Damiano e Giovanni Nigro

Nigro brothers, what a couple. With, at first, the history and the career path of Damiano from Brindisi who, after a long post-adolescence period spent training along great chefs from France and Great Britain (Alain Ducasse, Michel Roux and Mark Pierre White), established in 2004 at the court of Enrico Crippa’s Ristorante Duomo in Alba, in the heart of Langhe. Here he made the most of two intense and fundamental years when he grew a more personal and exciting cuisine style, played on tastes and suggestions from Piedmont region, which he combined with sea products in a fusion game to be discovered.

And that's the style with which he made his debut in 2006, cooking at Relais Villa d'Amelia (this year awarded with a Michelin Star) in the town of Benevello: a mighty blend sea/mountain ‘in an Apulian sauce’ dictated by a frantic search for quality when selecting raw materials. It's definitely hard to resist the temptation to choose from its menu the traditional Piedmontese beef, the Carmagnola grey rabbit or the lamb from Stura valley. But curious gourmets must inspect, as said, experimental intersections such as the stunning Monkfish fried in butter with Alpine butter and pochée green turnips or the Cod with roasted honey pepper, pepper chutney and olive waffle.

Then comes Giovanni, Damiano’s brother, an expert pastry chef in the past working with Chiocchetti, Penati in Viganò Brianza and, in France, into Elysèes and Taillevent’s laboratories. Back to Italy in 2005 by Cracco-Peck in Milan, now Giovanni has moved to Benevello where, at the end of the meal, he inebriates Villa d'Amelia’s customers with mandarin chocolates, artisanal ice creams, hazelnut tiramisu and Chocolate soufflé with Moscovado ice cream and celery. To end on a sweet note.