Nestled in Asti, in the northern Italian region of Piedmont, Albergo Etico and its attached restaurant, the Tacabanda, offer a three-year training program to young people with Down syndrome.

Since its introduction in 2009, the initiative has spread to Rome, the Aosta Valley, Argentina, Albania, Slovakia and also Australia, in the Blue Mountains.

The project has also been celebrated with a documentary, Chef Antonio’s Recipes for Revolution, which will premier at the Melbourne International Film Festival this month.

The documentary follows de Benedetto and protégés Mirko Piras, Jessica Berta and others as they share in laughter and love, drama and dreams, and the toil of top-notch customer service.

It is the final instalment in writer and director Trevor Graham’s culinary trilogy, following Make Hummus Not War (MIFF Premiere Fund 2012) and Monsieur Mayonnaise (MIFF Premiere Fund 2016).

All three films feature food as a vehicle for larger issues: the first explores the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through two peoples’ passion for hummus, while the second retraces Melbourne artist Mirka Moira’s survival story and escape from the Holocaust.

“The idea for the documentary came about when I was having dinner with my editor and his wife, who is an advocate for disability rights and had stayed at Albergo Etico to do some research,” Graham said.

“She knew I had a passion for food stories that are attached to some broader social context.

 “I did some research and wrote a few emails to people she put me in contact with; then I went there with my cinematographer, purely on a punt.

“We both fell in love with the place and in a short time all the staff got used to our presence: so much so that I became part of the kitchenware!”

After his first visit to Albergo Etico in October 2017, Graham and his crew returned to Piedmont six more times to film, living at the hotel for a total of six months and shooting the final scenes just as the coronavirus pandemic hit northern Italy.

“I think that’s one of the great advantages that the film has to offer; you get a sense of the longer-term developments and the characters’ stories,” he said.

“It’s a film with a lot of love but it doesn’t give a totally rosy picture of what it’s like to have an intellectual disability... far from it.

“It’s about how people can reach their potential and overcome disability through support, training and being given opportunities.

“But it’s still hard and you see their struggles; one of the characters has a bit of a crisis and ends up going to hospital and having major surgery.

“There are quite intimate scenes between him and his mother in the hospital.”

Graham uses humanistic slice-of-life storytelling to tackle intellectual disability, individual agency and industrial reform.

The film explores Mirko and Jessica’s experiences as part of the program, but also the ups and downs of their romantic relationship.

“I wanted to make a feel-good film, because that’s how I felt about the place,” Graham said.

“I felt like it was a fantastic way of approaching the world of ability, rather than disability, because people are really given an opportunity to advance themselves and show their potential no matter what their starting point in life is.

“But I didn’t want it just to be about the hotel; I wanted it to be about the people.

“Chef Antonio is very charismatic and he has a big heart, but he’s no pushover; a kitchen is a very demanding place and when the restaurant gets busy you can have 150 customers an evening, so you have to be on your toes.”

Topped off with stunning footage of the changing seasons, scrumptious shots of food and a delightful cast of characters, Chef Antonio’s Recipes for Revolution is the first official Australian-Italian co-production for a documentary.

While Graham is looking forward to the film’s premier, he is disappointed he can’t return to Italy to share the final outcome with his friends in Asti.

“Asti isn’t a very big town and everybody got to know me there and knew what was going on at the hotel,” he concluded.

“There was a great sense of community and everyone invited me into their homes... I came home with a bigger waistline!”

For more information and tickets, visit the Melbourne International Film Festival’s website.