Vicio's Journey, the Pasta Master: From Music to Pasta

Vincenzo Patti, known to everyone as Vicio, was born on September 21, 1980, in Carini, a small corner of Sicily, and grew up in Partinico, a town that sparked his curiosity about the world and his love for nature. Here, he graduated in Agricultural Sciences.

Since he was a child, Vicio also dedicated himself passionately to music, spending 13 years perfecting his skills in classical trumpet and opera singing at the Antonio Scontrino Conservatory in Trapani. For him, music and nature were not just art forms, but ways to connect with the beauty of the soul and the intensity of life.

A Passion for Music and a Turning Point

However, fate had a different path in store for him. The death of his mother, when he was still young, marked a turning point in his life — a moment of reflection that led him to put music aside and search for a new purpose. It was during this period that, by chance, his passion for pasta was born.

A random encounter in a shop in Trapani, where noisy machines and windows full of fresh pasta, sweets, and focaccia left him speechless, was the spark.

Family Roots and the Love for Pasta

Vicio's mother, a full-time mom and an excellent cook, had always dreamed of opening a restaurant. During the holidays, the smell of cakes and cookies filled the entire house.

Every Sunday, his mother would prepare fresh pasta in the morning, and Vicio would wake up early to help her, always with different and delicious sauces. Their kitchen was always full of wonderful ingredients. They also had a garden: his father, as a hobby, grew many vegetables, and they had many fruit trees. Those were wonderful years, full of sweets, jams, good food, and love.

A Life-changing Moment

The Spark for a New Passion

At that moment, standing in front of the shop window, Vicio understood that this, perhaps, was his new vocation.

It seemed as if his life had gone backward and, at some point, had started anew.

He thought that maybe his love for music and the memories of his mother could resonate within the ravioli or tagliatelle. If his mother had still been alive, she would probably have been happy to help him make the pasta.

Learning the Art of Pasta
So, he put aside his passion for art and music and, by chance, found a new love for the art of pasta.

He asked to work with them and was warmly welcomed into a family that taught him everything there was to know about preparing fresh pasta.

He learned to use the machines, make ravioli, and prepare Sicilian pasta in all its forms, but he didn’t stop there. In his free time, he sneaked into the bakery and kitchen sections to absorb every secret from the masters around him.

Building a Dream with Simone

Yet, something was still missing — one more step he needed to take to feel truly fulfilled. So, about 15 years ahead of schedule, he began thinking about how to open his future restaurant, planning it in minute detail, as if preparing an attack strategy. Even today, many years later, he is still amazed when he looks at the documents from that project, which he used to create his restaurant.

He then moved to Palermo, where a chance meeting with Simone, originally from Agrigento, born on February 28, 1985, and a graduate in Industrial Design, would once again change the course of his life. Together, they began building something new.

Challenges and Success in Amsterdam
In the meantime, Vicio worked as a floor manager in a restaurant, and one day, the owner, after reading his résumé, asked him to prepare some busiate trapanesi (a type of Sicilian pasta) for the staff. The pasta was so good that the curious customers asked to try it, and success was immediate. From that moment, handmade Sicilian pasta became the restaurant’s signature dish.

So, while by day, during lunch and dinner shifts, he continued working as floor manager, at night he had already set up a small lab in a few square meters of space in a room of his house. With Simone’s help, he began preparing pasta and ravioli for the restaurant. Vicio and Simone, now inseparable, had found their path.

A Community of Support

But Vicio was not satisfied. He continued to study, read, learn, grow, and look for new opportunities. It was then that, thanks to a proposal from an entrepreneur, they moved to Amsterdam, where they would bring his innovative gastronomic project to life: a Sicilian restaurant that celebrated the traditions of his homeland but with a personal touch.

Resilience During the Pandemic

The restaurant, opened in a small space made available by the Italian community, turned out to be a success. The handmade pasta, his mother’s recipes, and the authentic flavors of Sicily quickly won over the palates of both the Dutch and Italians living in Amsterdam. But fate, once again, took a different turn: the investor withdrew from the project, and Vicio and Simone found themselves having to start from scratch. They were homeless, broke, and didn’t speak English. But they didn’t give up.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenge became even tougher. But Vicio and Simone adapted to the difficulties of that difficult period. They launched “Sicilian Delivery,” a home delivery service that allowed customers to enjoy Sicilian dishes in the comfort of their own homes, with fresh products and instructions to achieve excellent results, as if Vicio himself had cooked them.

A dream come true

A Corner of Sicily in Amsterdam

Today, Vicio and Simone’s restaurant is a corner of Sicily in Amsterdam, where every dish tells a story of family, tradition, lived experiences, and sacrifice. Famous Italian singers and artists such as Eros Ramazzotti, Alberto Angela, Carmen Consoli, Levante, Max Gazzè, Vinicio Capossela, and many others have chosen Vicio’s restaurant as the best and most unique Italian restaurant in the city.

A Mission That Never Ends
But Vicio’s mission is not over yet. Every day, he and Simone work to keep the flame that ignited this project alive, to bring Sicily into the hearts of their customers, without ever compromising on tradition and quality. Sicilian cuisine, for them, is not just a job: it’s a passion that becomes life, that becomes family.