Calm in Franciacorta

Peacefulness in the kitchen has the smiling face of Stefano Cerveni as he says: «I really enjoy it here», and with a gesture he shows the rectangular room where we are seating, a roomy, welcoming space enclosed on three sides by ancient stone walls while the last one, presided only by large windows, invites to plunge the eyes into the surrounding Franciacorta countryside. This combination emanates a sort of magnetism that does not agitate, in fact it tranquilizes, it invites to enjoy the pleasures of the food and of the (beautiful) cellar with calm.

This maturity in the kitchen belongs to this 45-year-old chef who, already famous when his restaurant was located in an old house in his hometown Rovato. It appears – and he confirms it himself – that he has found his ideal dimension here, hardly 10 km away, in the Medieval village of Borgonato di Corte Franca, also the headquarters of Guido Berlucchi, from which Le Due Colombe took wings 4 years ago. Still, this dimension of serenity has nothing to do with phlegm or, worst, with idleness, after all we’re near Brescia and people work hard: there are 5 people in the kitchen staff and the restaurant seats some 50 people, three times as much when ceremonies are hosted. This, however, is the peace that someone who has found his road can enjoy: and that dish with caramelised cauliflower that pays a tribute to Bernard Loiseau, a chef who, instead, never found his peace and took away his life, is almost a paradox, or perhaps it is the proof of all this.

Cerveni’s cuisine, instead, is alive. It is no longer the Technicolor one of a famous and delicious dish such as Purple potatoes, red prawn and Franciacorta, which it is now almost surrounded by a classic-like aura (it dates from 2007). It still has the complexity that was expressed at the time through various soft-crispy, acid-sweet, cold-hot contrasts, but the desire to go beyond the territory is now far away nor does the territory itself appear to have become a prison, though the Beef with Le Due Colombe oil with polenta remains faithful to Nonna Elvira’s recipe, from 1955: this is rather a habit, a game of cross references, a dutiful bow to the past. Instead, it deploys a new yet delicate energy, with no special effects but products that come from the surrounding farms, with no cooking shows since «I myself want to explain the dishes to the clients».

Thus the Organic chicken salad (from the Paradello farm in Rodengo Saiano) with dried sardines from Monte Isola, gelatine with salsa verde and chicken popcorn, is a water-earth tribute to the surroundings: there’s the courtyard and the lake together, a contemporary pairing that convinced us more than the contemporaneous 2014 Baked tench, the 2.0 version of the ancient (and very heavy) recipe with tench from Clusane stuffed with the same stuffing as the hen and then cooked in butter: here, instead, the stuffing becomes a wafer enclosing the fish, that is to say there are three delicate layers placed on top of a aromatic herb sauce.

The dishes that most successfully describe today’s Cerveni are different, however, and they receive cheers of joy. Risotto creamed with Grana Padano, candied lemon and Calvisius caviar powder, extremely modern in its aromatic counterpoints with the background note of citrus fruits from Garda; this is this year’s invention, while Babette’s Soup, which translates in the style of Franciacorta two preparations from the famous Academy Award winning film, Danish Bread cooked in beer and the legendary Parisian Cailles en sarcophage, is only a few months older. In this case the soup is a panada from Brescia, that is to say a chicken stock, enriched with black truffle, foie gras and morsels of quail fried on the moment which add an exceptional opulence of flavours while the appearance remains that of a poor dish. As in Babette’s lunch, «rectitude and happiness kissed each other» also in that of Cerveni.