Peter Brunel dedicates an entire menu to Gabriele D'Annunzio (who was also a gourmet)

Peter Brunel's restaurant, opened in August 2019, one Michelin star

A detail of the dining room. The restaurant, rich in objects and tastefully furnished, 'dedicates 50 per cent of its space to guests and 50 per cent to those who work here', Brunel proudly explains

The beginning and end of the tasting menu 'Il Priore', dedicated to Gabriele D'Annunzio. 
Left, Andrea Gardin shakes Alto Garda - La Busa, a cocktail that sums up in its name the natural pit (that’s what 'busa' means) that includes Torbole, Arco, Dro and Riva del Garda. The Vate did not disdain aqua-vitae, here combined with sugar syrup with lemon juice, plum and plum purée from Dro, and Trento Doc.

To the right, maitre Carlo Chinelli prepares strong coffee from the Neapolitan cuccuma, beloved by the writer, as a final act. Peter Brunel's restaurant expresses a huge passion for coffee: you can order it prepared with Syphon, Kemex, French coffee maker, moka, cuccuma, Turkish coffee and espresso, 7 splendid extractions

Caffè Mulassano in Turin
In 1926 D'Annunzio visited Turin, a city to which he was very attached (he also worked closely with the Agnelli family). He came across this historic café in Piazza Castello the following year when owners Angela and Onorino Nebiolo returned from the United States, where they had learned the art of the sandwich. It was here that D'Annunzio coined the term tramezzino, that snack somewhere between breakfast and lunch. Brunel's version is rather classic and Savoy: tuna, egg, lettuce and olives

Duck and foie gras
D'Annunzio had a great passion for farmyard animals. Here Brunel combines duck with foie gras, to recall his French exile (1909-1914), and also apricots and ramsons, two species that grow in the Vittoriale garden. The dish is finished off with a duck à la press

Can-nel-lo-ni
D'Annunzio's gastronomic obsession is here recreated by Brunel with a durum wheat pasta inspired by the author’s his Abruzzese origins (fidelini), stuffed with roast veal (his favourite Sunday dish), bouillabaisse (onion, chablis and cream, again recalling his brief French period) and parmesan and tomato sauce, the return to Italy

Rice with Roses (left)
On his first gallant date with Eleonora Duse, D'Annunzio had rice with roses prepared, but there is no recipe for it. Brunel imagined it cooked in a centrifuge of apple and white horseradish, halfway through cooking he added rose petals and then mixed it with butter, oil and Parmesan cheese. A rose essence is sprayed on the table, one of the many essences that Brunel develops in collaboration with a pharmacy

Egg with gold (right)
The speciality D'Annunzio was most crazy about was egg: hardboiled, if possible, he ate as many as four a day. Brunel wraps a poached hen's egg in a gold leaf à la Marchesi, with siphoned potato cream, lake eel and artichoke powder

Cheese
After lamb chops (of which we have no photo), here is another ritual and passion of the Vate: he preferred fresh cheeses to mature cheeses, and spread them on bread croutons. Brunel serves light goat's cheese with honey, mascarpone with hazelnuts and sweet gorgonzola, paired with plum jam

Aurum Orange Mondia with ice cream
D'Annunzio loved peeled oranges and seasoned them with Aurum, an orange-flavoured liqueur from Pescara, for which he also posed. Brunel serves orange and Aurum cremoso, adding vanilla ice cream, glazed with chocolate, another passion of the writer

Packaging and Fiat Tipo 4
To the left, the yellow and red sachet designed by D'Annunzio to contain the chocolate biscuit of a Bolognese company, the same motif that the Pescara-born artist would later apply to the Fiat Tipo 4, presented by the Agnelli family in 1915. To the right, the incredible bonbons served at the end of the meal

Peter Brunel born in 1975