18-11-2019
Luca Fantin has been the chef at Il Ristorante - Luca Fantin inside the Bulgari Ginza Tower in Tokyo for 10 years now
Ten years of Luca Fantin at Il Ristorante - Luca Fantin inside the Bulgari Ginza Tower in Tokyo, where he landed on the 19th of September 2009, and now he’s started a family too... A straight question: what have you taught to Japan, and what has Japan taught to you? «I’ll start from the second question: it has helped me to improve my techniques and to focus my attention on dishes, because here everything must be perfect. Vice versa, I believe I brought here a way of looking at things from a different perspective. They always seek perfection, but sometimes they miss the overall meaning. I believe that every dish can have a mistake (something they hate), but it will still preserve its soul. It’s what I’m trying to make them understand: technique is important, but identity, taste, are even more so».
Luca Fantin at Identità Milano 2017
Paolo Marchi and Nicola Cesare Baldrighi – president at Consorzio Tutela Grana Padano - award Fantin as Best chef for the 2015 Guida Identità Golose
Lots of stuff for someone with a very prestigious curriculum. Before the Asian adventure, Fantin was sous chef at La Pergola in Rome, «they hired me so I could bring some fresh air. They asked me to create, experiment. The goal was to improve constantly. I believe I have helped renew Heinz Beck’s cuisine. His most important lesson? Flavours are crucial. “You’re not cooking for other cooks, you’re cooking for the clients”, he used to tell me».
Before then, he had worked in other top restaurants such as Cracco in Milan («That’s where I learnt the importance of management. I considered him not an artisan-chef but a man who knows how to plan. Precision, strictness»), Gualtiero Marchesi’s Hostaria dell’Orso in Rome, Akelarre and Mugaritz in Spain («That’s where I learnt that you can only reach excellence if you aim high even before you enter the kitchen. In Errenteria arriving on time, and well groomed, was essential. And you had to work hard. From five in the morning to noon, in your spare time you often ended up walking in the woods, in search for herbs: berries, wild garlic, clover, saffron flowers… Food has a soul that has to be picked, literally»), and RyuGin in Tokyo.
But doesn’t Luca Fantin think of returning to Italy? «Hard to say. It’s not part of the plans. This experience in Japan still thrills me, I do lots of things, and now that I direct Bulgari in Bali I travel even more... I don’t think my phase here has finished».
To celebrate the 10th anniversary, the chef has put together the most iconic dishes from the past ten years – selected among the over 400 recipes he’s created - in a special menu, called Epocale, available until the end of October: «These recipes represent the main stages in my career and recall my finest memories. It’s a motivation to continue to expand both my creativity and my potential, which is also the source of my future creations».
The menu included the following dishes:
Minestrone
The essence of carrot
Aoriika and cauliflower
Spaghetti with sea urchins
Ravioli with burrata with anchovy and cream of broccoli
Risotto with chestnuts and white truffle from Alba
Caviar and fish
Black truffle and onion
Venison with fig
White milk
White milk (2014) – It’s a trip back in time, to our childhood. «Milk is the first ingredient in our life. I thought of this dessert when my first child was born. It’s milk prepared in different textures: as semifreddo, cream, granita, and gelato. It’s one of the most appreciated desserts, from Bangkok to Singapore, from Italy to Tokyo. Milk is something people have in common. It’s easy to understand. I use the non-pasteurised one from Hokkaido, it’s fantastic».
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