Restaurante Arzak – San Sebastian, Donostia, Basque Country

Juan Mari Arzak is one of the giants of Basque and International cuisine for the last 35 years.

Juan Mari Arzak - Photo courtesy of Restaurante Arzak

His restaurant in San Sebastian is a temple of gastronomy.

I visited the restaurant in a very cold day of February, when it was snowing and the city was dressed in white. Unusual weather for a sea resort, even in the heart of winter.

My last visit was back in 2004, with my brother, Manolis and his family.

Front view of the Restaurant Arzak - Photo courtesy of Restaurant Arzak

Arzak was and still is the three-starred restaurant where you feel at home. The atmosphere is warm, service is friendly, and Juan Mari himself tours the tables and chats with the guests. The locals honor Arzak with their patronage, as he is one of them, he has never left them.  And Juan Mari makes sure he remains one of the locals, by welcoming them for the last 40 years.

Elena Arzak - Photo courtesy of Restaurant Arzak

The kitchen on a day by day basis is run by Juan Mari’s daughter, Elena Arzak. Elena is the perfect example of a professional whose fame has not gone into their head. She is smiling, friendly and always willing to discuss every aspect of the food she serves.

I forgot my camera at the hotel, and I can show you no pictures, but I will describe the dishes as they came.  Elena was kind enough to let me use some of the marketing photos that you see above.

The first dish was caramelized apple disks with foie oil on top. Perfectly balanced, seasoned, each disk a pleasure to watch and taste.

Olive powder with lobster - Photo courtesy of Restaurante Arzak

The second dish was a lobster salad with potatoes, which was superb. The key reason was the sauce that came with it, a sauce full of flavors from the lobster and spices.

The third dish was oysters with a crispy shell. Oysters were tender, subtle in flavor and contrasted in texture with the crispy shell.

The fourth dish  was an egg with infused flavors.

Sea Bass with vegetable confetti - Photo courtesy of Restaurante Arzak

The fifth dish was “bronzed” monk fish, which was superbly seared and presented with a sauce made from its stock.

Totem de Foie - Photo courtesy of Restaurante Arzak

The meal concluded with fresh foie, served in a sauce of corn and sweet wine.

There were two deserts, both a combination of cold and warm, with beautiful colors, fruits and chocolate.

Overall, this was an exceptional meal. All dishes were expertly executed. If I had to change something, I would swap the oysters for a dish with baby eels that is superb, but I forgot to ask for it, until I saw it served to the next table, to a couple of gentlemen with whom Juan Mari had a joyous chat.

Having been to Martin Berasategui’s restaurant the day before, I can summarize the experience as follows.

Martin is the Mozart of Basque cuisine. Light, exuberant, playful, endless, a creative genius unbound by convention and technique.

Juan Mari and Elena are the Beethoven of the Basque cuisine. The colors are darker, the taste is heavier, the menu items are more familiar, almost classical, and the overall experience is close to perfection, making you feel a different man.

Restaurante Martin Berasategui – Lasarte, near San Sebastian, Basque Country

It is not often that one is blessed to enjoy the finest of food prepared by one of the top chefs of the world. During my recent visit to San Sebastian, I was fortunate to have lunch in the restaurant of Martin Berasategui, in Lasarte, a small town near San Sebastian. The chef proposes to the visitor to taste rather than eat. This means, he prefers to serve small bites of representative dishes that he has created over the years, rather than one or two big dishes. The degustation menu that he has put together spans the period from 1995 to 2010.

Lightly smoked cod with powder of hazelnuts, coffee and vanilla.

The official name of the dish does not mention that the thin slice of the fish rests on a puree where the taste and flavor of parmesan cheese is prominent. The fish actually disolves into the puree and the combination is inspiring!

Mille feuille of smoked eel, foie gras, spring onions and green apple

This is a signature dish of the chef, one of the dishes that have established him in the Pantheon of modern gastronomy. What is quite remarkable is the balance that he manages to maintain, between the eel and the foie, which have abundant flavor and “personality” .

Salmon de Keia with seaweed, cucumber, lemon and celery ice cream.

This is a very fresh, light bite, made even lighter by the celery ice cream and the strip of lemon sauce. The salmon is velvety, full of flavor.

Squid soup, creamy squid ink ravioli, served with squid crouton

The black ball is a ravioli filled with squid ink, the crouton is a flake with ink juice and rice, and beneath it the chef has placed razor thin slices of squid. This dish is the essence of squid, presented in three distinct forms. The instruction is to put the ravioli in your mouth intact, and then crush it in order to enjoy the power of the ink’s taste. Then you water down the powerful taste with the soup’s liquid and the rest. The slices of squid add to the harmony of textures, but the taste and flavor are in the liquid stuff.

Oyster with water cress, rocket leaves and lemon grass cream, apple chlorophyll, and oxalis acetosella (wood sorrel)

Extremely delicate flavor and taste, requires meditation to obtain the depth of the delicate structure the chef has put on the dish. A very intellectual dish!

Little pearls of fennel, with emulsion

What you see in the middle is a bouquet of tagliatelle made of gelatin and fennel. It is surrounded by the foamy stuff that also has fennel in it. It is a dish that uplifts you because it is so light!

Cheese and Carabana oil Bubble with endives, red onion juice and Iberian bacon

This is a heavier dish, the bubbles are quite tasty and hearty, while the vegetables and the liquids accompany them well.

Farm’s Egg with beet root and liquid salad, lardon and cheese

The test of the artistry of a chef is the cooking of an egg. Here we have the egg (poached without the white) covered by a transparent slice of lardon  fat. On top we have pieces of beet root a bit of cheese, black truffle and the liquid herb salad. The combination is ok, but lacks focus. Of all the dishes I tasted this was the weakest.

Warm vegetable salad with seafood, cream of lettuce hearts and juice

This is a painting, a pleasure of the eye. Once you start tasting the salad, you have the feeling of being submerged up to waste level in the sea, and from the waste up to a vegetable and fruit garden. A sheer delight, the gastronomic equivalent of Mozart’s String Quintet 6.

Roast red mullet with crystals of soft scales, pig’s tail and seaweed

This is an audacious dish, the combination of the mullet with the succulent pig’s tail is incredible! Not to mention the scales, that have been turned into air by the chef.

Roasted Araiz’s Pigeon, mushrooms and truffle cream

Wonderful flavor of the pigeon, assorted by the woody mushrooms and the truffle sauce. This may have been the best pigeon I have ever tasted!

The deserts were a disappointment, after the huge satisfaction of this display of culinary expertise and creativity.

Coffee came with this nice tray of cookies and tasty liquids.

At the end of the meal, the maitre d’ hotel asked me to go to the kitchen, where I was greeted by Hector Botrini, the best Greek Chef. Hector was visiting Martin as they are good friends and enjoy working together. Martin Berasategui was very polite, he asked whether I enjoyed the food and why. It is good to see that one of the best chefs of the world takes time to ask his unknown customers about their feedback. It is one of things that can keep Martin at the top for many many years to come.

Restaurante Rekondo – San Sebastian, Basque Country

This is a restaurant in “my” neighborhood in San Sebastian. It is on the steep narrow road that takes you to Monte Igueldo, where rests with the most spectacular view of the Concha Bay the Monte Igueldo Hotel (my house in San Sebastian).

It offers classical Basque cuisine and has a fantastic wine list, more than 100,000 labels are on offer at prices you think you are dreaming with your eyes open.

The clientele is at this time of the year (February) locals who want to enjoy good local food and excellent wine. In addition to the restaurant, there is a separate area for drinking wine.

Thi sis not a fancy restaurant, but the locals in San Sebastian are a demanding lot. So here we have a delicious amuse, fried vegetables and a cheese croquette.

The first dish is artichokes with fresh duck liver. The hollow area of the cylinder has been filled with a light bearnaise sauce. The liver is just divine, it melts in the mouth, full of discrete sweet flavors and juices. The texture is smooth and it surrenders to the slightest movement of the tongue. The artichokes full of gentle acidity, dressed in the light bitterness of its flesh. The sauce acts as a universal agent of redemption, smooths out the contrasting tastes and united we all go to heaven!

The following dish is an act in extreme discretion, as it is the cheeks (kokotxas in Basque) of hake (merluza in Spanish) lightly cooked in olive oil and parsley. The discretion is required when cooking the sensitive velvety flesh as it may disintegrate and break into pieces. thankfully this did not happen in my plate, the cheeks were perfect, the taste of the sea rushing into the mouth cavity, just as the rough waves down the cliff crush against the rocks. The gelatinous pieces had released their gelatin in the sauce, which was balanced and delicious.

The best way to end this meal was a plateau of cheese from the land.  I will never learn the names, but I believe that the Basque country produces some of the best cheeses in the world.

Imago Restaurant, Rome, Italy

In my last trip to Rome I had the pleasure of dining in one of the best restaurants in town, Imago, on the top floor of Hotel Hassler, with fantastic views of the eternal city.

Hotel Hassler

I quote from Times Travel:

“Grace Kelly honeymooned at this turn-of-the-century palace at the top of the Spanish Steps, and it’s still the hotel of choice for many of today’s celebs and stylish tastemakers in search of old-world elegance (Gwyneth, TomKat, and Victoria Beckham are all regulars). Renowned for its personalized service, the Hassler is a family affair — a place where guest relations are taken very seriously. The 95 stately rooms are a checklist of classic good taste, with elaborate moldings, gilded furniture, French silks, 16th-century antiques, Limoges porcelain, playful frescoes, and marble, marble, marble, plus mod cons like flat-screen TV’s. Imàgo, its modern Italian restaurant, has heart-stopping views of St. Peter’s Basilica and Rome’s terracotta-tiled roofs. And the concierges can accommodate just about any request, including mapping out routes through the Villa Borghese gardens, near the hotel.”

I was staying at a nearby hotel and walked the distance, passing through Via Veneto. It is a beautiful part of Rome, and I highly recommend staying in this area.

The view from inside the Imago rooftop is amazing.To the extent than when I saw it, I started having second thoughts about the food, as one of the golden rules of the restaurant business is that when the view is stunning, the food sucks. Thankfully, I was proven wrong.

View of Rome from Imago

With determination I moved on and got a table. The clients of the restaurant are varied. You have the visitors who come for the views and the ones who come for the food and the elegant atmosphere. In one of the tables there was a family with two kids, with both grandparents, celebrating the birthday of one of the kids. Wonderful “tableau vivant”, with the grandmother reminding me of one of the powerful female figures in the black and white Fellini movies.

Lets move to the food now, and the gastronomic menu the chef prepared. The menu overall is structured in three stages. Stage I is the “delicate” one, with two appetizer dishes, both of them seafood based.  Stage II is the “taste explosion” set of two half-portions of first courses. Both are strong in taste and flavor. Stage III is a combination of two half-portions of main dishes.

The first starter was raw fish of the day. I do not recall the name of the fish, but it was quite tender, moist and tasty. The high point of the dish was the combination of the raw fish with pears infused with grappa. Personally I do not understand the foamy bits, in my eyes they are like aesthetic pollution, but lets ignore them, everyone these days seems to put a little foam here and there!

The next dish was an imaginative preparation of scallops, as they they were stuffed with mozzarella and then fried.The chef added a touch of black truffle to the finished dish, which was extremely subtle in taste and texture, a true delight. The dish is extremely delicate, and the frying must be very quick and swift, otherwise the scallop is destroyed.

The continuation was more intense in flavors and powerful, as the chef prepared pheasant ravioli with cauliflower puree and truffle-flavored honey. Full-bodied, intense flavor, and meaty texture were the characteristics of the dish.

The dish that followed was the star of the menu. Capellini pasta with smoked eel. A divine dish, one that I would include in the Italian Gastronomic All – Time Menu, if there was ever one. A magic of textures and flavors emanates from the dish. The chef came by and had a chat with me after the dinner was over, and he more or less agreed that this dish is his masterpiece. It is quite interesting, that of all the dishes in the restaurant of one of the most expensive hotels in the world, the best is one based on the humble eel of the Lazio region and capellini pasta, which you can find everywhere in Italy. The other golden rule of gastronomy, that is to use the materials of the terroir is yet again proven 100% correct! The chef had at his disposal the most expensive materials in some of the dishes. Yet his signature dish is the one that serves humbly the tradition of the Lazio region. To be correct, I belive that the dish is also traditional fare in the central regions of Italy, like Umbria.

The next dish was a fish and shrimp combination, that left me untouched, as it was rather faceless.

The last dish of the menu was excellent! Roast pigeonwith all the game flavor of the world! Nothing beats that! And it was roasted to perfection.

I found the serving of artichokes with the pigeon an excellent idea!

To conclude the excellent dinner, the chef offered a sweet tray, where the pistacchio canolo stole the show!

Chef Francesco Apreda has a bright future ahead of him, all we need to do is follow him as he evolves and grows as a chef. The one Michelin star he has been awarded is fully justified. And there will be more!


Restaurant Guth, Lauterach, Bregenz, Austria

“Lets go  and have a nice meal, this is no weather for being outdoors”, said Manolis, when the snow started accumulating on the ground and the visibility was reduced to less than 50 meters. You have seen the pictures in the “white” post, now its time to get down to the eating and drinking business.

Restaurant Guth was around the corner, at the outskirts of Bregenz by lake Constance in the Austrian – German borders. In the map below, you can see Bregenz in the lowest right side of the lake.

Chef Thomas Scheucher is one of the most creative Austrian chefs and has created a modern environment to serve his creations.

The building is new, and the outside is austere in style. The inside is warm and with a beautiful garden view.

The chef’s menu was our choice, but Manolis asked for a swap. Instead of the soup, he asked for the tripe. Such a request would not be honoured in France, where you would be asked to order it as extra. Not in friendly, hospitable Austria, where the request was accepted with a smile.

The amuse bouche was a slice of foie with brioche and quince and pear marmalade, accompanied by scallop’s and musel’s hot beverage. Exquisite and multilayered in taste and flavours, this was one of the best amuse I have ever tasted! The philosppher of Atelier will offer his own views while he comments on the post, so I will not try to interpet him, which would in any case be sacrilegious!

Marinated tuna with horseradish mousse, accompanied by a pike croquette served on cubes of beetroot. The tuna was soft and sweet, the horseradish perfectly accompanied the oily flesh, while the croquette was like solid foam (a contradiction of terms and senses).

Sauteed tripe with herbs of the nearby forest. Never had this dish before, and it was worth the wait of so many years! A complete game with the senses this one, thin threads of tripe enveloped in the aromas of the forest, melt in the mouth and bless it with eternal memories of gastronomic pleasures.

Zander fillet with octopus, on a bed of fresh green beans. The dish of extreme lightness, attempted to supplement the memory of the mighty tripe with a presence of indelible subtlety and kindness to the palate.

Free-range beef fillet with mushrooms, celery and semolina crack dumplings (knoedel). The ultimate in meaty texture and taste, medium to rare, the knife was practically not needed to cut through this velvety flesh!

Hot chocolate desert, with fried bananas and bitter sweet foam. The perfect conclusion to a perfect meal. It took the chef almost 20 minutes to prepare the cylinders of delight, and was well worth it!

In the basement, you can find another source of pleasures, the wine cellar. We were served excellent austrian wines to accompany the dishes. More on austrian wines will come in a future post, they are the big discovery of the year for me!

Conclusion: When you get a chance, visit Guth, you will thank me for that!

P.S. For the culturally oriented, there is fantastic Opera Festival during the summer in Bregenz. Just imagine the immense combination of a beautiful opera performance accompanied by a meal in Restaurant Guth…..

P.S.2 Thank you Manoli for opening guth’s door for me!

P.S.3 Thank you Nature, for creating the unique Christmas images on the last day of November in the year of 2009.

P.S4 Thank you Romania, for having your National Day on the 1st December, which gave me the opportunity to visit Manolis and Guth and…

P.S5 At the time of the visit, the restaurant was recommended by the Michelin Red Guide as “one star”.

A quick visit to Vilnius, Lithuania

This is a short report on my first and very quick visit to Vilnius, Lithuania.

After the fact, it seems to me that it took me more time to travel to Vilnius and back, than stay in the city.

I flew in from Vienna, on a Dash-8 airplane. Among the passengers were the basketball team of Ulker, in Turkey. Really tall boys when you see them next to you.

The weather in Vienna was good, but as we started approaching Vilnius it got really bumpy. Loads of clouds and rain, as you can see from the photo.

Forests, trees, rivers, all together in a land that is flat (highest elevation is approximately 300 meters).

We disembarked in a haste as the rain was falling hard.Vilnius is a city with half a million people, without traffic problems, The distance from the airport to the center is covered in 15 minutes.

Straight to the office for our  meetings.

Vilnius is the European Capital of Culture in 2009, with Linz of Austria. As a result, a lot of money has been spent to spruce up the historical center. Here you see the building of the Vilnius Philharmonic.

The streets are spotless, the small area I could see in the old town is like an open air museum.

Around 7 in the evening, a colleague from the office and I went to dinner at “La Provence”, one of the good restaurants in town. It is an old house, beautifully preserved, the food they serve is mainstream with a modern touch.

My colleague had the duck, with a dark orange sauce.

I chose the venison tournedo with foie on top, potatoes, chenterelles and black truffle. The meat was medium rare, as it should, and it was delicious! The combination with the foie was also a good one, it worked!

A nice selection of European cheese ended the dinner. I asked for Lithuanian cheese, but apparently the local cheeses are rather on the rustic side, not to be served in a European cheese plate.

The next day the rain kept falling. And at eight o’clock in the morning, it is still fairly dark.

I walked to the office, had my meetings, and then time to go for the return trip to Vienna.

Au revoir Vilnius!

 

Restaurant Steirereck – Vienna, Austria

Introduction

Today I continue with my second gastronomic experience in Vienna, the first being in the Restaurant Vestibuel, reported a couple of days ago.

After a rather long meeting and under very wet conditions I found myself in the comfort and warmth of the Steirereck Restaurant in the middle of Stadtpark in Vienna.I selected it after reading the Michelin Red Guide, which has awarded two stars to the restaurant and is overall very enthusiastic about he place.inside

I will start with the food, and finish with the wines.

Part I: The Food

troutThe first bite came compliments of the chef. Trout with onion and yellow ginger. Succulent and full of aromas, a nice way to start the meal.

oysterGillardeau Oysters with buttermilk, glass pasta and pea shoots. This is the first dish in the 5-course set menu of the chef. The dish evolves around the oysters and magnifies their taste and flavors. A subtle and discrete dish.

oxheartBraised “Oxheart” Carrot with fillet, milt and marrow from Styrian beef. When I first read the menu, I thought that this was the heat of the ox! Wrong! Oxheart is a type of carrot, named so because its shape is like the heart of the ox! The braised carrot was served on top of raw Styrian beef fillet sliced paper-thin, and topped with a very light vinaigrette with marrow. The sticks you see on top are a type of rich bread with majoram.

breamGilt Head Bream and Moscardini, with black radish, rocket and parsley. The fish was pan fried to perfection, its fresh firm and juicy. And -as always- the skin was the best bite of all! The bream was served on top of a angel pasta bed and was accompanied by one moscardino in vinaigrette, and paper-thin black radish, which was delicious! I must say that I somehow lost the flavors of the moscardini, this iwas rather neutralized. But if you exclude that, everything else in the dish was perfect.

pheasantPheasant breast with chevril root, chanterelle mushrooms and yellow dates. What a wonderful dish! The breast was cooked to perfection, succulent, full of flavours, accompanied by the mushrooms and the dates. But the real taste booster was at the bottom. The skin of the bird was served with a semi sweet and savoury sauce, and this made the difference!

cheese

Cheese selected from a trolley with 60 different cheeses from Europe (mainly France and Italy). My only comment on the cheese is that next time I visit the restaurant, I will ask to have a five course cheese menu!

Part II: The Wines

I now come to the wines of the evening (wine maker, grape, year):

wine

1. Prager, Gruener Veltliner, 2008. Very young, fresh, a superb introduction to the menu.

2. Hiedler, Riesling, 2008.

3. Emmerich Knoll, Riesling Kellerberg, 2007, Smaragd. A knock-out! ? Never had a riesling like this, and I have already had quite many!  Intense fruity aroma, pepper aftertaste, full body! It stood up to the strongest and most mature cheeses like the best brunello! Totally unbelievable!

Epilogue

Value for money: We were a party of three, and the bill for all of this, which lasted exactly 4 hours with immaculate service, was 140 EURO per person.

Style of cooking: This is the type of cooking that builds on the tradition, but is not blinded by it. Especially in the oxheart dish, I felt that all the centuries of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, were somehow encapsulated in the dish. Hegel would be very proud of this dish, as it more or less excemplifies his concept of history as eternal progress through time.

P.S. At the time of the visit, the restaurant was recommended by the Michelin Red Guide as “two stars”.

Restaurant Vestibuel – Vienna Austria

This is a hot report, I have not even digested the food yet, but there is a burning desire inside me to report immediately, as if I could this way relay to you some of the magic I have experienced tonight in Vienna.

I am here for a meeting and I arrived shortly before dinner time. I stay in the historical center, and found the “Vestibul” from the Michelin Red Guide, where it has been awarded a “Bib Gourmand” citation, meaning best value for money.

In any case, I walked the one kilometer in a very mild night and arrived at the restaurant.

vienna1 003It is across the boulevard from the Parliament, in a quiet corner of the Burg Theater.

vienna1 009The decoration inside is 19th century “fin de siecle”, as you can see from the bar photograph.

I was greeted by Veronika Doppler, who kindly showed me to a smoking table near the bar.

The friendly waiter recommended the house specialty for a starter, and I obeyed.

lobster1The dish arrived in the hands of the chef, Christian Domschitz, who explained that it is crunchy gabbage, lightly treated in salt and vinegar, served to accompany the lobster in its butter sauce. This was a first course, and it had in it almost half a lobster! Tender, juicy, divine!

This dish is a poem to the contrast of textures and the divinity of the lobster’s fragile mortal flesh.

If mortality is so beautiful, I am happy to be mortal!

marrow1The main course was my choice. black truffle with beef marrow, served on a “sponge” of crispy white bread. This is beyond description! I have never before tasted such a sweet, buttery substance, that melts in your mouth with overpowering you, while at the same time the truffle infuses the liquid with all the aromas of the woods.

This orgy of a dish was accompanied by a fiery red wine made by Triebauer.

dark1And now the dessert! Dark chocolate praline with campari sauce in the middle, accompanied by blood orange sorbet on the left and orange grog on the right.

The grog was mildly hot, and contrasted beautifully the cold sorbet.

Mamma mia!

vestibul1Veronika, Christian, thank you!

I will be back!

Mit herzlichen gruessen!

P.S. At the time of the visit, the restaurant was recommended by the Michelin Red Guide as “petit gourmand”.

Braureigasthof Ayinger, Aying, Bavaria, Germany

Aying is a beautiful small village, about 20 kilometers outside Munich.

IMG_1383Its pride over the last 130 years is the Brewery Ayinger, which produces some of the best beer I have ever tasted.

State of the art facilities in Ayinger Braurei
State of the art facilities in Ayinger Brauerei

It is estimated that there are more than 650 breweries in Bavaria today.

Johann Liebhard, the founder of the Brewery
Johann Liebhard, the founder of the Brewery

I visited the village as part of my fall visit to Munich, following a suggestion by Manolis, who had spotted the place. We had lunch at the restaurant that is owned and operated by the brewery.

Brauereigasthof
Brauereigasthof

The Gasthof serves a good selection of Bavarian dishes, and was the best choice to enjoy our beer!

IMG_1387For a starter, I had the pickled  pork head (pork head cheese), which was delicious, and was accompanied by sweet potatoes!

IMG_1388The beer that came with it, was dark and full of flavours I cannot describe!

IMG_1385The main course was (guess!) pork in the oven, cooked to perfection, with crispy skin and a light delicious gravy!

IMG_1392This is one of the cornerstones of the Bavarian cuisine, and believe me, as far as terroir goes, it really hits the mark!

IMG_13921The beer that came with the pork was an electrifying  blonde.

IMG_1389What a meal! What a place!

IMG_13851But above all, it was the beer that really made it for me!

IMG_1378IMG_1349

Aufwiedersehen Aying!

Thank you Manoli, Maria, Athina!

P.S. At the time of the visit, the restaurant was recommended by the Michelin Red Guide as “bib gourmand”.

Ristorante Uliassi – Senigallia, Marche, Italia

Ristorante Uliassi is located in the small resort town of Senigallia, on the Adriatic sea, a few kilometers away from Ancona. It comes highly recommended from Michelin Red Guide  (two stars) and the Italian Gastronomic Guide Gambero Rosso.

As I was on my way to Ravenna, I decided to stop by and taste the creations of the chef. I arrived just in time one late summer night, to experience the dying light and the emerging darkness.

dining_balconyMy menu choice was the “Tuto Crudo”, meaning “Raw all the way”. This would highlight the qualities of the ingredients and the synthetic ability of the chef, as his contribution to the dish would be primarily the synthesis of the ingredients.

potatoes_oysterThe first dish was oyster with potatoes and red onion ice cream with a leaf of chocolate.

The oyster was sumptuous in taste, full or aromas and it was perfectly supported by the tasty potatoes and the heavelnly onion ice cream. The leaf of chocolate gave the necessary bitter undertone.

shrimp_foie

The second dish was shrimp with duck foie gras and strawberry paste. The raw shrimp is sweet in its own way, ans the acidity of the straberry supplemented it in a harmonious way, while the foie added the body that seafood does not have.

cod_tripe_sea_urchin_eggsI now come to one of the absolutely fabulous dishes of the evening and my entire life as a food lover. Frozen sea urchin eggs with cod tripe. What a pandemonium of tastes,  aromas and all of them encased on the tender silky texture of the cod tripe!

tagliatelle_di_sepiaWhat followed was another absolute masterpiece, cuttlefish tagliatelle with pesto of nori seaweed. The cuttlefish was tender and tasty, drassed in the incredibly rich in aromas pesto of the nori! Heavenly, heavenly, heavenly!

rossetti

The saga continued with “rossetti” which is some type of scampi with olive oil, scallions and pine kerners. It was the perfect calming down dish, after the wild extravagant taste of the previous dish. Back to “normal”, civilized, food!

scampoWe stayed on the scampi family, the next dish was scampi in their shell, with tamarind. I confess I am crazy for scampi in their shell, with minimal add ons, as you can really taste the sea in all its glory!

lonzino_lecciaThe next dish combined surf and turf, with glorious mouth melting smoked lonzino (a type of cured ham) accompanied by raw leerfish (lecchia), and pears soaked in grapa!

ricciolaAs we approach the end, leerfish is again on the menu, this type with coconut milk and olive oil!

bacalaoThe last dish of the menu was “esquisada di baccala”. Raw cod chunks (salted cod from San Sebastian in the Basque Country, quite possibly the best in the world), with potatoes, pendolini tomatoes and basil.This is a hymn to primary ingredients of the best quality, as the cod’s texture  is supplemented by the sweetness of the potatoes and the incredible acidity of the small tomatoes that have been blessed by the volcanic soil of Vesuvius.

tiramisouThe tirami-sou that followed was deconstructed and absolutely fantastic! The mascarpone was intense and ever present, the cream golden and thick, the chocolate dressed in coffee chunky and bitter! A caramelized wet biscuit on top provided the necessary absorbing agent.No cake needed!