory can offer at a given moment and accepting its limits, turning them into possibilities. It’s a subtle balance between what you remove and what you leave, between what you choose to highlight and what you decide not to use. At altitude, every ingredient carries a different weight: it tells a season, an elevation, a climate. Sustainability is this continuous dialogue with nature.”

Q: How do you bring Livigno into your dishes?  

Siria Fedrigucci - For me, Livigno enters the dish the way morning light enters between the mountains: naturally, without needing explanation. I try to express the atmosphere of the place its altitude, its essentiality.“ 
Michele Talarico - “ I work with flavors that hide nothing, with contrasts that recall the climate, with aromas that belong to this valley. Bringing Livigno into the dish means letting the mountain speak for itself” I bring Livigno into the dish through its authentic flavors, working with local and seasonal ingredients and seeking a balance between tradition and creativity. My idea is to enhance what the territory offers without forcing it, creating dishes that are readable, clean, coherent with the identity of the place. Livigno enters the plate through raw materials, but also through the simplicity of the gesture: there’s no need to complicate what is already good.”»

Q: What does elegance mean in a mountain dish?  
Siria Fedrigucci - “Elegance, for me, is rigor. It’s the ability to work with simple, identity‑driven ingredients without ever masking them. Elegance lies in precise cooking, in balanced intense flavors and in the clarity of the dish. Even the aesthetics follow this line: clean, essential, never constructed. An elegant dish is one that doesn’t need explanations.”
Michele Talarico - “Elegance is removing, not adding. It’s letting an ingredient breathe, letting it tell its story without superstructures. In the mountains, elegance is different: it’s not decoration, it’s truth. It’s the ability to reveal the essence of a product, a season, an altitude. An elegant dish is one that knows how to stay quiet.”

Q: How do you choose your ingredients?  
Siria Fedrigucci - «Choosing raw materials is a technical and conscious process: quality, seasonality, freshness and origin are essential criteria. We prioritize local producers, ingredients we know and can follow through their natural cycle. Many summer products come directly from our own garden, which we cultivate ourselves: this allows us full control over the raw material and helps us minimize waste.»
Michele Talarico “I choose ingredients the way you choose words in a poem: with attention, with respect, with a sense of necessity. Every ingredient must have a reason to be there. The mountain doesn’t offer abundance, and for this very reason every choice matters. I look for products that speak of the territory, that carry a story, that bring with them a fragment of this valley.”

Q: Kosmo and Tea del Kosmo: two restaurants, two stories… 
Siria Fedrigucci - “Kosmo is a place that tells the mountain through conviviality, local flavors and an experience that is simple yet carefully crafted. It’s a restaurant that wants to be accessible, authentic, rooted in the everyday life of the territory”
Michele Talarico - “Tea del Kosmo is a meeting point between territory, innovation and hospitality. It’s a more intimate, more collected space where cuisine becomes a sensory narrative of the mountain.”

Q: The biggest challenge for sustainable mountain cuisine?
Siria Fedrigucci - “The challenge is maintaining a constant balance between quality, respect for raw materials and waste management. It means working responsibly without giving up creativity”
Michele Talarico - “The challenge is listening to the mountain and accepting its limits. It’s finding a way to turn simplicity into depth”

Q: Which dish represents you the most?  
Siria Fedrigucci - “Beetroot tartare, horseradish, Valtellina apple and wild fennel. It’s a dish that speaks of territory, freshness, balance. It unites technique and simplicity.”
Michele Talarico - “Lavarello, kiwi, dandelion, juniper and Brunalpina marrow. It’s a dish that tells the mountain through delicate contrasts, aromas and altitude”

Q: What do you try to convey to those who sit at your table?  
Siria Fedrigucci - “Conviviality. I want every guest to experience something genuine, made of local flavors and an atmosphere that is simple yet refined”
Michele Talarico - “Authenticity, emotion, respect for the territory. I want every dish to be a fragment of the mountain.”

Q: What inspires you most about this valley?  

Siria Fedrigucci -”The light, the silence, the slow rhythm of the valley. Livigno is a place that teaches you to look more closely.”

Michele Talarico -”Nature, the seasons, the scents of the mountain. It’s a territory that constantly offers inspiration for sincere, place‑driven cuisine”

Where Innovation and Tradition Meet  

Listening to Siria and Michele, it becomes clear that cuisine at 1.816mt is a unique language that is reborn each time through the dialogue between technique and poetry, rigor and intuition. A space where Livigno finds its most authentic balance.
A form of gastronomy and entrepreneurship that doesn’t oppose innovation and tradition, but intertwines them, lets them coexist, lets them evolve together until they become culture. And perhaps this is the true value of the valley, the essence of Livigno: a place where cuisine grows without losing its identity, and where every dish becomes a new way of telling the same deep roots.