Graeme Jolly

Vinum Exhilarat Animum!

When I started this blog, I was clear that it would be about food and not particularly about wine, beer or spirits. Now however I’m changing my mind a little and this is for two principal reasons.

The first is because of the inspiration I’ve received from a friend of mine in the UK, Peter, who has a series of posts on his Facebook page under the heading, Vino Friday. Reading his posts led me to realise something, and that is the second motivation for what I’m about to launch on this site.

Living in Italy gives access to some first rate and world class wines, on the door step. The great wines of Tuscany (Brunello di Moltalcino) and Piemonte (Barolo) hold their own in the world of classic and noble wines and the best examples of them command very high prices. Other Italian wines from the Sud-Tirol in the far north to Sicily in the South offer great variety in terms of style, price and quality. Even in the realm of sparking wines, the bollicine of Franciacorta, not to be confused with Prosecco because they are made according to the méthode champenoise, can hold their own against many French Champagnes, even if they are from the cisalpine slopes of Lombardy rather than the the vineyards surrounding Rheims. Italy is proud of its wine production and is the second biggest exporter of wine to the UK, after France, BUT the Italians in general are not very open to wines from other parts of the world. Reading Peter’s posts, referred to above, has awakened in me many happy wine memories and I realise that I very much miss the wines of the Loire, South America, Oceania, South Africa and many other regions across the world.

Trying to buy so-called new world wines in Italy, or even French wines is very difficult and often expensive. The Italian wine market is protected, by fair means or foul and one has to work very hard to source a decent bottle.

I enjoy wine but am too lazy to learn the technical stuff however I am going to try to write the occasional piece on this blog to share my experience of drinking the odd bottle of wine. To help with this, I’ve recruited the assistance of Adam Serdiuchenko who will tutor me through the tasting of each wine. Adam is a WSET qualified sommelier and I’m looking forward to him helping me to describe the wines we taste.

As always the preferences and final assessment of what I like or don’t like will be mine – this is a personal blog after all, albeit supplemented with Adam’s professional knowledge.

July 30, 2021 1

An evening at the ranch

For years, in fact each time I’ve left town by car, I’ve driven past what I supposed to be a stables/riding school. It’s the Cascina Sesmones on the outskirts of Lodi. It’s a very tidy and pretty set up seen from the road, with well groomed healthy looking horses in the paddocks.

Recently a friend mentioned this same place in connection with a restaurant that he thought we might find interesting. How could it be, that after nearly 8 years of living here, there could be a restaurant I hadn’t even heard of and in any case I’d thought was simply a horsey place. Obviously a visit to explore it was necessary…

Sure enough the restaurant, Spazio Molino, is located within the Cascina Sesmones. Parking in the car park, the first sight was of the horses in their stalls. The complex also includes a conference centre and hotel. Anyone who has visited the winelands outside Cape Town, South Africa, will be familiar with the manicured beauty of their principal buildings and the inevitability of finding a nice place to eat. So it was with Cascina Sesmones. Everything is very well cared for and maintained, there isn’t a weed visible in the gravel, the paintwork is immaculate and the lighting superb.

The menu here is something quite innovative and even the reading of it gets the taste buds tingling. We sat and looked at the long list of dishes, any of which might be more than acceptable. We ordered water while we thought about food and wine. We chose the food and narrowed down the wine choice. Twenty minutes passed and still no water arrived, no order was taken and no-one checked as to whether or not we had any questions. By now we were thirsty – very thirsty! This was a dinner on a hot summer’s evening to celebrate the end of a working life of some 40 years. What promised to be a really good find was turning into an irritation.

When eventually we were given some water we ordered our food and an Argentinian Malbec wine. New world wines being a bit of a rarity here this was a real treat.

Starters were without doubt delicious, even if mine, seared beef with French oyster mayonnaise and gossamer thin shavings of Raspadura (the local grana cheese), appeared to all intents and purposes to be a main course.

Main courses didn’t quite live up to either the excitement promised by their menu descriptions or the excitement of the first courses. I had suckling pig which had a lovely crispy skin and a buttery jus contrasted with bitter spinach. It was nice but not special in the way the starter had been.

We decided to have puddings and waited to see the menu so as to order them. We waited and we waited and we waited. To this day no one ever came to take our order, so it was that we left, paying at the desk on the way out and giving our feedback. A reasonable discount was given for the lack of service.

Overall the menu here attracts me very much but the service puts me off to a very high degree. I will give it another go but am not hopeful that the service will be any better, having heard form others that they experienced something similar. If they sort this out, I’d be very happy to make Spazio Molina a regular haunt, not least because I’d love to visit Dafne and the other horses again.

July 2, 2021 0

With a little help from my friends

Not the song by The Beatles, from the film, Yellow Submarine, but the title of the latest tasting menu at Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy. The restaurant reopened in its Via Stella location in central Modena on 1 June, following the most recent lock-down restrictions with a menu which pays tribute, across 12 plates of food and 18 individual creations, to 16 Italian chefs.

The dishes are each inspired by the originals devised between 1963 and 2020, and have been reimagined, in homage to the original creator and presented in the most elegant and delicate way possible. In some cases chef Massimo Bottura plays with the mind as well as the eyes and the palate perhaps initially to confuse and then certainly excite the diner, but always in a way that makes sense, at least by the end of the particular course. One dish, Zuppa fredda di Carbonara, in homage to Gianfranco Vissani, translates as Cold Carbonara Soup. It is described as Crema Inglese (custard) with pepper, guanciale (cured pork cheek) banana, pecorino cheese ice cream and caviar! This was in fact the first of the deserts but perhaps is best described as a cross-over course! The sharp eyed among readers will notice the key ingredients for Carbonara sauce are mentioned (guanciale, pepper, pecorino and egg in the form of the custard) and clearly that classic Roman dish is the inspiration for this course. The salty tang of the fried guanciale, nestled under the custard and the cheese ice cream really set this dish alight with flavour. A-ma-zing!

I last mentioned Osteria Francescana in 2016. After my previous visit in 2014, I’d had a great desire to go again. Seven years of patience eventually paid off and I was very pleased to celebrate my birthday there just a few days ago with two friends, for one of whom it was his first experience of a Michelin 3* eatery.

My admiration for the chef is unbounded, not only for his undoubted skill in the kitchen, his limitless imagination and his kind personal welcome to every guest, but also because of his significant efforts in developing future talent in the hospitality industry, his interventions to help save the Parmsan Cheese production following an earthquake in 2012, his establishment of a ‘refectory’ during Milan Expo 2015, to feed the most vulnerable people of the city with the food from the various pavilions of the Expo and then the not-for-profit organisation he created with his wife, Food for the Soul, which grew out of that intitial enterprise.

This is a man who has a social conscience and one who, when you meet him, exudes a simplicity both in his love for food and hospitality. He has an open way of communicating and a gentle manner in treating his staff in what must be a very demanding working environment. Many of us are familiar with a style of running kitchens, espoused by the likes of that uncouth gorilla of a man, Gordon Ramsey. The foul language and aggressive way of treating staff, and sometimes customers, makes good TV but with Chef Bottura it’s completely different and consequently his accolades are higher and he remains first and foremost a cook. I wandered down a small road to the side of the restaurant shortly after Massimo had worked the dining room and spoken to each table. A small door into the kitchen was open and I was able to witness the man himself returning to the brigade full of smiles and friendly greetings. If massaging Wagyu cattle produces the finest beef in the world then being nice to the staff when you’re the boss produces quality too.

Osteria Francescana was ranked as number one in the world in 2016 and then again in 2018. It was the first Italian Restaurant to achieve this. It was second in the world in 2015 and third in 2013 and 2014. No one stays at the top of the league forever of course and now Mirazur has taken that first place but it’s clear that Bottura has stayed at the top of his game. His expansion with Franceschetta58, also in Modena and his kitchens in Istanbul, Dubai, Florence and Beverly Hills, often in conjunction with Gucci, make me worry that one day he will overstretch and that Osteria Francescana will consequently cease to be the unique experience it still is today.

June 9, 2021 0

MoS – my mistake

Yesterday many of the major websites across the globe failed. This makes me feel good because I’d been struggling to understand why my latest post, MoS, wasn’t appearing on my blog home page. Knowing that others, even governments, experience tech failures makes me feel included. I still don’t really understand what I did wrong but for the sake of completeness, here is a link to the original article.

June 9, 2021 0

Summer Time

Summer 2020 has probably been one of the strangest of my life so far. Covid-19, even if we managed to avoid its health impacts, has changed most elements of our lives, eating being no exception.

Writing a blog-post about an altogether pleasing eating experience is always a pleasure, whereas reviewing a restaurant which ought to have done much better is a bit of drag. I have two places on my to-do list to review and I’m starting here with the pleasant experience because in writing, I’m already re-living the joy it brought to a wet Saturday afternoon. The less pleasurable experience will have to wait for another day.

The restaurant in question, which has so excited me, is called Posta and its located in the small spa town of Sant’Ombono Terme, nestled int he mountains of the Province of Bergamo, North of Milan. They’re also in the Michelin Guide, with ratings of ‘Good Cooking’ and ‘Comfortable’.

Posta is family run, dating back to 1910 and is part of a small number of hospitality businesses they operate. On our visit last Saturday, one sister was managing front of house while the other ran the kitchen. The Chef describes herself at la cuoca (the cook), which tells you all you need to know about the lack of any pretensions.

A cheap menu of the day, with limited selection, is available to cater for those on budgets or as a working lunch for the locals. There’s also an interesting a la carte option offering both traditional and more modern dishes but we chose the tasting menu. Two versions were available, Di Mare (from the sea) or Di Terra (from the land). Everything was absolutely delicious and, with the exception of the duck breast (which was slightly over), expertly cooked to precision.

The ‘amuse bouche’ was a little cannoli of filo pasty stuffed with creamy goats cheese and chives all whipped up to the consistency of a fluffy mousse. It was so light it melted in the mouth.

The first course, proper was a hand prepared beef tartar (fasona breed from Piemonte) accompanied by the freshest and most aromatic of raw, thinly sliced porcini mushrooms – a reminder that this is the start of the porcini and truffle season. That tiny amount of crumb made all the difference in terms of offering a contrast to the softness of the beef and had the slight salty tang of parmesan to it.

Next up was what I would have chosen from the menu as a starter, lasagnetta di taleggio e tartufo nero. The pasta sheets that made up the little lasagna were wafer thin and as soft and smooth as silk, bound together with creamy taleggio cheese and the whole thing crowned with fresh local black truffles – the first of the season. Words aren’t enough to describe how delicious this dish was. If I’m ever condemned to live as a vegetarian, this is what I would want to eat

Duck breast followed (Petto d’anatra e pesche al Porto). Of all the dishes this was the weakest, as the meat was a little tough from the just a few seconds over cooking. The peaches in port though were juicy and luscious and the taste of the meat was robust and yet not too heavy. While other courses scored 10/10, I’d mark this one down to only 9/10! 😉

Two puddings were served. One was, of course, described as a pre-desert, which was an apple cake – moist and full of caramelised apple flavour. The second was zabaglione (rich with eggs, sugar and booze in the form of Marsala) served with a contrasting ice cream. Who would have thought of serving two ‘wet’ elements together but it so worked, as the ice cream cut through the richness of the custard; the sbrisolona (biscuity crumb) offering a nutty texture contrast. Another ten out of ten dish.

Coffee was served with a generously sized measure of their homemade egg liquor and some frosted grapes and orange peel, and tuilles.

Posta, without a doubt is on my list of places to keep returning to and I’d encourage anyone within an hour or two’s drive to pay a visit too. I may see you there!

August 31, 2020 1

It’s twins!

I seem to have been eating quite a lot of octopus recently, specifically polpo e patate. I’m in search of the perfect execution of this simple dish and I came pretty close to experiencing it last weekend in Syracuse, Sicily. The tentacles were perfectly soft but with that much desired crunch on the outside, having been cooked on lava stone – presumably from near-by Mount Etna.

Last night I had another version of the dish in Milan at ‘Ristorante da I Gemelli’. Gemelli are twins in Italian and with a neat play on words there are twin restaurants (Milan and the Ligurian coastal town of Portofino) and they are run by twin brothers Matteo and Paolo.

The brothers are the heirs of a family culinary heritage going back to 1850 and their two restaurants focus mainly on the fish and seafood for which Liguria is famed.

I ate at the Portofino establishment with my nephew a few weeks ago and then again with a friend shortly afterwards and decided then that it would become my go-to place to eat whenever I’m in that part of Liguria. It sits on the edge of the water and you can watch the little pleasure craft, small fishing boats and luxury yachts coming and going while you eat. The staff are friendly, they remember you from previous visits (a big thing as far as I’m concerned) and create a relaxed calm atmosphere in which to soak up the sun and devour some delicious food. Certainly I ate the best mussels I’ve ever had there.

I also had fish ravioli with prawns in a curry sauce- subtle and luxurious!

Now on learning about the twin restaurant in Milan I felt it necessary to check it out too and so three of us booked in for dinner last night. It’s located just outside the trendy/hip/bohemian Brera district on Via San Marco.

What a surprise to find the same brother (Matteo or Paolo I’m not sure) from Portofino and Giovanni one of the waiters too, so a very warm welcome ensued. While the menu in Milan is the same as at Portofino the style of the restaurant is less seaside and much more city chic. It has style and sophistication without being overly designed

Here is my polpo e patate, followed by risotto with sole and then caffe all’affogato.

All dishes were well cooked and packed with flavour but in contrast to the other place, I’d say the chef was a little heavy handed with the salt – and that’s speaking as a confirmed salt lover.

I’m already searching for an excuse to go back.

June 26, 2019 0

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

When the temperature is in the high 30s and it’s lunch time, the idea of sitting inside a restaurant with air-con suddenly becomes very appealing.

I was staying for a couple of days at Syracuse on Sicily and just before heading to the airport eight of us had a light Sunday lunch at La Lisca. Their website is minimalist so the link above is to their Facebook page.

Most of us only had one course each, in my case Octopus with purée potatoes and spinach. It was simple and simply delicious. The octopus was perfectly cooked and the purée as smooth as can be.

Picture stolen from their Facebook page!

Beyond the excellence of that one plate of food though, La Lisca offers much more in terms of being a serious food place. The menu is extensive and majors on fish and seafood. The chap in charge was clearly knowledgeable and facilitated the desires of the group with a sense of hospitality, efficiency and good humour and the overall sense is of eating well – at VERY reasonable prices.

My only regret was not having a starter and particularly not having the raw violet prawns from the just over the other side of the sea wall.

Go to Sicily and if you do, be sure to visit Syracuse and eat at La Lisca at least once.

June 24, 2019 0

A Chef to Watch!

Sometimes, when it seems likely I’ll eat in a particular place on numerous occasions I wait a while before writing about it, in order that what I write can be informed by a broader range of experiences and therefore less coloured by my mood on a particular day.

Bianca Maria Palace is a 4* hotel in Milan about twenty minutes walk from the Duomo. It has a restaurant, Bianco Quattro, that’s open to non-residents and is, in terms of the food offered, a far cry from what could be described as a hotel dining room. Notwithstanding this, the location of the restaurant in the basement of the hotel has the feel of a breakfast room, which I guess it doubles for. The same space also seems to encompass the hotel bar.

I ate in the restaurant for the third time in three years quite recently. It was a Friday night and it was relatively quiet, in terms of the number of covers. Consequently, the service was calm and unhurried and waiting staff seemed keen to please.

I want readers to understand that the appearance of the restaurant itself is nothing special, in fact, it is typified by seeming a bit outdated and ordinary. In some places, this can be a disguise for what turns out to be a spectacular culinary experience. Was that so in this case? Well, yes and no!

There is much to commend this place and the greatest is the Executive Chef, Alessandro Menoncin, who has managed to design a very exciting menu and deliver some outstanding flavour combinations. Having worked in kitchens at the Connaught Hotel in London he will have experience of sourcing great ingredients and cooking for discerning diners. He clearly understands food.

It was a real thrill to taste the umami richness of the Beef Tataki made with hanger steak, so full of deep savoury flavour, but that was just me stealing a piece from a friend’s plate – it’s certainly what I’ll order next time!

For my own starter I chose from the Antipasto menu, Animella di Vitello in Tempura (veal sweetbreads) this was served with thin slices of artichoke, candied lemon and with subtle flavours of liquorice. Taken as a whole it was delicious but if I have a criticism it would be that the sweetbreads weren’t uniformly crispy, nor indeed as crispy as I would prefer. The picture below is of the dish served on a different occasion, where the sweetbreads appear to be very crispy indeed. My plate, but not the serving, seemed smaller and therefore was more crowded, thus allowing the wetter elements on the plate to soften the tempura. an easy problem to solve – bigger plates!

My main course, from a choice of three meat dishes, was listed simply as Agnello. The English on the menu told me it would be yoghurt marinated lamb shoulder, coffee sauce, cardamom and spring onion, although the Italian didn’t specify which cuts of meat would be used. Once again the flavour of this dish was truly amazing. Using coffee with meat seems to be a trend at the moment. On this occasion it was used to very great effect as the slightly bitter taste from the coffee was a great balance to the sweetness of the lamb. Differences between what is described on the menu and what appears on the plate are a little bit irritating and the issue, in this case, is something I’ve only fully realised as I’m writing this. What was presented, as can be seen, included part of the rack of the lamb; three tiny little chops that clearly indicated it was baby lamb, alongside the slower cooked shoulder meat and the confit onions. Let me stress again the taste was delicious but the rack was to my mind undercooked. Being so small it was always going to be a choice between (well) cooked or effectively raw and I think the addition of a bit of charring to those sweet little ribs would’ve enhanced them enormously. Discussion with the chef about this dish at the end of the meal also indicated he’d used leg meat and not shoulder. There’s an issue of consistency at stake here that is so so important. Cardamom is a very distinctive flavour and I couldn’t identify it in this dish – which of course doesn’t mean it wasn’t present. Not to be able to do so didn’t detract from what was an exciting combination of tastes but I sort of think if it’s listed I should be able to identify it on my palate.

Pudding was not at all disappointing. I had Panna Cotta al Peperoncino which was described in English as Chilly (sic) Panna Cotta! In fact, while I’ve brought your attention back to the use of English on the menu I should say it wasn’t the best translation I’ve seen! It’s sad in a way that these small errors detract from the overall experience. Going back to my not so chilly, Chilli flavoured Panna Cotta, I’ll tell you it had the amazing effect of feeling not at all spicy in the mouth yet had a gentle kick in the back of the throat which was immediately soothed by the scrumptious yoghurt and honey ice cream with which it was served. I’m not a pudding person but this was truly lovely.

In summary, let me say that Chef Menoncin is one to watch. He has a superb talent for flavour combination and menu design. He needs to ensure the brigade delivers consistency as well as quality though and to perfect his skills for the even greater challenges that I’m sure lie ahead in his career. Bravo Chef!

May 21, 2019 1

The Red City – or is it pink?

Bologna is the heart of the foodie and agricultural region of Emilia-Romagna. It is known by many different names, la dotta ( the learned one) refers to its reputation as a place of knowledge, being home to the oldest university in the west, la rossa, refers to the red stone and brick of the buildings as well as reflecting the left-leaning politics of the city, since the second world war. La rosa (the pink one, similar to the red), also indicates the colour of the buildings and, shall we say, the city’s liberal social attitudes.

Another sobriquet that is of particular interest to us on this blog, is that of la grassa (the fat one). Bologna has an immense and well-deserved reputation for good products and great cooking.

Eating local salami, mortadella and tagliatelle al ragu (never, ever “spagbol”!) in an unpretentious local trattoria is a great way to spend an afternoon.

A number of years ago I discovered a restaurant that offers a slightly more polished version of local delicacies. I’ve been back four times now and each time it has got better, in terms of the level of sophistication of the cooking and its presentation but most especially in relation to the intensity and combination of flavours in the food.

Camera con Vista (Room With a View) is the place and while the website isn’t the best, it is very out of date, I think, if you go, you’ll experience some great food. The decor is whacky, the staff friendly and helpful and English is spoken well.

On my last visit, yesterday, I started with Uovo pochè, patate al tartufo, salsa Perigueux (poached egg with truffle potato and Perigueux sauce). The combination of soft poached egg, silky smooth potato and heady black truffles could only have been improved if the potato had been put through a foam gun to make it even lighter.

Next up was Ravioli d’anatra mantecata topinambur, foie gras (ravioli with creamy duck, Jerusalem artichoke and foie gras). This was a rich, buttery and intensely flavoured dish which I’d wolfed down long before I thought to take a pic!

For my secondo, I choose Maiale in due cotture, insalata di pomodori, glassa di arance amare (pork cooked two different ways, tomato salad and a glaze of bitter orange). Despite being full of flavour and well cooked this was the weak point of the meal for me, for a number of reasons, perhaps the most significant being, I’d already eaten too much and my appetite was beginning to suffer. One of the servings of pork was the cheek which was unctuously soft and tender, the other a piece of fillet which by comparison was slightly dry. I would’ve been perfectly happy just to have the cheek, sometimes less is more. The bitter orange glaze was a welcome addition to the dish and it was tasty but I can’t say I could detect any orange flavour. The addition of the coastal vegetable, barba di frate, gave a little bitterness and salty sea flavour to the dish which certainly added a layer of complexity.

I highly recommend Camera con Vista if you’re in the area!

May 20, 2019 0

My Kind of Food

Sharing stories about the kind of food I like to eat

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