17-11-2017
Norbert Niederkofler celebrates the third star with sous Michele Lazzarini, pastry chef Andrea Tortora and the other main members of his brigade
Appetizer (tutte le foto sono di Tanio Liotta). Il menu dei 20 anni è disponibile fino al 30 giugno
2011 - Insalata di erbe del Maso Aspinger
2006 - Solo pomodoro
2001 - Carpaccio di scampi con vinaigrette di finocchio e melone
2007 - Vitello tonnato St. Hubertus
2010 - Orto di lumache
2000 - Variazione di fegato grasso d’oca, creme brûlée e terrina di fegato grasso con anguilla
2009 - Tortelli ripieni con zabaione di porcini, aglio nero fermentato, olio di abete e crumble di porcini
2012 - Orzotto con burro di capra, gelatina di verbena al limone
1996 - Tagliolini con rapa bianca, tartufo nero di Norcia e rucola
2013 - Gnocchi di rapa rossa, terra di birra e crema di daikon
1997 - Risotto al pino mugo con petto di faraona affumicata
2002 - Risotto con wasabi e anguillla leggermente affumicata
2016 - Salmerino & Cavoli
1999 - Triglia ripiena con pomodori e basilico su calamari croccanti e salsa al coriandolo
2004 - “Geröstel” di sanguinaccio con rombo, scalogno e fegato grasso affumicato
2005 - Trippa al latte, schiuma di vino Terlano
2003 - Variazione di maialino da latte
1998 - Filetto di bue di malga in crosta di sale e fieno
Predessert
2015 - Millefoglie al cioccolato, gelato alla stracciatella, essenza di pesca di saturnia
2014 - Enrosadira (significa "tramonto" in ladino)
2008 - Tarte Tatin
He’s just reached the top after a long climb: Norbert Niederkofler is the new triple-starred restaurant in Italy, the 14th ever in our history. Last year he celebrated two decades of activity at St. Hubertus with a special menu presenting 20 dishes, one per each year, in an unforgettable parade that we retrace with a piece we wrote on the occasion. Almost prophetically, the article ended like this: "This is the same placid yet determined awareness that induces him to focus on his new goal, with tranquillity: «I was born in the mountains. When you climb on top, you don’t go back to 50 metres from the finishing line». Christian Rainer, who’s at his side and inebriates the dining room and the cellar with ingenious perfection, nods: there are three stars on top, and now they are really close".
Tasting Norbert Niederkofler’s twenty dishes, one per year, representing an extraordinary food, but most of all life journey, is like personally testing a constant: the extraordinary modernity of a chef who’s perhaps too shy to become a communicator, too geographically peripheral to become a standard bearer acknowledged by contemporary Italy. Yet he’s also too good not to be considered a north star in our restaurant scene, one of its best interpretations, even culturally speaking. He’s a small giant defended by the mountains enclosing his Val Badia. Mountains that in his case represent both the sound territorial roots and the springboard of a vision embracing the entire world.
Niederkofler has been working at St. Hubertus for 20 years: he started in 1997 with a pizzeria, together with the Pizzinini family, as he explains in the video interview you can watch above. Since then, he’s taken an endless journey. It’s as if not only he climbed the tops of the Dolomites, but Everest too, and who knows how many times already, and how many are yet to come. With resolute steps, paying attention that the pure air always provides enough oxygen for the brain. After all Niederkofler, before being a great chef, is also an intelligent and experienced man. Thanks to his countless journeys, his knowledge of the world is good enough for him to have an ironic and detached view of the petty things surrounding him.
This is exactly what Niederkofler did. And this is what his dishes tell, as if they were a travel journal (see the photo gallery above, the pictures were taken by Tanio Liotta).
They are totally modern, even the older ones, «that’s what I realised when I studied them in order to define this menu for the twentieth anniversary. It’s a real pity to give up on them», he says. But it must be done, he does realise it. Because the next goal is always ahead. A man who ceases investigating is a dead man.
Photo by Simona Malattia
Later, however, Niederkofler discovers you can also travel right behind your doorstep: «It’s about getting to the essential», he sumps up. In 2013 the Cook the Mountain project is born. This is how he explains it: «I’m a person. Just like you are. I have my strengths and weaknesses. Just like everyone. I try to be genuine but I don’t always succeed. Do you? When I try to make people experience a familiar scent or taste from my land, I’m simply happy». And then: «Have you ever looked up "birch fondue" in Google? With a little embarrassment but also satisfaction I found out that [my] Suckling veal carpaccio with tubers, birch fondue and herbs is the only result. Therefore I gave myself this exceptional goal: the vision to create delicate and unmistakable dishes with the very rich treasure offered by the nature of Alto Adige. The attempt to add a touch of elegance to the original». (These are words taken from his website www.n-n.it. Frankly, we couldn’t have put it better).
It’s the same awareness that led him to create Care’s (we spoke about it at length, for instance here and here); that is to say to move towards a new frontier, that of the socially responsible chef who realises he has a new role, not only as a participant but as an author of the debate on environment, sustainability, planet (here some further thoughts of his). Never stuck among his mountains, which he madly loves, so much so that that he’s planning the second annual Care’s event on the island of Salina, that is to say on the other side of the planet, compared to San Cassiano.
This is the same placid yet determined awareness that induces him to focus on his new goal, with tranquillity: «I was born in the mountains. When you climb on top, you don’t go back to 50 metres from the finishing line». Christian Rainer who’s at his side and inebriates the dining room and the cellar with ingenious perfection nods: there are three stars on top, and now they are really close.
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