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My Kind of Food

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Milan

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.

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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!

Unknown-5.jpegThere 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 b38d438c-d673-49f6-93b0-244f29e23429Beef 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!26adbdd5-9e23-4bda-baa2-c533d003b909

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.

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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.296e965a-898a-4210-96ef-b94af7ed45d5

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!

 

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My favourite places to eat

When people ask me to tell them what is my favourite restaurant I hesitate for two reasons.  Firstly I hate the ‘favourite’ type questions such as what is favourite colour, music, TV programme and secondly, how to decide.  Always for me the answer has to be ‘it depends’.

There are restaurants  thaimages-1t I return to time after time, or would if I could, so I suppose they could in some way be classed as favourites.  The first of those is a restaurant in London where I first went 15 years or more ago.  Le Caprice is legendary in certain circles and has been around in one form or another for 35 years with a host of celebrity, royal and hip clients.  For sure the former husband of the Queen’s late sister could always be certain to get the best table but Le Caprice serves its ‘ordinary’ regulars exceptionally well too.  After only my first couple of visits I was always ‘known’ and my Bloody Mary preferences always anticipated.  The food is a fusion of modern American, British and European cuisine, the service friendly and relaxed but uber efficient.  It’s not cheap but it’s not too expensive either (this is Mayfair!) but it is consistently good and I miss not being able to go as often as I used to do.

 

Overunknown-1 the years I’ve eaten in one or two of Rome’s ‘best’ restaurants but have always, in some way, left feeling disappointed because they never quite lived up to my high expectations.  The higher the price the higher the expectation is my thought.  Trattoria da Luigi though has hardly ever disappointed.  It has no pretensions whatsoever.  It is what it is, a simple family run Roman trattoria frequented mostly by Romans and those visitors to Rome who like me have been eating there for decades.  My first visit was probably 30 years ago and every visit to Rome since then has had to include one, two or even three return visits.  The staff are always welcoming and whilst the food could never be described as ‘fine dining’ it is undoubtedly fresh local food cooked well and served with enthusiasm.  I’ve seen the generations of the family grow up in the business and work hard to ensure that nothing much changes from year to year.  Perhaps occasionally the umbrellas or table lines are replaced or the wall re-painted but the abbacchio al forno or the fiori di zucca stuffed with mozzarella and anchovies remain delicious.

A relatively recent addition to my list of places to return to requires a bit more commitment in terms of cash and advance booking.  Osteria Francescana in Modena is owned and run by Massimo Bottura in the streets where he grew up as boy.  He’s a remarkable chef with a social conscience.  During Expo Milan in 2015 he organised Refettorio Ambrosiano to ensure that the chefs working at Expo didn’t forget the poor by using their talents and excess produce to feed the poor.  Osteria Francescana is Number 1 in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2016 and boasts three Michelin Stars. “Our Cooking is collision of ideas, cultures techniques and gestures” says their website.  For me my dinner there was visually challenging – one of the presentation techniques is to throw the food onto the plate – and deeply rewarding in terms of flavour and especially the combination of flavours.

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Innocenti Evasioni – Milan

To the north-east of the centre of Milan is a Michelin 1 star restaurant called Innocenti Evasioni where I recently had dinner to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

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Sometimes the fact that a restaurant’s front door is difficult to find is a portent of hidden treasures to be discovered.  In this case the door was also locked and it was necessary to ring the bell.  Was this also a sign of exclusivity and privilege?  It had been the same at the best restaurant in the world, Osteria Francescana in Modena and the Red Door in North Hollywood; or was it the case that arriving as we did at exactly 8pm, they weren’t quite ready for service?  Time would tell.  The door was quickly unlocked by a guy in chefs whites – really?  He was very welcoming and showed us to our table.  We were the first to arrive and indeed the staff were still putting the final touches to the tables.

Things soon settled down, menus were brought, and nice sharp Franciacorta aperitivo served  together with the most delicious grissini.  To my mind they were what I would call cheese straws, a sort of long thin version of the best cheese scone it would be possible to imagine.  They were loaded with cheese and butter flavours yet still crisp and crumbly.  I could easily have a made a meal of them and almost did as more were offered.

The dining room was long room with all round tables, perhaps a little bit too close together, especially as the next able consisted of an Italian couple being bored to death by a very loud English guy giving them the benefit of his business knowledge.   This in contrast to the peace and stillness of the Zen garden on the other side of the windows.

A decision was made to order the tasting menu.  In this case it was a modest one of 5 courses at a very reasonable price of €68 with optional wine pairings that would have cost a further €25.  We opted for a bottle of red from a wine list with a decent range and very reasonably priced and in may case copious amounts of water as I had to drive.

As the first course arrived i remained a little worried that the chef who had let us in half an hour earlier still hadn’t gone to the kitchen.  Who then was cooking?  Mama? Nonna?  Was it a regeneration kitchen with lots of steam ovens to reheat bought-in food?  All images-2.jpegsorts of things go through the mind when apparently the chef is in the wrong place!  Well it turns out, although I didn’t discover this until the next day, that the restaurant is owned by two chefs and one of them (Eros Picco) therefore could well have been at the stoves. Tommaso Arrigoni (a TV chef)  is the front of house guy and responsible for buying the wines.  All good but I would not have been so anxious if he hadn’t been dressed for the kitchen.

I needn’t have worried about who was cooking.  Each course, even if the individual ingredients couldn’t always be identified on the plate, represented a masterful amalgam of flavours.  The astice carpaccio consisted of barely cooked lobster with cardamom, mango, wafer thin celery, rocket and gin jelly.  Next, the duck foie gras terrine was the only disappointment of the evening and then only because it was a bit pedestrian compared with the other dishes.  The toasted brioche with which it was served seemed dry.

Stinco di vitello (veal shin) was stuffed into little ravioli and served with saffron flavoured buffalo cream, broad beans and crystallised sage leaves – heaven!  This was followed by loin of Iberian pork with star anise flavoured carrot puree and caramelised red onions.  The pork was lovely and pink with a slightly caramelised outside and with the most amazing salty taste.  The texture though was  bit strange, probably because  of the use of the ubiquitous water-bath.  I’m coming to dislike sous-vide cooking.  A good chef should be able to cook meat by eye.

Dessert, not normally my favourite course at any meal, was simply gorgeous and not too sweet.  Listed as Caramelised Millefuille, it was gorgeous puff pastry with chocolate, mango puree and the star ingredient, goats cheese ricotta which added a slightly salty tang to contrast the caramel glaze on the pastry.  A perfect combination!

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