17-11-2016
Last Monday they received the "Young Family" award at the presentation of the Guida Identità Golose 2017. While being praised, the Abbruzzinos look ahead: and after a memorable dinner (see the photo gallery) they closed the restaurant so as to a open a completely renovated one shortly before Christmas... (photo Brambilla-Serrani)
Luca, Rosetta and Antonio Abbruzzino at the presentation of the Guida Identità Golose 2017 (photo by Brambilla-Serrani)
Mackerel, mozzarella and cucumber: Marinated mackerel, barbequed mozzarella, mackerel broth with katsuobushi made with its bones. The photos of the dishes are by Tanio Liotta
Tuna, tomato and fresa: the cream is made with bread and 'nduia, the tuna is inside the reconstructed tomato
Delicate fried baby calamari and prawns. There’s no lemon, but bergamot
Beef 65 days with sea anemone sauce, the 65 days refer to the maturing of this meat which comes from San Giorgio Morgeto: in the words of Luca Abbruzzino this is «the essence of Calabria». There’s acidity, melting texture and aroma, amplified by the wild fennel flowers
A cold pasta: Linguine, mussels (in cream), carrots and fresh almonds
A super-delicious classic: Perché no... fusilloni, nduja, pecorino and sea urchins. In Abbruzzino’s dishes surf and turf often go hand in hand
Amberjack, smoked milk, onion, bay leaves and bottarga
Round grilled cucumber with herbs (sea fennel, sorrel, wild fennel flowers, river borage), a base of seaweeds and burnt vegetables
Barbecued sausage and parmigiana, a childhood memory for the chef, recalling sausage in tomato sauce. In this case the cured meat is made noble, using pork fillet, while the fat is given by lard. It is barbecued and seasoned with spices. The parmigiana is made with aubergines preserved in vinegar
The desserts are by Matteo Morello, born in 1992 but working in Catanzaro Lido with the Abbruzzinos for five years now after working with the Alajmos too. Here the pre-dessert, Buffalo milk yogurt, gooseberry preserved in vinegar, fermented blackberries
Bread, oil and sugar, a traditional snack in Calabria in a completely new take (the bread is partly ice cream and partly caramelised, the oil is the cream and then there’s the salted caramel)
Peach, carrot and almond: almond sorbet, carrot meringue, peaches in cardamom syrup, almond milk, peach cream, candied carrots
We’ve lately written about some of the most significant generational passages: Moroni (here and here), Rizzo (here), Cerea (here and here), Colleoni (here), Franceschini (here)… None of these, however, resembles that of the Abbruzzinos, which is unique. This is one of the reasons why they got the Young Family of the year award from our Guida Identità Golose 2017: because their story is truly very different from the others, much shorter than the above mentioned ones. [For the record, they follow Santini, winners in 2011, Colleoni, 2012, Tinari, 2013, Spadone, 2014, the above mentioned Rizzo, 2015, and Uliassi, last year’s victors).
«In Italy people often find it hard to pass the baton to the younger generations: there’s always a good reason to postpone – said Paolo Marchi from the stage – They’re inexperienced, they say». So they remain in the shadow, they don’t handle responsibility and are condemned to endure their supposed inexperience. Yet mum and dad Rosetta and Antonio, the faces of two passionate, real people, chose to step aside when they could have lingered some more. By doing so, not only did they confirm their genuine character, they also proved their intelligence.
The kitchen staff with mum Rosetta (photo by Tanio Liotta)
He’s always shown this passion and he gradually built his technical skills too (thanks to Gennaro Esposito, Enrico Crippa, Mauro Uliassi, Pier Giorgio Parini) which he added to his personal sensitivity, capable of going beyond any territorial boundaries: «Food is everything. The rest has no importance».
So food has the very main role: and the chef is thus free to experiment without neglecting local produce but making use of its excellence (in terms of freshness, seasonality) with an open mind. He calls it “Local Fine Dining”, that is to say local products are blended with wider fine dining logic removing preclusions: bergamot is followed by fermented blackberries, and acidity – on which grandmothers were hardly keen – often appears in totally contemporary recipes. He explains: «I believe valorising the territory is about unearthing and working with its real pearls, not with traditional recipes. It would be an unpardonable limit»
Paola Valeria Jovinelli, fondatrice de L'Arte del Convivio, premia gli Abbruzzino tra Paolo Marchi e Lisa Casali
And the food! The cooking is free of preconceptions. He might use local catch in a recipe (say mackerel), but with an oriental approach to marinating, and then add mozzarella which, following the same parallel, takes the place of tofu, and soak all this with a broth made with the same mackerel, but using a sort of katsuobushi made with dried and salted fishbone.
Manzo 65 giorni con salsa di anemoni di mare [65 days beef with sea anemone sauce]
In the photo gallery, all the dishes tasted during a recent dinner, shortly before the renovations began. Photos by Tanio Liotta.
An outdoor trip or a journey to the other side of the planet? One thing is for sure: the destination is delicious, by Carlo Passera
by
journalist born in 1974, for many years he has covered politics, mostly, and food in his free time. Today he does exactly the opposite and this makes him very happy. As soon as he can, he dives into travels and good food. Identità Golose's editor in chief