Three generations of avantgarde

Consider a lunch with Giacinto Rossetti at Le Giare in Montiano, Romagna. He’s the last of the Pre-Raphaelites, the noble father of Italian restaurant tradition. More than the patron, he’s the soul behind what once was Trigabolo in Argenta (a missed chance for gastronomic renaissance, suffocated by Landsknecht), face to face with one of the most restless and adamant talents of the new generation: Gianluca Gorini. He’s as intransigent as his master Paolo Lopriore, by whose side he worked for three years at Certosa in Maggiano; suave as his cutting gestures in the air. He’s spare and darting, imponderable as he cuts the smoke over the casseroles. He’s an elf who, as of September, is been spinning beyond the windows over the first hills of Rimini, around the figure of the friendly Claudio Amadori, patron and architect of a restaurant that the play of contrasts puts on the road to success.

“He is a good cook. You can tell by his use of salt. There are many capable cooks, perhaps a thousand in the whole world. But what’s excellent cuisine, when there’s no plot, what is it, if not a porn movie compared to an essai one? And by plot I mean a story: a little past attached to a piece of future”, says Giacinto in front of his Squid with seaweed granita, salicornia and pink pepper, a sapid explosion balanced by the sweetness of the spice; the suave Quail with camomile, fennel, wild fennel, citrus sauce with aromatic zest, whichmoves onto an elegant rhythm; the Rice with mullet and lemon and chives, the latter, in the form of a centrifuge, unveiling unsuspected bitter notes.

Or the Gnocchetti with rabbit ragout sauce, where the meat juices are substituted by a butter made with toasted pine nuts, creating a small trompe-l’oeil that recalls the aroma of Liguria; the Pigeon cassis, in which the centrifuge of juniper corns, picked by Gianluca in the bush around the restaurant, recreates a clear, bitter note of liver, even in the texture and in the colour. Taste, even when impressive, is not enough when there’s no story – but this is not the case.

Besides, Gianluca’s fabula is a signature sequel. He collects the open finale of the dishes served at Il Canto, unveiling an avantgarde structure with the shy origin of tradition. The peach bone is hidden among the soil of the Certosa in the narration started by Escoffier’s Pesca Melba, like that juniper removed from the skewer or the pine nuts coming from the Levante coast. “Lopriore is a genius”, continues Rossetti. “His cuisine is stratospheric, full of intelligence and lightness. Of course it is a difficult cuisine, a truly universal cuisine, that cannot be immediately understood. Because raw materials are the result of processing, a way for the chef to have fun, in other words. But every dish encloses a curiosity and lots of work: inside you can find the capacity of understanding humidity, dryness and great flavours. Unfortunately, the needs of man are often much closer than what you want to grasp with ease. Just like in love: a man almost always stays with someone who won’t allow him to change. Lopriore, instead, is a violence, an extravagance that leads you outside of yourself”.

“Gianluca in all this is a prodigal son, who has lots of kindness, good manners, knowledge and assertiveness when dosing flavours. I especially appreciated his fish courses: the Giant prawns with paprika and sweet pepper, the Squid and the Risotto, dishes in which he managed the defects with skill, for instance in the accidental case of the carnaroli rice that wasn’t perfect. I’d suggest him to broaden his work, because raw materials can teach you a lot. And he is so good that he needs to get himself to such important things as sauces. Great chefs give their best as they grow older, when the kitchen gets dirty with the drama in life. Even though Lopriore escapes this concept, the meditation in his dishes being so strong”.

Le Giare
via al Castello, 368
Montiano (Forlì-Cesena)
+39.0547.51430
Average prices: starters 13, first courses 13, main courses 19, desserts 8 euros
Tasting menu: 45 and 65 euros
Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays; open at lunchtime only on Saturdays and Sundays