27-09-2015
Aaron London: a James Beard Foundation Award nomination, a Michelin star conquered with the totally vegetarian restaurant Ubuntu, in Napa Valley. After this experience, however, it took him four years to find the necessary funds to open his dream restaurant: AL's Place (tel. +1.415.4166136). But when he managed, in little less than a year he got the success he desired
«You take a perfect peach, hot in the sun, a little juicy, and pull it off the tree and eat it, and it has all the components of a Michelin three-star dish» Aaron London
How would you react if a chef in disgrace, back from a six-month retire in Tuscany would take away the best steak in town from the restaurant next door and tried to explain that panzanella is no good? This is specious question but it’s also the perfect description of how partial I was when Aaron London opened his AL's Place – twenty metres and a floor below my home, where once was a flea-bitten diner that grilled a rib-eye steak like no others, twenty-four hours per day. I ignored him every day, on my way back from work, walking scornfully in front of the simple glass doors with blue background. A door that became gradually more crowded. First a small group, then a couple of benches, then a line that at times was two blocks long. Then came the prize for best new restaurant in the US given by Bon Appetit, less than a year after its opening. At this point my mind magically thought this success was due to me – “if I stop hating it perhaps it will close”, I thought – and I went inside (“Went inside” is in fact only a narrative trick, as in movies, to put it short. The first available table was four months later). You can’t say Chef London makes life easy for you when it comes to prejudgement. First of all, this character overwhelms the fame of his food, a legendary aura that seems the artificially-made narrative of a TV star chef – from the training, during his home arrest, to a career full of incredible episodes that look more like a script than real life, in which each success is followed by mishap. The press kit is a bit of a boaster, but in fact in person he turns out to be affable, open, modest and always ready to learn. If you had only a negative thought about Aaron London, you then need to go confess yourself.
Lightly cured Trout with crispy potatoes and sedate mousse
The Sunchoke Curry with black lime cod and grapefruit
Reviews, recommendations and trends from the four corners of the planet, signed by all the authors of Identità Golose
by
Twenty years as a journalist, radio host, advertiser – still learning. It took him three days to fall in love with San Francisco – it was 2003 – and he's still there. Made in Italy, against his will.
