From the tops of the Sibillini mountains to the sea. From Montemonaco to the promenade of Porto Recanati. Il Tiglio is here. The earthquake didn’t dry its lymph which now flows in the new restaurant of chef Enrico Mazzaroni: Il Tiglio In Vita. This name is a play on words and represents months of suffering, of steps ahead and sudden relapses, of uncertainty and hope that now are made real in a restaurant with a modern design and a super view of the sea and of the Basilica di Loreto.

The appearance is surprising, but the chef knows well what’s important is the substance. A substance that in the past 10 years has induced many gourmets to cover kilometres of bends in the mountains to arrive at Il Tiglio. They’d stop, with curiosity, in front of a small door that led into a culinary experience that the many people who sat at those tables now under the rubble will remember well.

“I found it very hard to accept this change. I love my mountains, with their flavours and aromas. It’s my home, the place where I grew up and became a chef. Now by the sea everything is new, from raw materials to location, so beautiful and elegant sometimes I feel it can’t be possible that this is my restaurant", Enrico Mazzaroni says almost in tears. “We’ve been working for months on new dishes, in search of a contact point between the cooking at Il Tiglio and this new adventure that thrills me and scares me at the same time”.

Carrot with mussels (photo by Laura Dipietrantonio)

This is how dishes like Coratella di mare with a pungent and iodine flavour, are born. They’re the perfect synthesis of the past and future of the chef’s creativity. His hands are surer in recipes like Conchiglioni with wild boar ragù and dog rose or in the very delicate Rabbit liver with dandelion (with herbs coming from the Sibillini mountains and rabbits bred by his dad Pippo strictly in Montemonaco).

The sea appears in the menu at Tiglio In Vita, but in an original way: it blends with flavours from the vegetable garden in Potato and mussels, or sometimes from the forests, as in Anchovy with salted butter and fir and memories of his experience in Japan. The chef’s creativity moves from evolving dishes and others already mature – such as Mackerel filet with marinated cucumbers and black sesame or Carrot with mussels. But he cannot hide the nostalgia for what Il Tiglio has been in all these years.

The blue sea in front of the restaurant (photo Laura Dipietrantonio)

Now there’s the motorway conveniently reaching his restaurant. There’s a parking place reserved for clients and the lift takes you directly to the panoramic terrace where you can immerse yourself in the blue of the sea. But don’t worry because Il Tiglio’s magic isn’t lost. The talent and creativity of Mazzaroni still have lots to show and his new experimental menu shows this well. Beside him, there’s always Gian Luigi Silvestri, the skilled dining room director who knows how to give that extra touch of informality to every dinner.

In the dining room and kitchen the staff is the usual one, very faithful to the chef in these months of uncertainty and an extra reason to start again. We can only wish Tiglio In Vita good luck for its debut and extend these wishes to all the other deserving businesses that the earthquakes have put to the test. We await great results.