Torino, let Sforza be with you

Wow, so many beautiful experiences in hotel restaurants this year! (Something you can’t take for granted in Italy, not until a few years ago). Norbert Niederkofler, but then it was almost obvious (we wrote about it here); and Super-Andrea Ribaldone at I Due Buoi in Alessandria come to mind… We’ll soon speak of Pasquale Palamaro and his Indaco in Ischia. For the great Matteo Felter at Il Fagiano in Gardone Riviera read here. Recently we also visited Fabio Silva in Monza (here), a few months ago Mario Cimino at Argentario (here), and before that Ivano Ricchebono in Arenzano (here). The best chefs in 2016 also rightfully include Stefano Sforza, who for over one year and a half has been at the helm of Les Petites Madeleines at the Turin Palace Hotel in Torino. He’s the one we want to write about now, because he well deserves it.

Born in 1986 in San Mauro Canavese (he’s the cousin of Chiara Patracchini, the great pastry chef in nearby La Credenza), is talented and eclectic: experience with Pier Bussetti, Alain Ducasse, Luigi Taglienti when he was at Trussardi in Milan and at Del Cambio in Torino, in the days of the Riccardo Ferrero management. A nice journey which today he makes use of what with wallpaper, boiserie and stuffed sofas in Via Paolo Sacchi 8, inside a famous establishment in Torino’s fine hotellerie, shining after a two-year-long renovation that made it up to date without losing that layer of history that is essential for its atmosphere.

What struck us of Sforza’s is his widespread and versatile interpretation of fine dining cuisine. This summer he even made pizzas, just to give an idea (for instance there was one with a dough made with Venere rice flour, stone milled flour, mother yeast and honey, topped with confit black cherry tomatoes, langoustines, burrata from Andria, courgette flowers, mizuna salad and basil). The menu however regularly includes vegetarian dishes and traditional Piedmontese ones, each with its tasting menu; contemporary recipes, a space for soups and Mediterranean and almost nostalgic influences, as in those “banal” spaghetti with tomato sauce to which he dedicates an entire page of the menu, with pride: “In order to understand the philosophy inspiring our cuisine, we ask you the necessary time to read these few lines which will illustrate how we prepare a dish that is only seemingly simple”, and then he presents the spaghetti he uses, how they are produced and cooked, and all the attention required to prepare the tomato sauce, up to the final touch of the cream of mozzarella…

Let’s start from this small delicacy because it shows the passion, dedication, humility and enthusiasm Sforza uses in his job – which in a hotel restaurant is first of all that of satisfying the tastes of all. And we could end the report quickly, by praising an extraordinary dish that is worth the trip one thousand times, the “Anullòt al Plin” with chopped hazelnuts: the heavenly demonstration of a contemporary yet not big-headed chef, with very sound foundations, respectful of the history and thus capable of celebrating a classic delicacy in the best possible way (the same goes for the Veal in tuna sauce, sedano riccio, anchovy from the sea of Cantabria: that is to say how to give a 2.0 look to a timeless charm).

Piedmont is fully represented, in other words; but then, as we mentioned, Sforza has much more to say. The vegetarian menu includes delicious Green: carbonated egg yolk, broad beans, fennel, pak choi, while for meat lovers there’s Lamb sweetbreads, cream of fresh almonds, prawn from Porto Santo Spirito, peach with lavender. The Rice with yuzu, butter of buffalo milk, clams with serpillo thyme is good, and the Duck cooked in three ways is even more so: breast, confit leg, neck, birra Moretti Piedmontese style, spray of vermouth, right before the cakes which range from Piedmontese classics to vegetal recipes such as the Mousseline of orange potato, potato air bag, sponge of black pepper and cocoa, apricot, ice water and lemon balm.