17-08-2015

The mirror at Contraste

On 1st September Matias Perdomo’s new restaurant in Milan will open. With a focus on the dining room

Left to right: Thomas Piras, Matias Perdomo and Si

Left to right: Thomas Piras, Matias Perdomo and Simon Press. Respectively maître, chef and sous-chef at Contraste, on top of being partners in the restaurant management. The ex chef at Pont de Ferr will start his new adventure in a few days’ time. Here he’ll try to offer each client a culinary experience as personalised as possible (photo by Niccolò Vecchia)

«We’re opening on 1st September», says Matias Perdomo, walking us through the doors in Via Meda 2, where Contraste, his new restaurant in Milan, will soon open. His two partners look at him, with a doubtful and complicit smile: «To tell the truth we’re still waiting for a few authorisations, offices are now closed, they’ll open at the end of the month but we hope we’ll get everything on time», they say. «1st September, 1st September», the Uruguayan chef repeats, laughing.

This scene sums up all the hopes and team spirit livening up Perdomo and those to whom so far we’ve referred to, no lack of respect intended, as “the other two”. These are Argentinian Simon Press, for many years at work beside Matias in the kitchen, and Italian Thomas Piras, for four years dining room manager at Pont de Ferr, where Perdomo conquered a Michelin star. After a long period in Maida Mercuri’s restaurant the mutual choice of taking separate roads came.

The understanding with Simon and Thomas is complete and Contraste (the plural form of “contrast” in Spanish) is born from the meeting of their experience and creativity. The name has been clear in their minds for a long time and it is most of all «a way to present their desire to find a harmony between many different, sometimes conflicting, elements».

«Enough with open view kitchens – says Matias Perdomo – today’s focus must be on our guests. Who if they wish, can peep from this keyhole into our kitchen»

«Enough with open view kitchens – says Matias Perdomo – today’s focus must be on our guests. Who if they wish, can peep from this keyhole into our kitchen»

Contraste will only be open in the evening and Perdomo hopes to offer some excellent aperitifs too, without having a dedicated barman, though: «We don’t have the necessary resources for such an investment. This is why we’re studying some cocktails which we’ll prepare in advance, calculating the percentage of ice that melts during the mixing so as to add the right amount of water and create ready-made bottles with modern interpretations of great mixology classics».

The team will be completely focused on an excellent service: «The dining room will be our utter priority, we want guests to be the focus, not the chef’s ego». The strong, extremely strong idea at Contraste will be to personalise the experience of each client as much as possible. They will seat thirty people maximum, so as to concentrate their efforts in the best possible way. And Piras will have the task of best interpreting the desires of the guests.

Riflesso: the mirror-tasting menu at Contraste

Riflesso: the mirror-tasting menu at Contraste

These will be handed a menu which, on the first page, will only include a mirror. Riflesso is indeed the name of the main tasting menu at Contraste: «We’ve always liked for people to trust us, – says Matias – this is how we best express ourselves. However, how can we do so if we don’t know who the guest is, what he desires today, what he likes? These aren’t banal questions, they’re essential and we want to answer them each night».

«My task – says Piras – will be to speak with everyone sitting here, listen to them, ask. To observe them during the dinner. And communicate indications and reactions to the kitchen, so that our offer can be adapted during that same night». Those who’ll return will find their choices and preferences have been noted down, archived, so that the service and offer can be improved each time.

Those who don’t like “risks” will also find a tasting menu with 7 courses announced from the start. And a small menu for anyone who’d like to choose just two or three courses. The cellar will initially offer 350 labels but the ambition is to grow further.

A glimpse of the dining room at Contraste

A glimpse of the dining room at Contraste

All this in a setting that is both modern and retro: the restaurant was once a fur show-room and even though most of the walls have been pulled down and rebuilt, the beautiful doorframes leading to each room were preserved, together with floors, ceiling decorations, the large fireplace dominating one of the two rooms. Here, however, you can also find two new red silicon chandeliers. These are not the only pieces they commissioned to artists: at the entrance there will be a statue by Matteo Pugliese, an Italian sculptor who lives in Barcelona, and upon their arrival, guests will find of the table some clouds created by Thomas Piras’s brother, which will be the stage for some "nibbles" offered to clients before the arrival of the menu, and which will begin to present the idea of cuisine at Contraste.

These details illustrate the highest care that Perdomo, Press and Piras dedicated to their restaurant. And which in a few days’ time they’ll be able to test: «We can’t wait, – Matias concludes – we couldn’t move for a few months and we know that in order to grow, in this profession, you need to cook, speak with people, be present. And we want to get back on our journey».

Contraste
Via Meda, 2
Milan
info@contrastemilano.it
Closed all day on Tuesdays and at lunchtime from Monday till Saturday
Tasting menus are 130 and 80 euros. The à la carte price for two courses is 65 euros, 80 euros for three courses


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Niccolò Vecchia

Journalist, based in Milan. At 8 years old, he received a Springsteen record as a gift, and nothing was the same since. Music and food are his passions. Author and broadcaster at Radio Popolare since 1997, since 2014 he became part of the staff of Identità Golose 
Instagram: @NiccoloVecchia

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