25-11-2017
Alessio Longhini and Jgor Tessari: the two pillars at Stube Gourmet in Asiago (photos by Tanio Liotta)
Our dinner at Stube Gourmet, depicted by Tanio Liotta. We start with Duck breast, pumpkin mostarda, sesame wafer and tarragon
Savoury cone with veal steak tartare, marjoram and salmon roe
A reconstructed tomato: mousse of tomato, vegetal carbon, mousse of almonds, basil gel
Fake peanut with foie gras, cocoa butter, horn of plenty
Excellent bread and butter
Giardino di verdure, terra di mandorla, formaggio caprino: marinated, dehydrated, raw or cooked vegetables, with powdered beetroots, almonds and goat cheese
Codfish pearls, dashi broth, ginger, coriander. These gnocchetti look like they’re made with potatoes but it’s cod and flour
Spaghetti with spinach chlorophyll, daikon, mozzarella, herring roe. The mozzarella is in fact mozzarella water, daikon is in the shape of gel, plus nasturtium sprouts
Carnaroli rice, tarragon, cucumber, currants
Duck foie gras escalope, orange pan brioche, granny smith gel, candied watermelon
Pigeon in three styles of cooking. In this case leg confit with blackberries and hazelnut sauce
Pigeon tartare on radicchio, compote of onions and blackberries
Chargrilled pigeon breast
Lamb sweetbreads with calamari, black garlic and sorrel
Strawberry, rhubarb: strawberries are both fresh and as ice cream with meringue; rhubarb is fresh and as a compote. Plus grape juice
La mucca: a dessert dedicated to the Asiago plateau. Milk in different textures: milk film, semifreddo, brittle, mousse, meringue, yogurt mousse...
We go up the Altopiano di Asiago knowing this is our destination, while for others it’s a starting point on the way to places higher up: the peaks of fine dining. We’ve already written about the great work of Alessandro Dal Degan (see: The fabulous world of Dal Degan), the culinary poet of these lands, “the Altopiano is a world of aromas, Dal Degan is its contemporary demiurge” we said then, and his Barley, earth and water then got the dish of the year award from Guide de L'Espresso 2018. Now other laurels have arrived: meant for Alessio Longhini, born in 1988, young chef of the year according to Michelin.
A rather new face among the culinary stars: on the same occasion the Red Guide gave the first star to his Stube Gourmet, the gourmet restaurant inside hotel Europa in Asiago, where the chef has been working for five years now; Guida di Identità Golose reviews the place since the 2015 edition, the last in print: “there’s a new young chef who’s trying to quickly get a place among the established artists of the restaurant scene”, said Adriano De Grandis at the beginning of his review.
Alessandro Dal Degan and Alessio Longhini (photo themodernfactory.it)
Longhini in other words doesn’t expect his style – which is necessarily in fieri, given he’s so young – to be a cooking philosophy tout court. But he makes good use of the opportunities the surroundings can offer him: «When I first arrived, it was hard to find high quality suppliers in Asiago: nobody worked for restaurants, farmers focused on self-production. Now there’s a different picture and we can make use of it: there’s lots of organic vegetables, we don’t have a kitchen garden so we interact with the local network of food artisans which has appeared in the meantime». An extra-richness the chef knows how to make use of; with one further detail, that is to say the “shifted season” – which because of the climate has peas and broad beans ready in late July, for instance.
Longhini in a photo from a couple of years ago
The first is talent, which owes partly to the family where he was born – his cousins are butchers – but mostly to the cv that led him to train in the kitchen with two giants: Corrado Fasolato at Met in Venice, an intense year and a half, in 2010, after some initial steps in Asiago and then a short stop in the Cayman Islands, for eight months; then at the other St.Hubertus, that is to say with Norbert Niederkofler, «he was my greatest teacher» (see also: The great day of Niederkofler and his pupils).
Longhini and his master Niederkofler at the recent Michelin presentation, where they were under the spotlight
Alessio Longhini, Jacopo Crosta and Jgor Tessari
Dining room and kitchen staff at Stube Gourmet: left to right Jgor Tessari, Leonardo Causin, Alessio Longhini, Francesco Milano,Federico Vellar, Cristian Doro. Jacopo Crosta and Marcello Zampese are missing
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