Simona Deschino, Chef & Owner, Upper House

Simona Deschino

In this interview, Simona Deschino, chef-owner of Upper House in Cagliari, shares how the restaurant was born.

What do you do?

My name is Simona Deschino, and I am the owner and chef of the fine dining restaurant UH – Upper House, located in Cagliari.

How did you get into the industry?

My passion for cooking was born at the age of 10 when I looked at my mother cooking with admiration. Growing up, I cultivated this passion by cooking for friends and family. After graduating from law school, I decided that I had to do what made me happy, even if it did not coincide with what I had studied. I opened the first domestic micro-enterprise for the production and sale of homemade food in Sardinia and the first authorized Home Restaurant in Italy. Finally, in 2020, I decided it was time to take a step further by opening my fine dining restaurant. A place to give life to everything I always wanted to find (and never found) in my city: an elegant English-style tea room, a place to have classy aperitifs with delicious finger food and a restaurant with a refined cuisine in which to express all my artistic flair.

What’s a food memory from your childhood or travels that stands out?

I remember with love all the dishes that my mother prepared, but if I have to associate my childhood with a particular dish, I would say the meatloaf with Marsala sauce, which is delicious in which to dip the bread.

What’s the best/ worst part of your job?

The best part of my work is contained in the smiles full of satisfaction from my guests. When I am able to give them emotions through my kitchen, there is nothing more satisfying. The worst part of my job is facing thousands of bureaucratic difficulties and incessant employee turnover. Finding collaborators who embrace the project and put their heart into what they do is difficult.

What’s your favourite food and beverage pairing?

A glass of Prosecco paired with a fresh fish tartare.

What’s one of the nicest things you’ve seen behind the scenes?

The nicest thing that has ever happened to me is to see the empty plates come back with a thank you message made with the chocolate left over from the dessert.

The perfect day would be…

The perfect day would be the one in which there is complete harmony in the dining room and in the kitchen.

A day in the life of a chef is…

Waking up at dawn, shopping in the various markets and immediately getting to work. In my spare time, I create new recipes and new dishes. I study the aesthetics of food and pairing. I take care of social media and publish posts and update the site. I contact suppliers and cook, cook, cook…

Simona Deschino’s ideal guest?

My ideal guest is someone who wants to live a 365 ° emotional experience through food, a beautiful environment, good music and good service, etc.

What does Simona Deschino do for fun?

I travel, try new restaurants and create new dishes.

What’s something you’d like guests to know about Upper House?

I would like them to know that Upper House is not only a restaurant but also an elegant tea room, a place for special aperitifs, a cooking school and a lounge open to all artists who want to show their talent, through their paintings, their works, their books etc.

How has the pandemic changed you, your perspective, or the way you operate?

I opened Upper House in the middle of the pandemic. I try to see every negative event, whatever it is, as an opportunity to test myself, overcome my limits, to improve myself. The pandemic was a highly challenging event that strengthened me a lot and pushed me even more to try to do what makes me happy and create something that makes others happy.

What’s something you’d like people to know about being a chef as a profession?

Those inclined to this profession must know that it is not a walk in the park, but if it is done with passion and love, it pays off. I am fortunate to also be the owner of UH, and therefore, with this in mind, I have decided that holidays should be spent with the family and not at work. The rhythms must be relaxing and harmonious and must reign in the kitchen. Being a chef does not only mean cooking. It means being able to hold the reins of an activity, directing a kitchen brigade, acting as an intermediary with the room, suppliers, and consultants, creating menus, recipes, and dishes, and shopping every day. Those who think being a chef is just cooking or a cook will not go very far.

What’s your view on the dining scene in Cagliari?

I believe that Cagliari is not yet completely ready to welcome this type of concept and cuisine, but at the same I think it needs it. It’s just a matter of time. There are still too many people who make the motto “eat a lot while spending little” a philosophy of life. There are not many true admirers of haute cuisine, but luckily the numbers are growing. And luckily, the market is moving towards higher quality and better service. The palate must be educated, and Cagliari needs realities that offer quality cuisine, a cuisine that is based on the conscious and reasoned use of raw materials, innovative cuisine with new flavours, perhaps risky but harmonious and not trivial.

What practices do you currently implement or hope to implement in the future to work towards social responsibility and sustainability?

We only use ingredients according to seasonality. We respect the raw material without distorting it, using cooking techniques, such as low temperature, which allows us to preserve all the organoleptic qualities of the product by extending its shelf life. We also try to enhance local products often snubbed by haute cuisine, such as sheep, by transforming them into elegant and delicate dishes. We try to produce everything at home where possible, from bread to fresh pasta, thus guaranteeing genuine food at zero km. Since the opening, we have decided not to use bottled water (to avoid contributing to the excessive use of polluting elements such as plastic, in the case of plastic bottles but also glass bottles that also need to be disposed of). In addition to the fact that the quality of bottled water is poor, we prefer microfiltered water (we change the filters every three months) of the highest quality so as to be used in the dialysis department of an important city hospital.

What’s in store for you in the upcoming months?

The study of the new menu awaits me. I change it every month. An autumn and winter period full of news awaits me, and who knows… maybe even an important project for next summer that I won’t reveal until later. Find our tasting at Upper House, Cagliari here.

Read more interviews such as this one with Simona Deschino here, and stay up to date with the latest food and beverage happenings in KL here.