Imagine having dinner with Lorenzo Cogo

When you walk into the Lorenzo Cogo Social Club, the first thing you see is a road bike hanging from the wall. You can’t fail to notice the red stripe of its wheels: they’re our Speed 55 DB. All the bike’s components are made in Veneto, starting from the frame, by Sarto. It’s finished with a special paintjob that recalls the scales of a cod fish, which in Vicenza is used to make the typical dish of the area: baccalà. The young Michelin-starred chef Lorenzo Cogo commissioned it especially. And it’s thanks to the relationship that we have with him, and the opportunity of working with our friends at Sarto, which resulted in this totally custom piece: a unique, supreme-quality and exceptional bike. “The emotions I feel in admiring it”, confides Lorenzo, “I also feel on the road, when I’m riding it. I would like for my customers to savour these emotions too, even if they are just looking at it hanging on the wall”.

A little further on in this exclusive attic that dominates Schio, which is the beating heart of Lorenzo Cogo’s new gastronomic challenge, there is a vintage Battaglin, his first racing bike and another bike on rollers. This one has El Coq decals, his brand, and is a gift from his friend Matteo Marzotto. The Social Club has a true cycling heart. Unsurprisingly as it’s one of the passions (along with motorbikes, of which he was an early and promising champion) of this multi-award winning genius of the kitchen: “ I go out on the bike three times a week, which I alternate with three days at the gym. I am a firm believer in being in good physical shape in order to be happy with yourself and with others. I have always eaten a lot, which helps you to become a good chef, because you remember all the flavours but, when my weight was starting to rise too much at fourteen, I started swimming and then racing motorbikes. I only discovered cycling nine years ago. Since then, riding has become very important for me: it allows me to think and calm down, with clearly positive benefits when I’m in the kitchen. It’s an antidote to my workaholic nature, which runs the risk of making me lose contact with reality”. 

A sort of change in philosophy, explains Lorenzo: “What I want to do, through my social profiles too, is to promote good health and wellbeing. Doing sport and eating well are the fundamental aspects to find and maintain one’s equilibrium. In other words, living well. How can a chef communicate these values, if he does not look healthy? This is why doing sport is part of my job”. And as far as his sporting performance is concerned, the chef from Vicenza confides that: “I am very competitive by nature. However when I ride I like to keep a medium and controlled pace, which allows me to burn fats and maintain the muscle mass that I need to perform well when I train in the gym. During the 2020 lockdown, when I challenged motorcycle champions, such as Melandri and Espargaró on Zwift, I ended up hitting the wall. On the rollers, therefore, I prefer to use training plans of 30 minutes. One thing is for sure”, he stresses. “Riding needs constancy. If you don’t ride for fifteen days, then it’s hard to start again. Whilst, training constantly lets you achieve increasingly satisfying performances. The more you ride the more the enthusiasm grows. There is a sort of healthy dependence that pushes you to ride harder. It’s a continuous challenge with yourself”.

We chatted with Lorenzo at the new Social Club: “It’s a new project, alongside my restaurant consultancy company”, explains Lorenzo. “I wanted a place where people could come for the pleasure of spending time together and where they would feel at home. A different target to the one I’ve had up to now, which is those who are solely focused on Michelin-starred restaurants. The atmosphere here is of a small restaurant, a trattoria, but with a high-cuisine experience. You can come here with friends, with groups of a minimum of eight people to a maximum of twelve. Or there are evenings for mixed groups, but always for a dozen people at the most”.

Outside there is a swimming pool and a bar area for aperitifs. Inside the space is dominated by the large table for the diners. There is also a sofa to relax on, a videogames area and a foosball table, for a game between dishes. You are surrounded by Lorenzo’s life: bikes, motorcycle leathers (with the number 62, the year his father was born), his chef’s jackets and aprons. “As the name suggests, the Social Club is a chance to spend an evening with me. When I’m not busy in the kitchen, I have a chat and have a glass with the guests, in an informal atmosphere of conviviality, and often, very often, we talk about bikes”. Whilst he is chatting to us chef Cogo prepares the special dish that he has created and prepared for Fulcrum in front of our eyes: desalinated salt cod on a bed of fermented kiwi, with pieces of kiwi, capers mayonnaise, whole capers, sweet-and-sour red onion, sweet-and-sour caper leaves, green cardamom and a drop of oil. An explosion of flavours on the tongue and a feast for the eyes. The Speed 55 DB watch over us, but this time we’ve let speed take a back seat as we slowly feast our senses.