The surprises of Aqua Crua

«Food needs to get rid of what is useless and find the same innocence of a child who tells you about his small world». This is how the menu of chef Giuliano Baldessari begins, dedicating his first menu to friend and master Massimiliano Alajmo – patron at Le Calandre –, with whom he shared a beautiful 10-year-long collaboration as his sous-chef. Today Baldessari is at the helm of the kitchen of Aqua Crua in Barbarano Vicentino, a restaurant with B&B which he desired for a long time and opened only three months ago.

The words he dedicated to Alajmo give an idea of the character and the professionalism of their author: a great experience seasoned with humbleness, technique and passion. The smallest as well as the largest details in this restaurant are the result of a logic and a basic idea that accompanies the chef in every choice of his, that is in the celebration of his guests and their dinner. The patron asks those who cross his door to sit by the table and enjoy dining as an intimate and exclusive moment. This is why various important people in the design and art industry were contacted: from sculptor Pino Castagna who created the dishes to light designer Davide Groppi who placed on each table a light that lights up as soon as the guests sit down.

Therefore, every night an “artistic” performance begins, in which chef and guests are both actors and audience in a reciprocal exchange of emotions. Leaving Baldessari free, with his tasting menu with six courses, means giving the go ahead to a perfectly coordinated team. One is surprised by the harmony and synchronization in the preparation of each single dish and the “religious” silence with which the chef from Trentino manages each moment of the preparation

A melody that is marked by a musical background that is never annoying and a direction that never looses contact with the dining room and its reactions. The invisible thread that is thus created with the guests is also facilitated by the absence of architectural barriers to divide the tables from the kitchen. This allows Baldessari to improvise variations on the menu, as in the case of our visit.

The opening was thrilling, with a triple amuse-bouche composed of Fried spaghetto, Creamed baccalà and Hummus with caviar and lentils gave the go ahead to a series of free-style dishes that enchanted all the participants. The building of each dish unveiled an unexpected profoundness, discovered tasting after tasting. In fact, we can speak of a real three-dimensional taste. If you allow us this comparison, Baldessari’s dishes are like those perfumes that are created with a pyramid-structure and thus made of head notes, the most volatile, which leave place to the heart notes that emerge later and persist over time.

One is truly surprised when tasting the Gnocchi with purple potatoes, almonds, polenta wafer, salicornia and raw scampi. Their almond heart gave complexity to the mixture of ingredients that were playing together between sweet and bitter, salty and sour. The same emotion is repeated throughout the journey created by the chef: starting from the Beef carpaccio, pine seed cream, cherries and toasted bread with the balsamic notes given by the pine needles and strongly recall the link of the chef with his roots in Trentino.

The apex of this three-dimensional play of scents and flavours can be found in an intentionally provocative dish in which Baldessari dares with all his knowledge and innovation, that is to say with his Risotto with mackerel, clay and cocoa beans. The rice hides the acid notes of miso, perfectly balanced by the final creaming and thus by the lactic acid of the butter. Each detail and moment of the chef’s cuisine in Aqua Crua confirms how his work is not just a question of emotion, but also the result of a technique that is profoundly rooted in his DNA so much so that it always appears natural and never strained.

For sure, the history of Baldessari speaks of Alajmo too, but before that it speaks of Marc Veyrat and Aimo and Nadia Moroni, but is today written by a young 36-year-old with a clear identity and an admirable determination.

Aqua Crua
Piazza Calcalusso 11 (indicated via IV Novembre 25 on your sat-nav)
Barbarano Vicentino (Vicenza)
+39.0444.776096
info@aquacrua.it
Closed all day on Tuesdays and at lunchtime from Mondays to Fridays
Tasting menu: 60 euros