17-07-2017
Four main characters at Enoteca La Torre in Rome: sommelier Rudy Travagli, sous Antonio Autiero, maître Luigi Picca and chef Domenico Stile
Various appetizers to begin with: Puffed pasta with carbonara sauce, Sponge of broccoli with salmon roe, Black cabbage and rice brittle...
Marinated salted codfish, pineapple, hazelnut mayonnaise: very good
Another excellently made starter: Marinated, seared and smoked amberjack, curly endive, oyster sauce and umeboshi
Foie gras terrine, beef steak tartare, annurca apple, mustard and tarragon
A very nice Risotto with lemons from Amalfi, sea truffles, asparagus, buffalo milk yogurt. The citrus fruits are in 4 versions: salty, baked, grated and candied, plus there's a little citron
Stile, at Enoteca La Torre since February 2016 taking the place of Danilo Ciavattini, who's instead replaced Kotaro Noda, shows he's a master of pasta with these Spaghetti, wild octopus Bolognese sauce, jalapeno and bergamot
Villeroy Lamb, with potatoes, champignons, porcini, black truffle
Pigeon marinated in soy, celeriac and tomato chutney. The leg is minced, formed once again and fried with corn flakes; the liver is in the shape of a sandwich. The second courses were less convincing than the rest
Excellent cakes, also thanks to pastry chef Veronica Cassone, 24, previously at Glass: this is Soffice di cheesecake, fermented fruits of the forest and lemon thyme
Lemon meringue pie, tamarind and wasabi
The other day a friend muttered after reading a few articles on identitagolose.it: «You promoted this restaurant, consider this other one excellent, and you praise this third one… How can it be that they're all good?». This deserves an answer and pointing out something. The answer is: yes, we like them all, or rather we like all the places we write about for the simple reason that we don't write about places we don't like, it's our rule, take it or leave it – I recall a funny Paolo Marchi who, when commenting about a chef who complained that he hadn't been reviewed, said more or less this: «Instead of complaining, he should thank me, because if I were to really say what the food was like…».
The thing to be pointed out: a place can be excellent, even perfect, without necessarily involving Bottura, or challenging Romito. This happens when the standards are very high compared to the target, to the public, to the format, to the location: if, in other words, it best embodies a restaurant model and thus business model. It is also for this reason that Enoteca La Torre only deserves praise.
Picca and Travagli have the dining room running smoothly
The cellar at Enoteca La Torre has around 1200 labels
Domenico Stile
The entrance to Villa Laetitia
Spaghetti, octopus, bergamot, jalapeno
Pigeon, celeriac, coy, chutney
Cheesecake
They're all good, they all know their job very well, work in a beautiful place and the food is excellent. Full stop. Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
Enoteca La Torre in Villa Laetitia Lungotevere delle Armi 22, Rome Tel. +39 06 45668304 enotecalatorreroma.com
An outdoor trip or a journey to the other side of the planet? One thing is for sure: the destination is delicious, by Carlo Passera
by
journalist born in 1974, for many years he has covered politics, mostly, and food in his free time. Today he does exactly the opposite and this makes him very happy. As soon as he can, he dives into travels and good food. Identità Golose's editor in chief