How IL TACCHINO was born

The story of IL TACCHINO began in the spring of 2024, not from business plans, but from a personal passion. The inspiration came from the kitchen at home – actually, from the backyard 😊 – where I cooked turkey recipes for family and close friends. I discovered that these simple and tasty meals had something special: they brought people together. The first concrete step came on June 24, 2024 , when I registered the domain iltakchino.com . It was a symbolic moment, which transformed the idea into a real project. Since then, I knew that this would be just the beginning – a pilot project , which, if confirmed, could become a global brand .

In September I felt ready to move on to the next stage: building the team and laying the foundations for the project. Alexandru Arghiropol, my childhood friend , took over the role of administrator, and Cristian Cristea joined as a consultant, bringing with him over 25 years of solid experience in HORECA and an impressive academic background, currently a PhD student in food safety. Together we started to define the pilot project, thinking from day one not just for one location, but for a scalable model.

Identifying the spaces was one of the most important decisions. We chose Corbeanca , on the one hand because it is a representative market for the segment we are targeting, on the other hand because I have lived here for almost 20 years and love this community. Piața Victoriei , on the other hand, we chose it as perhaps the “hottest” urban spot in Bucharest, a place with energy and traffic that could quickly validate our concept in a competitive environment and potentially high volume.

Between September and December it was an intense period: the design of processes and standardized kitchens, but also the definition of the brand. We had people who believed in the project and delivered with enthusiasm: Irinel Ionescu (AMPRO Design) and Mircea Sava (Architecture Studio) , who helped us give the brand a visual identity and build locations with a design that tells the same story. At the same time, with the support of the Baciu Partners team, we registered the IL TACCHINO brand and visual symbol at the European level – an essential step for protecting the brand identity and for future global expansion.

After three months of construction and layout, we reached the time of menu tests for the Corbeanca location. Executive Chef Marius Alexa joined us, with over 10 years of experience as a chef and the coordinator of over 500 large-scale culinary events, where he managed dozens of people. The first time I cooked – so we knew where we were starting from 😊 – then Marius patiently took over and took the recipes to the next level, refined and standardized them. For the IT Systems and Infrastructure a big thank you to our friend and team member Cosmin Chiriac. After about 30 days of tests, to which we invited friends, family and acquaintances, we felt that we were ready for the public.

On April 26, 2025 , we officially opened our first location in Corbeanca. It comprises two components: a central kitchen, for marinating meat and preparing vegetables, and a standard kitchen for cooking and serving. The model was designed so that subsequent locations would only need the standard kitchen – to ensure both controlled and standardized quality and operational efficiency.

In parallel, we worked on the layout of the second location, in Piața Victoriei (Calea Victoriei 155) , contracted since October. After months of work, on September 1, 2025 , we officially launched this location and at the same time the branding campaign in Bucharest and Ilfov, with a focus on the central and northern areas: Sector 1, Otopeni and Corbeanca. The campaign will develop over the next 3 months, gaining more and more scope and will last 6–9 months, also representing the evaluation period of the pilot project, the moment when I will decide the transition to the next stage: scaling.

Looking back, it all seems like a short and intense journey, but each stage had its purpose: from the tables in the courtyard, to the first location in Corbeanca and then to Victoriei. IL TACCHINO is today a pilot project with big ambitions . Months of learning, adjustments and new challenges lie ahead. And here, in the diary, I will continue to tell the story of this journey – with good and bad – as the project transforms from a pilot into a brand ready to grow, first in Bucharest, then in Romania and, in a maximum of 3 years, in Europe.