Verona, Porto Cervo, Rome

“Confusion Lounge is an exclusive concept in which excellent cuisine blends with an elegant and luxurious setting. Food and design, elegance and extravagance. Confusion represents the Wine-Gastro-Hedonism philosophy in the best possible way”. Put it this way, gourmands are caught a little off-guard: what has got to Italo Bassi’s mind? When you get to Verona, to his Confusion Lounge, you’re even more puzzled: the decor and design – overseen by his wife, the very cordial Tatjana Rozenfeld (an interior designer by trade, and the maker of fabulous cocktails) – are so “rich”, fanciful, almost over-the-top, they look like they’re meant for trendy VIPs rather than real food lovers. When you find out that Bassi opened in Porto Cervo too, suspicion becomes damning evidence.

Not true. In fact, the author of this piece includes Bassi’s place in Verona among the best ten meals of the year. Indeed, it was the very best lunch. Style, technique, elegance, ingredients: there’s everything. Plenty of seafood, excellent raw materials, Baroque and elegant aesthetics, oriental inspiration … Lightness, harmony, taste: A+.

Hence the initial question returns, this time in a positive way: what has got to Bassi’s mind? We ask him directly. «A new project. I want to replicate Confusion, bring it to the big European capitals, starting from Rome». This idea, in particular, is at a good stage, «to tell the truth, we thought we would be already open, but then there’s bureaucracy, permits…». According to the chef we must wait for the winter, or the spring of 2017 at the latest, for the new restaurant in the capital to open. Where? «Let’s say you’ll be able to admire the Eternal City from above!».

One step back. Italo Bassi, born in 1969, has a lively and authentic personality. The kind you’d expect from someone from Romagna – he’s from Fusignano, which is also Arrigo Sacchi’s hometown – who then spent a long time in a refined place such as Enoteca Pinchiorri, since 1989. This came after experiencing, still very young, the atmosphere of that incredible lab of ideas that was Igles Corelli’s Trigabolo. He later flew to Tokyo to follow the Japanese adventure of the tri-starred restaurant from Florence. Then when in 1993 Carlo Cracco left Via Ghibellina to rush to Marchesi’s court, patron Giorgio called Italo back to Florence. In between, the devastating fire, the following loss of the third star, which was conquered back with credit ten years later, in 2004.

When you visit Confusion – opened on 9th February 2013, Bassi is working there full time since the end of 2015, when he left Florence permanently – you taste (excellent) dishes that have nothing, but really nothing to do with Pinchiorri. Hence the puzzle becomes even more intriguing and stimulates the journalist’s curiosity. Bassi: «Here at Confusion I can fully express what I learnt during many years spent roaming around the world, meeting great chefs and many local cuisines. I’ve always dreamt of being able to tell these experiences through my dishes, with particular attention to Asia, which I love a lot. Today I cannot do without lemon grass, lime, fresh coriander…».

If you listen to him speaking, it almost looks as if lately Pinchiorri had choked his creativity… We ask him, this is his reply: «Today I have more freedom, of course. Enoteca is an institution and we had to follow many commands. At Confusion instead I do as I wish: I like using local products but if an excellent product comes from France, or wherever, I use it. I have no issues with national borders. This said, bear in mind: Pinchiorri is a great place for cuisine. It has acquired an influential position over the years, and this was in part also thanks to me. But the moment arrived when I realised I could grow no longer. I needed new stimuli, I needed to challenge myself».

To the spiteful people who might think that while Enoteca without Bassi would nonetheless confirm its high standards, and Bassi on the contrary would struggle without Enoteca, he says laughing: «Come to Verona, at Confusion. Taste the food and let me know».

Meanwhile he added a – seasonal – place in Porto Cervo to the one in Verona. It was launched last 9th June, «The idea was born in two months, at the Salone del Mobile in Milan. We got this idea of creating such a beautiful place on the Costa Smeralda in such a short time and we made it. It’s a big satisfaction». The cuisine is similar to the one from the headquarters in Verona, but of course the products are Sardinian.

One doubt: isn’t Costa Smeralda the place for anorexic models and VIPs with no sense of taste, at least in terms of food? «That’s what I thought myself. Instead, I found guests that were ready for a place that would serve excellent food. There are many food lovers who followed us with enthusiasm: Italians, of course, but also Arabs, South Americans, Asians, Russians». The latter have a very bad reputation in fine dining: great drinkers but terrible palates… «It’s not true. As usual, you find both extremes. We must remember Russia has an important history in terms of cuisine, strongly influenced by the French school. Part of the population has an excellent culinary culture… like my wife, for instance!».

For sure at Confusion in Porto Cervo lobsters are very popular («I must consider guests demands, and in Sardinia tourists often fancy lobsters, it’s a known fact»), yet Bassi also presents raw materials that are less predictable, «rockfish, tub garnard, mullet. And plenty of bluetailed fish: mackerel, anchovies, sardines. And herbs that are born close to the waves, like salicornia. I also serve many anemones, and fantastic sea truffle, mussels. The ones I find here are the best in the world».

Finally, having already mentioned Rome, any more projects? «I was asked to create a line of high-end products to be exported to the United States». More work in progress.