Vertiginous Cogo

«Let’s now move to something more extreme» el coq announces winking, almost investigating, and the author of this piece has a sort of vertigo, after some other ambitious and complex dishes despite their apparent essentiality. We’re in Marano Vicentino, inside starred Lorenzo Cogo’s house. He has the DNA of a chef, without the need of any certificate to prove it. His cuisine gives few points of reference even to the guests, bounced by the billows in a continuous taste tempest; forget coastal navigation, we travel without any compass but fast, in the middle of the ocean, with Hercules’s Columns left behind as an old memory.

The fertility of a constant research, the help given by the technical skills, the energy of youth, that scornful touch that goes finely together with a self-aware brilliant talent: these are the polar stars that can help us not to loose our route, and help him too, in keeping the helm in his hands, because unlike us Cogo seems to know where he is going. Let’s start, therefore: let’s move to something more extreme because sinking in this sea is sweet for me.

The dishes are blows of pure creativity that starts in the kitchen and reaches the table. The beginning was soft, drawing from the harmony of contemporary naturalism which is, for many, a destination, not a given point to start from: Rice chips, carrot purée, cumin and curry, or – in the reiteration of the same game, with other textures – the Fermented carrot juice with carrot and celery brunoise, a proof that every good dish starts from some good sautéed vegetables. No objection was possible to make, even later, with the iodine-vegetal pairings, such as with the Smoked mackerel with tomato water and horseradish, the Raw amber fish with tapioca, goat yogurt, green apple and cucumber. Of course, the music score already shows its dominating notes: acid, bitter, smoky and fermentation. There is an aromatic balance though it may seem something incidental, instinctive, not a declared objective. In fact, Cogo even explains his lack of interest in harmony, «I concentrate on flavours and stimuli, I’m not looking for balance». Here comes another vertigo.

The local territory is experienced without any caption; Cogo’s house is not in the province of Vicenza. Indeed it is located in a contemporary place projected towards the future while bowing in front of its origins: Salted codfish chips, chopped cod, sweet and sour pepper, or the bombastic Goat ricotta, with peas, plums and green peaches, a sort of ancestral call through the taste buds which is his «tribute to the farmer taking care of his vineyard» (peas are restated in the shape of a pod juice, and then there’s the vine leaf and the bay essence). Think red is a red-coloured turning point: strawberry, pepper and tomato as the unexpected/crazy signature stop that leads towards the alleged calm waters of pasta. The Chicken ravioli with pistachio and absinthe shrink from any tradition to show off an acid-bitter total taste; with the Sedanini, snails and wild garlic a trompe-l'œil is dished out (sedanini are in fact spinach stalks) and is infinitely delicious: «I want to offer something that will stimulate me, and pasta is already perfect as it is, if I want to offer a research-based cuisine, I need to move forward»; the Bigoli, agretti and grana are a childhood memory, with the odour of the mould in the cellar recalled by the flakes of cheese crust.

Sweetbreads cooked in hay (with a sauce of yogurt, dill, parsley, chervil, vegetal carbon and sweet and sour baby onions to clean the palate), the Pluma iberica (with chanterelle mushrooms, tofu with black garlic, scallion, rocket salad pesto and kriek beer): is it a demonstration of perfect technique or precocious stylistic maturity? A blend of the two. The end celebrates spring: Pollen ice-cream, camomile sorbet and honey couscous, then Carob, cardamom ice-cream, grappa and banana, the aromatic notes become a dessert and close an extraordinary and exciting journey in a sweet and suave way. Having reached destination.

El Coq
Via Canè
Marano Vicentino (Vicenza)
+39.0445.1886367
ristorante@elcoq.com
Closed on Sundays and at lunchtime on Mondays
Tasting menu 70 and 100 euros