26-07-2017
Andrea Mattei, to the right, with sous chef Andrea Ferrari, left, and pastry chef Diego Poli in the middle. The other sous chef Simone Di Maio completing the team at Meo Modo al Borgo Santo Pietro in Chiusdino (Siena) is missing
Our dinner at Meo Modo starts with various appetizers: hake tartare, gel of black olives and lime, sheep’s milk cheese with extra virgin olive oil and cypress, oregano and cheese cracker, black tomato with saffron mayonnaise, fermented tomato with crispy millet, pearls of crispy codfish
Celery sorbet, barbe brunoise and hazelnuts
Fantastic salad made with 25 vegetables from the kitchen garden, with beetroot cream and cereal biscuit served with mushrooms, mushroom sponge, musk aroma and tomato infusion
The mushrooms sponge, aroma of musk and tomato infusion served with the salad
Squilla mantis, its crispy legs, cream of potato and lemon, crustacean bisque, cream of Palazzetto saffron
Chicken entrails, chicken liver pâté, smoked eel, puffed rooster crest
Excellent Verna wheat tagliolini with cream from the same wheat and apple geranium, mackerel cooked at low temperature and hemp seeds
Cereals cooked as with risotto: Cream of pumpkin, toasted sunflower seeds and sunflowers
Agnolotto with rabbit alla cacciatora, cream of Parmigiano, rosemary sauce, black olives and tomato
Roasted seabass with seabass carpaccio, chard, oats and peanuts from Venturina
Pigeon breast, crispy bread, spinach and cracker filled with pigeon
Wild boar glazed in a sauce of red wine and ginger, cabbage cream, sorrel and linden
Ovis mollis biscuit, red fruits, crème brûlée and zabaglione
Cucumber granatina, raspberry, Tuscan peanuts, cucumber, cereals and white chocolate
Amaranth wafer, chocolate and honey with chocolate and puffed amaranth and amaranth mousse
Andrea Mattei says everything is great at Borgo Santo Pietro, a prestigious Relais & Châteaux in Chiusdino, 40 minutes from Siena, going towards the sea. Then he lists this year’s many projects: «We doubled the farm’s size, from 40 to 80 hectares [out of the total 200 of the estate], with a farm, a huge organic vegetable garden and we also make cured meat now! We have completely renovated the area dedicated to the traditional restaurant offer: we now have a real farm where we serve hand-cut Tuscan prosciutto, pappa al pomodoro, risotto with squid ink, steaks from our pigs... This is where chef Stefano Pezzini works». Then there’s the snack bar offering pizzas (read here: La pizza al Relais di Andrea Mattei), hamburgers, club sandwiches. And chocolate. Plus they make honey too.
Il Borgo Santo Pietro
E il Meo Modo
Crispy courgettes with saffron
Crispy oak leaf and spelt preserved in vinegar
Carrot cannolo
«Most of all, our style is becoming fully accomplished, both in terms of overall concept and of each idea and detail – adds Mattei – I’m working with oak, cypress and pine leaves, as well as with cherry tomatoes from our vegetable garden [which supplies 200 species of vegetables, 20 of tomatoes alone, and 40 types of flowers and 50 of aromatic herbs]», and he lists some old and new dishes: Smoked chicken sweetbreads, eel and vermouth from Prato, «inspired by the Tuscan cibreo», Squilla mantis, peas and cypress, Lamb, courgettes, elderberry, Black cod, chargrilled aubergine and fermented plums, Crispy oak leaf and spelt preserved in vinegar, Risotto, buttermilk and tomato …
Strawberries and peppers
Risotto, buttermilk and tomato
Black cod, chargrilled aubergines and fermented plums
Chocolate in the Tuscan countryside
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
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