19-09-2017
Nicola Portinari with the article from Il Giornale di Vicenza announcing the opening of La Peca, 30 years ago (photo by Tanio Liotta)
Our dinner at La Peca portrayed by Tanio Liotta. We start with the elegant appetizers, like this Frozen Gazpacho
Cucciolone di Parmigiano Reggiano, with drops of balsamic vinegar
Sphere of mushrooms cooked in oil, garlic and parsley, corn wafer, parsley and tuberous parsley
Moscow Mule with salmon marinated in beetroot, smoked potato and caviar
Tonic water gelo, lime and aroma of gin with scampi, red prawns and squilla mantis tartare
Bigoli, scallops and calamari, amatriciana sauce
Spezzatino inverso: parsley, tuberous parsley, tubers and corn. A fantastic dish, «the tubers taste like meat». True
Risotto alla pescatora 2017: Carnaroli rice, red prawns, zottoli, oyster, tub garnard, toasted calamari, black cabbage powder. Zottoli are baby calamaretti
Spaghettone tuna and onion without onion: a classic, delicious, in a new take with ventresca, leek, powdered capers
Impepata di mare: tub garnard, red prawn, calamaretti, molluscs and pepper
Baked eel with guava and tamarind: very elegant
Lamb in a panure of rosola with crispy and soft Jerusalem artichoke
Watermelon granita, coconut, rum and mint
Hazelnut from the Langhe, oil candies, salted caramel and coffee
Come una cassata di mandarini, gelato with pistachio from Bronte and dehydrated capers
Nicola Portinari goes back down memory lane: «The first time we prepared piccione al sangue, they threw it back at me!». Presenting fine dining in the suburbs was hard, 30 years ago. Three decades later, instead, it’s time for anniversaries, and for praise: La Peca reaches an important goal, with two stars shining over it, without being affected by time, «this is also thanks to our young and very stimulating brigade [sous Fabio Chilese and Marco Faedo are respectively 34 and 30, for instance]».
Nicola and Pierluigi Portinari, with Cinzia Boggian, wife of the latter and a great dining room woman, in a photo from 1999
Nicola Portinari and the first Michelin star in 1995
Nicola and Pierluigi Portinari in a photo from the debut, almost, in 1988
The chef in front of La Peca
Nicola Portinari at Identità Expo nel 2015, with Gabriele Boffa
The trio at La Peca
In other words: good news from Lonigo. (And this applies to the food too. Our dinner was of the highest standards. We present it in the photo gallery by Tanio Liotta). 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