08-02-2018
Since the end of November, Paolo Griffa is chef at Grand Hotel Royal e Golf in Courmayeur
Our dinner at Paolo Griffa’s, in the photos by Tanio Liotta. We start with a long selection of appetisers. In this case, Trout marinated in beetroot juice
Savoury churros with squid ink
Fried bread and smoked eel
Cone of goat cheese and olives
Moscow Mule in a sphere of white chocolate
Jerusalem artichoke wafers with hazelnut oil, lovely
Spheres of fontina
The delicious homemade bread, with mother yeast, whole-wheat flour and seeds
Shabu shabu with ox leg from Carrù, broth with Sansho pepper, rolled tongue in salmì with bagnetto verde, focaccia with olives. A great dish. Its elements also appear in the three following photos
Cromesquis with fontina and clementine mostarda, potato spiral, katsuobushi and scallop mayonnaise, nest of potatoes with quail egg and truffle. Here’s the nest. The rest in the following two photos
Mashed potato with chives, Calvisius Da Vinci caviar, tzatziki sauce and takoyaki. Very, very good
Capunet with cabbage leaves, purple cabbage coleslaw with mustard and braised oxtail, nachos with polenta flour and BBQ sauce
Preparing the broth for the...
...Tortellini in a broth of capon, royal with morels. The broth is perfect. And so are the tortellini
Lobster tail cooked on the bbq, green curry sauce, roasted cauliflower, carrots and cumin, cashew nuts and sultanas in grappa
Venison fillet seared and glazed with pine resin, powdered pine, scorzonera truffle with coffee sauce, miso, hazelnuts, chestnuts cooked in venison jus and rosemary. Another great dish
Toasted bread with lard, honey and pollen
We finish with two desserts. First, the very elegant Frozen: a crunchy sphere with a soft heart of white chocolate and yuzu, filled ùwith candied citrus fruits and Timut pepper, a little powdered vanilla sugar, granita with limoncino and mint, crispy snowflakes
Lo schiaccianoci: the shells are made with white and dark chocolate filled with hazelnut toffee and nocino parfait. The cream of dark chocolate is aromatised with Lapsang Souchong tea, pears marinated in lemon and juniper, barberries, confit walnuts, lovage, almond frangipane, walnut gianduia
Though still very young – he was born in Carmagnola, Piedmont, in 1991 – for some time now Paolo Griffa has shown signs he’s predestined. This can be something rather uncomfortable: he’s talented, aware of his skill, with excellent technique, ambitious and very competitive, both with himself and with the boundaries he meets on his tumultuous and clear journey of growth.
In the past few years we’ve seen him in the finals of the most important competitions – Bocuse d’Or, S.Pellegrino Young Chef, Premio Birra Moretti Grand Cru and so on: he’s always made a good impression, but without ever getting to the very top. A bad prejudgement burdened him: he appeared as someone who wanted to overdo. The kind of person who is perfectly prepared for a contest, studies every detail, analyses every possible unforeseen event, but then there’s someone beating him on the very finish line.
Grand Hotel Royal e Golf
Second, because the role of head chef – a debut, and in a five star hotel too, a place where balancing creativity and dish structure, innovative touch and sound flavours are essential – would force Griffa to come to terms with his style in fieri. It would induce him to soften his desire to surprise, and quieten his sometimes-excessive audacity, focusing on the best balance. So it was a bet twice promising. The right person, at the right time, in the right place.
The dining room at Petit Royal, the hotel’s gourmet restaurant
Paolo Griffa in 2015, at the S.Pellegrino Young Chef, where he won the Italian finals
The brigade on the snow
However, one can already tell this challenge excites him, and is doing him good, as we mentioned. «At first, I wasn’t very sure. The owners called me once, twice, three times. I always said no. They finally convinced me to come and see the place. I arrived in the kitchen, and saw there was a useless wall that prevented a dialogue between the various lines. I told them and moved on with my visit. When I walked back 20 minutes later, the wall was no longer there. “To us, it’s important that you work well”, said patron Sergio Barathier». That’s when every doubt disappeared. (Our dinner, in the photo gallery by Tanio Liotta) Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
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