It happened on a Monday morning in February. It’s half past eight. We gathered around the coffee machine in the office and tried to quickly discuss the weekly tasks.

– The installation of the wine cooler in Tihany should be finished. Are the colored metal sheets of the Iglu cooler ready?

I already took my cell phone and dialed to see if I could catch Maurizio before the 8 o’clock meeting. I immediately heard in his voice that something was wrong…

– Am I calling you at the wrong time? Shall I call you later?

– No Mirjam, there is no good or bad time and don’t be mad at me.

– Why would I be mad?

– For how I have to tell you. Armando left.

This is how the conversation went and then there was silence…

I decided I had to travel to Italy for Armando Pujatti’s funeral to put my thoughts in order, for me the large-format person, the mentor, is gone for ever. There are many things on my mind, the clichés we say at this time are how great a person he was and what a shame he left at young age – 56 – leaving behind 4 children.

But who was Armando Pujatti? And what was so great about him? How do those people expressing condolences write that the undisputed genius of kitchen technology and perhaps one of the best professionals has left us?

Armando started his career at Electrolux, where, according to his own words, he learned a lot from his former mentor, the CEO of Electrolux Italy at that time. But relatively quickly he left the regulated framework of the large multi-company that meant safety and joined a small-to-medium-sized company producing stainless kitchen furniture Euroinox. That’s when I met him for the first time, more than 20 years ago.

Already then, he preached the word about high quality kitchen designs with great faith and conviction.

We heard from him about the unknown H1, H2 and H3 hygiene levels, which we didn’t even know were “to be eaten or drunk” (a Hungarian way to say we had no clue) in Hungary at the time. We already suspected that something like this existed, because we came across it in the German tenders, but with Armando’s help we built our first kitchen of this kind for the Budaörs municipality: welded unique tops, 2 mm material thickness, rounded and welded, joint-free bodies, shaped elements that follow the walls with splashbacks on each sides . These concepts are now nicely integrated into our everyday life, and some Hungarian manufacturers are now able to produce such stainless steel kitchen furniture, but 20 years ago these categories did not exist in our country.

Over time, Armando’s world of stainless counters and furniture began to narrow and he felt that he wanted to deal with the real beating heart and soul of the kitchen, the professional kitchen cooking blocks. After making his decision, he first tried to buy a French factory that builds professional kitchen blocks but it was not sold to him. According to him, the then historical, world famous French kitchen construction company with long traditions was ripe for complete modernization and the creation of future-oriented kitchen technologies.

He was not discouraged by the unsuccessful deal, he quickly found Marrone, a small-scale industrialist from Fiume Veneto who had been working for over 30 years, building cooking islands for the big modular kitchen appliance manufacturing companies of the time. He made those welded-together covers for the big factories who didn’t know how, didn’t want to fiddle with individual designs. Armando saw the knowledge and opportunity in Marrone’s team and in 2008 took over the plant, which produced annual sales of 2.6 million EUR, from the then elderly owner. He was joined by his friend and former colleague Maurizio Fantin, and they set to work with great energy.

The real breakthrough came in the field of kitchen blocks: the Marrone was born
Armando and Maurizio developed the professional “Marrone” cooking block, which is still considered to be decisive in the world today, with the involvement of the best experts in their field (technology, ergonomics, design). The previous concepts of luxury kitchens were completely reformed. In a very short time, Marrone has become a dominant player in the world of leading kitchen technology companies. Today, the world’s most serious restaurants and leading chefs know what Marrone Custom Cooking is capable of.

Armando and I met again in Lyon after many years at the 2013 final of the Bocuse d’Or when my husband and I went out to support Tamás Széll. He stood out from the crowd and waved and shouted.

– Mirjam, Mirjam! Come see what I’ve created!

He stood there with his luxury cooking block at the Marrone’s stand and enthusiastically explained the small details: the control buttons developed by the Venetian research group studying fine motorique skills; the various layers under the cover, which dissipate excess heat and prevent deformations; the factory made micro-scratched cover so that the scratches created during use are not visible; and much more.

Marrone, who specialized in the construction of professional kitchens, relatively quickly took over a refrigeration factory named Iglu, where unique wine coolers, rotating macaron display cases and many other novelties were dreamed up over time.

Some years later, I met Armando again at an exhibition in Milan. He pulled me to the new Iglu wine cooler.

– Look, Mirjam, what we did! It doesn’t vibrate, it doesn’t resonate, it doesn’t fog up, and look at the light inside it is just a single led point, which shines hidden from the bottle holder tube and only on the label of the slightly tilted bottle underneath, because the wine itself can’t get light, it could lead to oxidation.

There I felt like I was with Elon Musk at Spacex.

– Armando, do you know that I work in Budapest and not in Dubai or New York? I asked him

– Dubai? – his eyes lit up – We have just delivered a 40-meter-long showcase for meat aging from this technology to Briatore’s new Billionaire restaurant…. I know you are in Budapest, believe me, the time will come there too!

It came… in the person of Attila Hegyi, who, on the advice of Zoltán Herczeg, traveled to see a Marrone kitchen and, based on what he saw, decided in an instant that he wanted not only a Marrone island, but also an Iglu wine cooler for the then-opening Pasztell restaurant.

As the Hungarian representative of Marrone, we carried out the first project…

Armando came to the opening of the first Marrone reference restaurant in Budapest, we wrote November 2019… unfortunately that was the last time I met him in person, Covid and his illness didn’t allow me anymore…

The next day, he looked at our current projects and came with me to see 4-5 clients. Armando was an impressive personality, and whoever was lucky enough to meet him once did not forget it. We  met Katalin Pintér and Anna Niszkács at the Gerbeaud, and as a result of that meeting, the Onyx Workshop’s professional, unique, well-thought-out kitchen design with a Marrone block was realized.
When he met Mrs. Katalin, he asked:
– Do you have a pastry shop? – and just waved his long pianist’s fingers on the screen of his phone. – This is what we did in Tokyo, a design patisserie. But we took display cases to the top floor of the KaDeWe in Berlin and to the top of Harrods in London. The latter was lifted in by a crane.

Many other customers followed Pasztell Restaurant in Hungary: Borimami, Onyx, Matild Palace, Il Baffo and private clients.

Marrone built its luxury kitchens all over the world, from Australia, through Asia to the Caribbean, and Armando, as the traveling ambassador of his company, knew everyone and was everywhere. I remember how Armando at our first joint Sirha exhibition in Budapest in 2018 dragged all the international chefs and jury members of the Bocuse d’Or, one by one, to our stand. Many people knew him, many nodded approvingly at his product. We just sliced the ham, poured the prosecco, and there was a constant buzz around the Marrone block. He found a voice with anyone, his enthusiasm was captivating.

Then the disease struck. Returning home from a trip to the Far East, he collapsed at the Dubai airport and found himself in a hospital. No signs, no symptoms, it came unexpectedly like a summer shower. Weeks later, he called me on the phone and apologized for not being able to keep his word, because he would not be coming to Hungary for the next exhibition and would not be able to mentor and help me and my colleagues for a while.

He sent his partner, Maurizio, in his place… He withdrew, closed himself off for 3 years and spent all his time with his wife, children, loved ones…

Armando, You taught us what was needed, you have sown the seed. Thank you for everything!… God be with you!

From Mirjam Kertész

Marrone Today

Marrone by now produces around 220 kitchen blocks yearly

Number of employees: 138

Yearly turnover: almost 20 million Euros