Alessandro Biggi - Avocaderia

Copyright 2018 by Alessandro Biggi, Francesco Brachetti, and Alberto Gramigni

Photography 2018 by Henry Hargreaves

All rights reserved.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Biggi, Alessandro, author. | Brachetti, Francesco, author. | Gramigni, Alberto, author. | Hargreaves, Henry, author.

Title: Avocaderia : avocado recipes for a healthier, happier life /Alessandro Biggi, Francesco Brachetti, and Alberto Gramigni ; photography by Henry Hargreaves.

Description: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018. | Includesbibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018017533 (print) | LCCN 2018019119 (ebook) | ISBN9781328499134 (ebook) | ISBN 9781328497932 (paper over board)

Subjects: LCSH: Cooking (Avocado) | Health. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.

Classification: LCC TX813.A9 (ebook) | LCC TX813.A9 B54 2018 (print) | DDC

641.6/4653dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018017533

Cover illustration by Anna Resmini

Book design by Allison Chi

Food styling by Caitlin Levin

v1.1018

Dedicated to avo lovers around the world

Name: Alessandro Biggi

Title: CEO

Hometown: Modena, Italy

Favorite Menu Items:

Name: Francesco Brachetti

Title: CEO/Director of Operations

Hometown: Prato, Italy

Favorite Menu Items:

Name: Alberto Gramigni

Title: Chef

Hometown: Prato, Italy

Favorite Menu Item:

On Avocaderias opening day, we ran out of avocados after just ninety minutesand things havent slowed down since. Avocados stole our coraznour heartand as it turns out, we werent the only ones. We now run through an average of two thousand avocados a week.

Back in 2016, we dreamed of opening the worlds first avocado bar, a place where people could get healthy, avo-based mealsthink smoothies, toasts, salads, bowls, and dessertsand we knew it had to be in New York. We walked around for a month looking for the right spot, and just before heading to the airport to catch a flight back to Italy, suitcases in hand, we walked into Brooklyns Industry City. We were mesmerized by the energy of the space, a collection of enormous industrial warehouses that spanned an entire city block, including a food hall with communal dining. We knew this was exactly where we wanted to open our first Avocaderia outpost. Needless to say, we nearly missed our flight. Oops.

How did three native Italians end up serving food made with Mexican avocados in Brooklyn? Thats easy. It started with... what else? An avocado toast. It was 2010 at New York Citys Cafe Gitane, a retro caf famous for its see-and-be-seen hipster vibe and Moroccan-influenced food. Thats where Alessandro had his first avocado toast, an experience that would save him from endless nights of unhealthy takeout food.

Six years later, Alessandro was living in Seattle, where he was working long hours. He didnt know how to cook, but he liked to prepare simple things, so he started making himself avocado toast with a little lime and saltand loved it. It made him feel healthy, and then the idea of opening a business based on fast-casual healthy food hit him. He wanted to serve food that not only looked good, but made people feel great. The first person he shared his idea with was Francesco. Not only was Francesco his best friend, he was also living in Mexico at the time. What better place to learn about avocados? So we threw around the idea of opening up an avo-centric spot together, and our enthusiasm only grew the more we talked about it. We knew if we opened this place, it would be so much more than just an eatery: It could have the power to change peoples eating habits andnot to be drama queens, buttheir lives, too. Wed show them that a healthy lifestyle is the best way to live.

We first met in 2006 in Milan, where we were studying finance at the prestigious Bocconi University. Alessandro spotted a guy sitting in the back of the class who looked like a TV staran Italian MTV VJ, if you really want to know. Well, Francesco wasnt famous, but he did really know how to cook. Alessandro, on the other hand, was a self-proclaimed kitchen novice who could barely even peel an apple.

You could say that Avocaderia was born on Instagram. We posted pics of everything avocado, and before we knew it, Avocaderia had gone viral before wed even served one dish!

There was also our similar Italian upbringing to bring us together. We grew up like many Italians dowith a strong attachment to food and to family. We learned to cook by watching our grandmothers in the kitchen (we got playfully swatted with wooden spoons plenty of times for dipping our fingers in sauces!). We lived in the Italian countryside, where it was normal for us to spend two days each summer making two hundred pounds of tomato sauce to last our families an entire year. So it felt entirely natural for us to eventually transition into the business of food with Avocaderia.

Going to college was Francescos first time away from home, and he liked having people over for dinner. He always had something to eat and drink in his apartment, even if that just meant simple snacks and Italian wine bought on the cheap. He liked feeling like he was building a family outside of his hometown of Prato. Francesco fed Alessandro, and in turn, Alessandro taught Francesco how to play poker and PlayStation (super-important skills in their own right). Of course, we played lots of soccer, too, which is how our dude friendship was solidified.

You could say that Avocaderia was born on Instagram. Before we opened our first location, we put up a basic website and created an Instagram account to see if people would be interested in the concept. We posted pics of everything avocado, and before we knew it, we were an overnight sensationAvocaderia had gone viral before wed served even one dish!

That summer, we got our first piece of press from Eat Out, a South African restaurant guideand we didnt even have a location yet. The headline? The world will soon have its first avocado bar and it sounds like heaven on earth. We knew finding the perfect spot was the next step, and getting situated at Industry City took us about a year. It was a lot of contract work and waiting and then go, go, go. Once the deal was sealed we rushed around like madmen for two weeks to get the design just right. We put up custom-made tiles, hung our now famous Smashed in NYC neon sign, picked the perfect plants to nestle by the register. A lot of thinking went into our design even if we were executing in a hurrywe knew the design would be as important to deliver on as the food, because we were creating not just a restaurant but an entire experience. Oh yeah, and then there was an entire menu to build.