Italy

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

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

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

Burano

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The tiny island of Burano floats in the Venetian Lagoon and is famous for its multi-coloured fisherman’s houses and lace making. It’s a very pleasant boat ride out from the main part of Venice.

A few metres from the boat, Osteria “Al Fureghin” serves the typical food of Venice, in the relaxed an informal atmosphere of a canal-side restaurant. Despite recent media reports about the very high prices charged in many of Venice’s bars and restaurants, especially to tourists, this place is much more reasonably priced. It was staffed by a team of young lads with an obvious interest in the food and drink they were serving.

Sarde in Saor is a typical dish with its origins in the time before refrigeration when the fishermen of the Venice area would preserve fish, in this case sardines, by marinating them in onions and white wine vinegar. sometimes, as in this case, it includes raisins and pine nuts too. They make a lovely fresh tasting starter or snack with a glass of crisp dry white wine.

To follow, I ate Fegato alla Veneziana, lovely soft calves liver with white onions, butter and olive oil. Hating, as I do, the polenta with which it was proposed to serve the liver, I opted for chips instead!

February 12, 2018 0

Who’s Giacomo?

The website of this small restaurant isn’t fully functional yet, but it does link to a Facebook page.

The Prison

da Giacomo

River Adda

Last Saturday was cold and wet in this part of Lombardy, so the best option seemed to be to find a nice restaurant in order to while away the hours before settling down to watch some TV and snooze the afternoon away. The small town of Pizzighetone, in the Province of Cremona sits on the banks of the Adda river, which rises in the Swiss Alps before flowing through Lake Como and then on through the Lombardy Plain into the river Po. It was the scene of a major battle in the 18thC War of the Polish Succession but is today a quiet little back water with a collection of old buildings, a pretty crossing over the river as well as a pretty Church.

Keeping an eye on the chefs

Opposite the Church of San Bassiano is the restaurant da Giacomo. A brief wander around the town in the drizzle wasn’t quite long enough to prevent an arrival at the restaurant 15 minutes ahead of the reservation time of 1pm. The restaurant was empty, so a choice of tables was offered. The choice made was of one with a view into the kitchen where a husband a wife time worked in silence to finish their preparations for service. The maitre d’ (owner? Giacomo?) was friendly and welcoming and a nice glass of fizz from Franciacorta was offered and accepted together with a plate of salumi, consisting of Culatello di Zibello and a cooked pancetta which was unlike anything I’d experienced before. It was gossamer thin with creamy sweet fat and a very pleasing smoked taste; the perfect partner to the Culatello with its notes of the farmyard! We were also given a spoonful of quinoa with provolone, a bruschetta and a deep-fried savoury foam!

The menu offered a good choice, with two different tasting menus, one consisting of a meat selection ‘proposta di terra’ and the other more fishy, ‘proposta di aqua’ and also an interesting alla carte section, with a focus on the likes of quail, duck and guinea fowl.

For me, the choice for the first course was Tortelli al “Grana Antico” e caffe ripieni di melanzane violette, e ricotta stagionata (Coffee pasta stuffed with aubergine and aged ricotta and finished with “Grana Antico” cheese and deep fried slivers of aubergine peel). It was delicious, even though I couldn’t detect the coffee element. It’s always good to see something a bit different on an Italian menu. I followed this, not with Faraona (guinea Fowl), as I was seriously tempted to do, but with Veal Kidneys with mashed potatoes. Wow! It hard to imagine how it would be possible to make kidneys taste as yummy and certainly nothing like the overcooked pigs version of school days. They were gently flavoured, succulent and perfectly seasoned. The accompanying sage sauce was well balanced and the buttery mash was as smooth as silk.

Tortelli

Veal Kidneys

I don’t always eat puddings but when the first and main have been so good, its difficult not to follow-on with something sweet.

A saffron poached pear washed down with a glass of Passito was the ideal choice!

Oh and just a nibble of cheese, to taste.

May 11, 2017 1

Wood in the Mountains

The iconic Matterhorn mountain straddles the Italian- Swiss border and overlooks the town of Zermatt in Switzerland (think ‘Night Manager’, recently broadcast by the BBC) and Breuil Cervinia, in the Aosta Valley of Italy. In Italian its know as Monte Cervino and is part of the Monte Rosa mountain range.

Within the fairly undistinguished, save for the view of the Matterhorn, ski resort of Breuil Cervinia, is the restaurant Wood. If you try googling it you’ll find a Facebook page and references to it on various review websites but it doesn’t have its own website. The timber decor is what gives the place its name and it has the feel of a designer Alpine refuge. The Michelin guide gives it a plate (good cooking) and two knives and forks (good standard).

On booking, by telephone, we were told we must arrive at 1230, making us feel grateful that we’d been able to get a table at all but when we arrived at 1245, having telephoned to say we’d been delayed getting out of Milan, the place was empty and apart from our table for two it remained empty throughout the service.

Service from the waiter was generally efficient, if without warmth, but he subjected me to one of my pet hates. It seems that waiters in Italy do not change their shirts often enough and in this case the guy’s black shirt was covered in food stains, presumably from the day before. There’ no excuse for this and it is off-putting. I was also subjected to another torment; the non-conventional placement of cutlery on the table. Often, these days, one finds things set a jaunty angle or everything to one side but at Wood this happened:

The menu looked very interesting indeed and was firmly in the modern idiom and I started with Uovo 60 C, which was described as Egg cooked at 60 degrees with potato foam, marinated egg yolk, thyme and rosemary crisp potatoes. It looked lovely but in reality it lacked any real depth of flavour and the egg was just a little underdone so it didn’t ooze its yolk into the foam to make an unctuous sauce as I’d hoped it would.

Next up was Fish & Crunch, which was scallops, crispy sweetbreads in panko breadcrumbs, celeriac cream and liquorice. The liquorice came in the form of a powder, dropped around the circumference of the plate. If it had been somehow applied to the scallops it might’ve been better integrated into the dish but as it was it added very little to the experience. The sweetbreads were well cooked and tasty but lacked the promised crunch and the scallops themselves were nothing special at all. Scallops are a favourite of mine and I was disappointed not to enjoy them more than I did.

My notes about desert have been lost but looking at the photograph (below) and comparing it to the menu I’d copied, I really can’t match it, not does it evoke any particular memory – good or bad, which sort of sums up the whole experience really.

The coffee when it arrived was cold, not tepid but really quite cold. This is presumably because the coffee machine hadn’t been used since the previous evening and wasn’t sufficiently pre-heated. Replacements were brought and I promptly spilled mine over the white linen table cloth. I apologised profusely to the waiter, which is more than he did to me when I sent back the cold cup of coffee, but he did nothing to put me at ease, rather he silently brought another replacement.

I probably wouldn’t eat at Wood again, the food was well presented but the flavours didn’t live up to the visual experience. I certainly wouldn’t go out my way to visit it again but if you are skiing nearby, and fancy giving it a go, I won’t advise you not to do so. It might be better when it’s busier.

One final good point to note, is that there is no cover charge and wifi is free. I’ve never really understood cover charges, which are no more than a tax for giving one’s custom to a particular restaurant; better to load all of the costs into the price of the food I’d say.

May 1, 2017 0

My Kind of Food

Sharing stories about the kind of food I like to eat

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