Bum bum Berton

Andrea Berton has so many and so good projects coming up that speaking about them is not an opportunity, it is a duty. We’re at Pisacco, at lunchtime on a very hot day, and it’s so nice staying downstairs, in a fresh and ventilated room, indulging in the pleasures of food... Let the (gastronomic) dance begin, and pull out your notebook: we’re talking about future, star-chefs, while I enjoy the tastings. I bite the Grilled scallops with powdered caper, a sweet and sour tomato and mange-tout compote, while we discuss of the near future. Which has a name: Ristorante Berton Milano.

After Trussardi alla Scala, which saw giant Andrea climbing to the Olympus of great European cuisine, this new technological den will see him at work, dishing out our future mouth-watering dreams at night. Works are in full swing at the new city of Porta Nuova Varesine where the restaurant will open at the end of September on the ground-floor of one of the buildings designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, between the Diamond and the Solaria tower. It will be light, luminous, surrounded by large windows, overlooking the promenade: a simple yet cosy setting because «we need to consider the evolution of reality – he explains, half solemn, half enthusiast – Today we need to make high cuisine accessible, we need to focus on new targets: our idea is to offer a complete gastronomic experience, but without the exclusivity of the past. The area is new, and we cannot stay old: and I’m happy because the urban context which is about to be completed and in which I will work suits me perfectly».

We speak about spaces (363 square metres for 40 places or something more), technological instruments (there’s lots of talk about the cooking station with induction griddles) and dishes (with the announcement of a new valorisation of stocks) while I receive a Chickpea cream with mussels, parsley sauce and confit tomatoes. Excellent: after all, Pisacco is already famous, a place for delicious low food cost with few rivals. So much so that in a certain sense it will soon double. The team will be the same (the project sees Berton sided by a think tank of friends, partners, professionals), the spirit will be identical, but the trademark and the offer will be different.

On Wednesday, in fact, Dry will open, just opposite to Pisacco, in Via Solferino. Its mission? To serve the people of Milan an excellent Neapolitan style pizza. A traditional one? Yes, if you want so, with natural leavening. Or else it will be served in the basic, Margherita-style, version, and then it will be the guest himself who will add his favourite toppings, all of the highest quality, at the table: it’s a playful-gourmand approach, in other words. There will be creative focacce (veal with tuna sauce, home-smoked tomato …) and signature salads with fanciful dressings. More or less ninety places and a super-wood-oven. This will be the kingdom of Simone Lombardi, head pizza-chef.

Dry will also be a quality cocktail bar: no happy hour style, but well prepared cocktails, signature ones, signed by Guglielmo Miriello, who will be back from his recent experience at Sugar@Maison Pourcel in Shanghai. We will drink the great classics but also “ancient” yet reviewed recipes – this is Guglielmo’s promise.