Simplicity at 28 Posti

When she had the restaurant in Calabria, at the tip of the Italian “boot”, she had had Cristina Bowerman discover the splendid ‘nduja – and later order some small supplies for her Glass restaurant in Rome. Today she says it was another friend of hers, namely Viviana Varese, who advised her on the best fish suppliers and other marine delicacies to be found in Milan, «because I want excellent raw materials: I come from Pizzo Calabro, I know how to tell what’s best».

In Calabria she had been cooking for 10 years in "her" Locanda Toscano; last April she made the big leap to the Lombard city, always with her husband Antonino Toscano by her side (and in the dining room and cellar, with great enthusiasm) without changing anything with regards to her style, which is certainly more suitable for the metropolitan context than for the rustic province: «I love when creativity if founded on bases that are only apparently simple, because having to do with sea requires great technique. If you cook meat, somehow you manage even if you make a couple of mistakes: you can correct yourself. With fish this is impossible: if you make a mistake when cooking, the raw material is compromised. You need to be always very careful, in search of a difficult balance».

Has she reached her goal? Not completely, some flaws are still there but Caterina Malerba – our protagonist - has made a lot of progress since 1995 when she decided her destiny could not be that of an administrative secretary, that the world of computers didn’t suit her, after all, and thus opened her first trattoria («Un posto tradizionale») in the village where she was born. Totally self-taught, the kitchen is to her a vocation she has nourished with passion and hard work.

The quality is certified by important, starred names such as the already mentioned Varese and Bowerman and Frank Rizzuti, her once “next-door-neighbour”. Our palate also confirms this: excellent Mazara red prawns and Tropea red onion soup, the impeccable Black tempura of angler (cut into small pieces placed on a delicately spicy pumpkin cream), some beautiful acid-sweet-fat contrasts in the Risotto with diced angler, acid butter, pea cream and Magliocco reduction – Magliocco is an autochthonous wine from Calabria which often becomes a link to the roots, a “territory signature” in the menu, as Malerba doesn’t want to forsake her origins in her style.

Even the dessert is pleasant, a fresh Bavarian cream with fruits of the forest and a reduction of white chocolate and bitto cheese that gives it a sort of cheesecake charm. The wine list is simple and with no long digressions. Since we’re talking of Magna Graecia origins, lets say kalos kai agathos: the taste that characterises this food is paired with the social commitment that does credit to Malerba&Toscano: the construction works in this restaurant located in the heart of the Navigli area, in the location that was once occupied by Karaoke CantaMilano, were undertaken by the convicts of the Bollate prison. Other detainees, those who cannot leave the prison, “signed” the furnishing, instead.

28 Posti
Via Corsico, 1
Milan, +39.02.8392377,
Closed on Monday
Average prices: starter 16 euros, first course 18, main 22, dessert 6
Tasting menu: 35, 45, 50 e 60 euros