You had a long and successful business career in Milan. In your late 60s, you decided to move south to Puglia. Tell us why you picked that part of Italy.
Life is a sinuous curve. Apulia (Puglia) is a return to the origins of my family. My father was from a noble family in Lecce in Salento. My great-great-grandfather owned the Lecce newspaper, and his wife, my great-great-grandmother, was the first fashion and lifestyle journalist in Italy.
I worked for forty years for the greatest publishing company in the world; evidently, my DNA had found the perfect environment. My ethical, cultural and passionate origins emerged in the world of communication.
In the most intense years, I took more than two hundred flights a year, tasted a thousand different dishes every year, and finally, I went back to my roots, in Apulia, and discovered that it was not “the end” but the beginning of a “new life.”
What is exciting is that when you arrived there, you decided to become an entrepreneur, launching Luciano.Market, an Italian pasta business! What was the inspiration to start this new business? What products are you selling? Are they made in Puglia?
I bought the palace where I now live (Palazzo Bernardini de Pace) in 2004, which I restored in ten years. The following year, I had the opportunity to meet a client of mine, Mr. Luciano Benetton, who told me you have to buy land because they don’t make this anymore.
So, I bought 25 hectares of countryside, with a beautiful forest inside, where I used to go for walks with my dogs.
A piece of land, about ten hectares, was free for other crops, so I allocated it to produce wheat. I chose an ancient wheat, “Senatore Cappelli” wheat, which has the lowest gluten content, so it is bearable for those who are intolerant to gluten.
Then, I found that a mill can produce very high-quality pasta. During processing, in fact, we remove almost all the starch from the semolina and then the sugars: in the end, I produce a pasta with little gluten and little starch. Following a low-temperature process to preserve the true flavors of the wheat, I was able to produce a product of excellence, which I sell at a very high price: eight euros a pound.
I applied all my previous experiences in fashion and communication: I created a niche product that was exclusive and very expensive, but of great quality. Now, I am a “pasta couturier” haute couture in cooking.
I rediscovered and relaunched in pasta the values of quality, the artisanal manufacturing process, nice packaging, and the flavors linked to my territory: Italy, Apulia, Salento: the noblest part of Apulia.
What is the distribution now? What is the long-term plan for the business and the brand that is labeled “Societa Agricola… Luciano Bernardini de Pace, Bagnolo Dei Salento?
In the world of fashion and communication, we have moved from a business retailer time to a reality of the digital times.
Again I have learned from my past experience: that the new languages are digital: audio, video and emotional experience.
That is why my communication platform is digital and is communicated through the videos that I publish on my website and replicate on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
The next step will be to offer emotional experiences during weekends as guests in my palace, where you can live a three-day experience in my house:
I will be personally cooking… not only my pasta but all the most characteristic Apulian products, I will accompany guests to visit Lecce or Otranto or Matera, or Castel del Monte and many other wonderful places in Puglia.
The rate will be very high, but proportional to the place of my Palazzo, to the exclusivity and quality of my personal company.
I think one thing: who at the end of a life dedicated to work… rests … it is as if he chooses to die early: this is the time to give to others the best of the synthesis of our experience, it is not a new life: it is the transition of a culture.
