Locanda Margon (Trento): Love and genius

(Visited March 2012)


We know Locanda Margon very well. We had gotten quite friendly, due to or long custom, with previous chef Walter Miori (read there if you want to know about the Lunelli (= Italian champagne Ferrari) connection), who will always stay in our memory for the many culinary emotions he gave us. Thanks Walter.


Since a few years ago the time of Alfio Ghezzi (previously sous chef of Andrea Berton’s of renowned Trussardi alla Scala) has come, and, OK, maybe we are just culinary whores, but in truth we have enjoyed some memorable dinners at the ‘new’ Locanda as well.


But truly memorable.

Once you get over the rather sombre lighting of the room in the ‘salotto gourmet’, it’s a feast. The seats are so very comfortable, the tables wide and very well spaced. It is indeed a ‘salotto’. This is pure, almost embarrassing, comfort. The room, though, is dark as we said, so unfortunately the pictures are particularly grainy, and do not make justice to the food.

Even before you choose, and then while you wait, you are treated to a dizzying selection of amuse bouches that span an incredible range of flavours, textures and produce – here we only post a couple, but the number and variety will bowl you over.

left – trout roe crostini; right: liver bonbons

left – trout roe crostini; right: liver bonbons

top: carambola  “alpine star” with casoulet cheese; bottom: trentigrana nests with asparagus

There are too many to detail. There are terroir based crunchy polenta with goat ‘robiola’ cheese, and a ‘stella alpina’ with casulet cheese . There’s an ingenious tempura mortadella with apples and Perle’ (one of the house champagnes). There’s a deeply impressive crispy Trentingrana cheese with warm asparagus. There’s a truly punchy liver (of what? can’t remember) bonbons. And some more delicate crostini with trout roe.


You think that was all we had before the meal proper? Naah.


There are also the lighter snacks, like the trade mark multicoloured crispy rings in various flavours, and the breads. This is almost overwhelming, and you know you are in for an extraordinary experience, as beside being pretty and catchy, you can already see there’s real substance to this food.


So many dishes a la carte are attractive that the first decision you make is that you need at least three visits to get a complete picture.


At two extremes of conception, we had an ethereal ziti pasta with capelonghe (razor clams),

 which was stunningly clean, sharp and clear in flavour (lemon and a very special oregano from Sicily), a true geometry of pleasure; and a powerful, earthy main of hare Royale with rosemary parsnip


 


that was prepared in the classic Royale style but in a way we’d never quite seen before, the moist ‘polpettone’ enclosing the supremely well cooked saddle, achieving pinnacles of deep flavour thanks to the foie gras and the innards. This is Koffmann’s level stuff…and we don’t mention the name of the master in vain…The parsnip and rosemary though (and this is the only negative note for this dish) were blandish and thus overwhelmed, a pity.


We also had a potato cannelloni, crema di salmerino (local trout), ginger and liquorice





a complex dish, a difficult dish in a sense, with cutting edge, daring flavours, that first startles you, has you suspended as if from a cliff of the surrounding mountains, but ends up in total harmony and peace. 

Oh my god, will we have to use the word ‘genius’?


The other main was a mullet





pretty as a picture (prettier than OUR picture!), with an exceptional bisque, simply a great dish.


The petit fours arrive in French style before the desserts, and like the amuses, they overwhelm you:





The oh so amusing trademark pizza macaroon, the tarte tatin. the tiramisu, the torroncino, the hazelnut pralines…Is there no end to plasure?


No, for the deserts are on their way:


Biscotto foresta nera (black forest), liquorice and fiordilatte icecream


Rhubarb icecream and beetroot with “uliva 1111” olive oil and mini pop-corn

1111 oil being poured

The desserts are just perfect for our complementary tastes, Man loves fruit and veg based desserts without too much sweetness and with some sharpness. He thoroughly loved the balance of flavours and the imagination achieved in this one, with the excellent olive oil poured on the spot (even, ever the cynical and gimmick-allergic one, overcoming the mild irritation for an olive oil called 1111 because it is produced in this number of bottles: who T F cares?).


Get over the gimmicky oil name, this dish did deliver – the playfulness of the popcorn, the acidity of the rhubarb and the sweetness of the beetroot all came together. But for the stuff of comfort move over to the Black Forest.

Woman plunged into the chocolate emerging from it only quite a while later and looking blissful. The licorice was perfectly balanced, the sponge fluffy but firm, the morello cherries just perfect, and the creamy parfait linking all the flavours: really good.


The service, formal but not too much, strikes all the right keys. The sommelier accompanies you with grace whether you want to spend like a cheap bastard or like a Russian oligarch (the only negative, at least for us, was the champagne trolley at the beginning, which we find too pushy). Everybody is well briefed on the dishes.


The bill stayed within the 200 euro with a bottle of wine at 50 euro and a bottle of water, which is a very good price for this quality (and quantity!).


Despite being fans of the previous chef as we said, and also a bit suspicious in the beginning, Alfio Ghezzi’s cuisine has completely convinced us over the years: He is not a youngster (listen who’s talking…) and there is real maturity in what he does, there is a real depth of culinary culture in his dishes, a deep respect for local tradition and for classical, mostly French, techniques combined with an equal mastery of all modern contrivances and an exuberant creativity. He can also carve a chicken…





If there is a restaurant that could be the first to obtain two Michelin stars in Trento, this is it, so superior it is to its starred nearby competitors, and so comparable in quality to other two-starred places we’ve visited. Ghezzi has found a perfect local niche where to shine and become a beacon well beyond the confines of Trentino.


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Trento December Pilgrimage n.3

ADDED FEBRUARY 2010: Walter Miori is, alas, no longer in the kitchen .

Gastronomic judgments are subjective, so we won’t argue with Michelin’s stunning decision to remove Walter Miori’s star after fourteen (yes, fourteen) years.

We will just say that we saved Locanda Margon for the last day of our Trento pilgrimage, and that for us it was the usual dreamy experience of absolute culinary excellence.

Share the dream with us.

We start with pure seduction:

Pumpkin veloute’, warm goat ricotta, amaretti crumble (served with warm olive focaccia)

A selection of breads that is better than any starred or mulstistarred venue we’ve been at:

A millefeuille of veal ‘testina’, celeriac, Jerusalem artichoke cream (and the best olive oil)

Just look at it!

Chestnut soup with chestnut slivers, strips of capon, Monte Baldo truffle, this is one of Miori’s best:

We followed with Ravioli of egg white stuffed with Borlotti beans, sausage ragout: no photo, but let us tell you it takes some mastery to make elegance out of a sausage dish.

And yes, he also graced us with that eternal Trentino dish,

Canederlotti and Puzzone di Moena

here with Baldo truffles and made by such an assured hand that this dish alone is worth the trip.

The mains began with

Scallops, crispy artichokes, ginger, artichoke cream

We think you can SEE the flavours!

And the ‘big’ main for the final punch:

Slow cooked (60 hours!) pork belly, honey reduction, chicory.

One of those perfect dishes. Simple, classy, deep, sublime.

An interlude to refresh:

Banana sorbet, pineapple carpaccio:

The dessert was a

Tavolozza: tea chocolate fondant, chocolate and tea cream, crunchy chocolate and tea, chestnut mousse with sharon fruit coulis, pistachio parfait,

a little garden of Eden for the sweet lovers.

Have a look at the petit four, too

This entire tasting menu for…€55.

A chef always, always behind the stoves and checking every dish.

A remarkable lightness of style: after all we ate we could have repeated it the day after.

To our taste, Michelin made a grave mistake this year. But no matter. Michelin or not Michelin, we’d choose this cuisine over and over again, over many multistarred ones, and we’ll return at every available opportunity!

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Trento December Pilgrimage number 2

Second installment of our Trento Pilgrimage series, before the grand finale…

Right on the main square across the cathedral, we continue our pilgirmage by ignoring the cathedral, and turning our attention instead, for a light meal, to one of the best value sanctuaries for the gastronome, the ‘upper’ informal section of the starred and deeply buried Lo Scrigno.

One is tempted by various types of cheeses and ‘salumi’, but we opt for some more proper dishes.

Puntarelle with seared tuna for example:

fresh and delicious.

And in this salmon strudel

there is true inspiration. An admirable little dish, with that cabbage inside the croute offering perfect moisture and concentrating the flavour.

We absolutely adore horses:

Well, what can we do: we loved it!

This an operation of great intelligence, with fresh, simple and precise cuisine at good prices (remembering you are at a starred establishment in a most central location), in a pleasant, relaxed environment. Last but not least, oh no, not least, the by-the-glass wine list is stonking value, too.

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Da Pino

The day: 8^th April 2009, Dinner.

The place: Via Postal 39, Grumo, San Michele all’ Adige, Trento (IT) (0461 650 435)

The venue: Ristorante Da Pino

The food: Regional and fish

Airport: Verona, Brescia (BA, Ryanair)

The drinks: Mostly from Trentino-Alto Adige, very wide selection (in the high hundrdes of labels)

We thought by now we knew all the interesting choices within 10 miles of Trento. Well, life is full of surprises: how presumptuous of us! Driving along the Adige valley, in Teroldego wine country, this spacious restaurant appears in the tiny village of Grumo, with claims to honest, wholesome cuisine and boasting appealing prices.

The interior is spacious, welcoming, light, neat if a bit eccentric, with a gentle touch of formality that one might not expect. We learn later that the restaurant caters for large parties and functions. Anyway, on the night, luckily for us there are only a dozen customer beside us.

On the menu, many local, trattoria style dishes, but what catches our attention is a copious presence of seafood offerings. We call the waiter and try to glean some information (we are in the middle of mountains and to eat good seafood one really must go to the right places: Man’s disgusted grimace at Woman’s proposal to go for fish says it all…). The waiter is convincing. Woman eggs on. And we are encouraged by the information that all seafood here is supplied by a well-known fishmonger nearby, a fishmonger that serves some of the best restaurants in Trento. We go for it. (Next time we might try the Trentino tasting menu at €32, with enticing items such as Local apple risotto with cinnamon or Seared venison loin with pan-fried apples, juniper and Polenta di Storo).

The bread arrives:

Not a bad offering, indeed the variety is very surprising: walnut bread ‘taralli’, standard white, grissini, rye. The usual thought strikes us: a restaurant that shows such care for the bread basket must show a similar care for food.

Both our primi are seafood:

– Thyme tonnarelli with Scampi (aka Dublin bay prawns) tails and asparagus (€10)

– ‘Fazzoletto’ al nero (squid-ink) with seabass filling and langoustine sauce (€10)

The fazzoletto (a large pasta slice, lasagna style, but folded) looks impressive, its elegant black dress provocatively offering a glimpse of the filling. It’s a balanced explosion of Mediterranean flavours, the fish fresh, tasty, light, and generous. The pasta is very good: the restaurant buys it in from a trusted supplier, who formerly worked on the premises. Always suspicious of bought in materials, for this reason alone we had not wanted to try this dish (Woman’s disgusted grimace at Man’s proposal to go for it says it all…), but when we expressed our perplexity to the waiter he vouched so energetically for the quality of the pasta, egged on by Man, that we capitulated. And once again he was convincing…

The tonnarelli are sligthly salty. But the fish once again cannot be faulted for freshness and flavour, nor its quantity for lack of generosity. The asparagus comes in both white and green variety, a nice touch, and the always present tomatoes add moisture. All is bound by very good quality olive oil, leaving an impression of richness and lightness at the same time.

For mains, we both go for the same choice:

– Roasted seabass (€15)

For the joy of the waiter we insisted on boning the large portions of fish ourselves (which –we noticed- wasn’t the case at the other tables: what is the world coming to?).

It does not take that long to produce this:

When eating fresh fish, the process, slowing you down, actually increases your pleasure and satisfaction, don’t you agree? And this was truly fresh, full of flavour. What more to say? Well, maybe that it was a little overcooked, though mercifully just so and definitely not to the point of spoiling the experience. The roast tomatoes with capers, herbs and olives, in true ‘southern’ style (at the foot of the Alps!), were a delicious accompaniment (but very rich!).

We are in the mood for dessert.

– Raspberry cake (‘tortino’) (€5)

– Sweet fantasia (€6.50)

The tortino is correctly made and carries an intense, authentic raspberry whiff, but is slightly dry, so the accompanying custard, quite OK, is very welcome.

The fantasia presents us with a strawberry parfait (a little ‘brittle’), a ‘crostata’ (slightly dry), panettone-like (OK), blueberry buckwheat cake (excellent, intense, and strudel (OK, but made with puff pastry and therefore neither truly traditional nor fully successful).

With a bottle of Chardonnay LongarivaPraistel 2000 at €28 and 1 litre of H2O at €2.50 the total damage comes to €95,30. This is extremely reasonable for a seafood dinner of such quality and quantity.

What a nice little place (well, actually not so little) this one. The service is friendly with varying levels of professionalism (one knowledgeable and very passionate waiter, another less interested in the dishes he was selling us), but always attentive. As for the cuisine, it expresses a rewarding feeling of generosity, of care, both in the choice of materials and in the process of cooking itself. Despite the formality this is essentially a (superior) trattoria: you will not find highly sophisticated creations here, but plainly good food, with some touches of originality with respect to the classics, some attention to presentation, and some assuredness of touch. So, congratulations to the head chef Beppe Principe and to the family who runs this operation with such honesty and integrity (it reminds us a bit of Da Barbara in Sardinia). We will probably be back, and we invite you to try it, too!

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Two stars in Trento

ADDED FEBRUARY 2010: Maso Franch has now sacked chef Baumgartner

No, there are no Michelin 2* in Trento…so have had to multiply our visits to 1* venues :).

Recently we have visited again two restaurants, Lo Scrigno del Duomo (reviewed here) and Maso Franch (reviewed here). Though neither of them reached, to our taste, the magic and equilibrium of Locanda Margon, both of them nonetheless offered us rather spectacularly good dinners…

We will depart from our usual format, and instead of offering separate formal reviews we will report some memories in parallel. This time we focus with what is ‘around’ the core meal…beginning with the amuse-bouche.

– Flan di lenticchie in crosta di pistacchio su crema di riso con zafferano (Scrigno del Duomo) (Lentil flan in a pistachio croute on saffron rice cream).

Though the presentation is (as often happens here) a bit sloppily executed – even if nicely conceived-, this is a truly impressive amuse bouche, which strikes you for its solidly elegant combination of earthy and aromatic flavours, pleasantly rich in textures.

At Maso Franch, in the mewanhile, they serve:

– Terrina di carciofini con animelle e porcini avvolti in carote; testina di vitello in crosta di erbette (soffritta) su crema di patate; cavolfiore fritto in pastella di birra. (Artichoke terrine with sweetbread and Ceps wrapped in carrots; lightly fried veal ‘testina’ in a herb crout on potato cream; deep fried cauliflower in beer batter

Beautiful, tightly presented, labour intensive, ingredient-dense: the long name of this dish says it all, this is a trademark Maso Franch amuse bouche, in which the chef firmly and almost brutally asserts what he stands for and the range of what he can do, serving what is effectively a full, chromatic and varied dish. We remember with delight the contrast between the soft, intense testina and its delicately crispy crust; the totally luscious terrina with the porcini flavour standing out; the elegant frying of the cauliflower.

The bread arrives…

Scrigno:

Maso Franch:

Oh my, both baskets are quite overwhelming, the Maso favouring chromatism and the Sctigno architecture. All breads are fresh, fragrant, striking. In the Maso Franch one the attention stealer is clearly the black piece with the expected squid ink and an unexpected secret…which we keep a secret.

At the Scrigno what dominates are the ‘cones’ on the left: they are cheese based, and their architectural dominance extends to flavour!

And…after many other things…the petit four:

Scrigno

Maso Franch

In line with the general style, the Maso Franch offering overwhelms you with abundant variety, whereas Scrigno favours a more classical restraint. The drawback of the the ten varietes in single items as opposed to the five varieties in double items is that the former is more conducive to arguments… But both are extremely generous, pleasant and display skill in the art of patisserie (we are not sure at Maso Franch, but at Scrigno there is a separate chef of patisserie).

What a treat it was in both places!

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Mas de la Fam

The day: 2^nd February 2009, Dinner.

The place: Via Stella 18 Ravina (Trento) (tel: 0461 349114)

The venue: Mas de La Fam

The food: (Multi)Regional Italian

The drinks: good Italian wines and interesting house wine.

Last time, while describing one of our divine meals at Locanda Margon, we promised to compare and contrast their delicacy and elegance with something less classy. As we will show you in a future post (stay tuned…) we have nothing against simple, rustic, basic, traditional, hearty food. What we cannot stand is heavy-handed, sloppy and pretentious cuisine. This is exactly what you find at a recent opening just a few dozens meters on the hill where… Locanda Margon sits.

Mas de La Fam is a converted farmhouse. The conversion has been done well, integrating intelligently a modern, ‘young’ style in the old rustic structure. A not insignificant amount of money and architectural talent appears to have been used in the enterprise.

We chose the tasting menu at €33 (three courses, excluding desert which is paid on top if you choose to have it).

The bread arrives

Not memorable but OK.

– Carpaccio di carne salada con cappuccio rosso, tortino al radicchio con salsa ai formaggi, verdure del Mas.

The carne salada is a type of regional cured (salted) beef with red cabbage, which can be served grilled or raw. Here it is raw, and it is a good specimen, well matched with the cabbage. The verdure del Mas feature some pickled vegetables of which the artichoke verges on inedible because of lack of proper cooking and preparation: it is hard, woody, horrible. The pepper and the radicchio aren’t bad, but overall this section of the dish is an explosion of oiliness and acidity. The tortino has a texturally unpleasant and rough brise’ base, but the flavour, beside the heavy hand with cheese, is agreeable – well, just so, for Woman, who still cannot get over that artichoke, while Man tries to put a smiling face over this underwhelming beginning. Overall the assemblage in this dish does not make much sense to us.

– Strangolapreti al gorgonzola and tortelloni speck e noci

The strangolapreti (traditional flour, bread, egg and spinach pasta) are a little hard but an energetic friend to your tastebuds (provided you like gorgonzola), and the tortelloni assault your palate with heavy but once again benign flavours. This is on the unrefined side of good, so what is the cheffy decoration separating the two sides doing there?

– Tagliata del Mas al rosmarino, formaggio (cheese) di malga alla griglia, with Contorni (carrots, potatoes)

The tagliata is memorably unremarkable. So we are pinning our hopes on the malga cheese. These cheeses from milk of cows which graze at altitude come often from tiny producers, so that they offer an enormous variety, each one different from the other. When they are good, they really regale you with complex and subtle aromas. Alas, this poor one has been treated so harshly on the grill that it might have been the most undistinguished of industrial cheeses.

The potatoes are amazingly greasy and heavy, and we are forced to leave them. Yes, you’ve read it right, we left something on the plate. If you have read other of our reviews, you’ll know that we can count on the fingers of half a hand the number of times we leave food on the plate. Mummy taught us so. But even imprinting has a limit ;-).

Talking of limits, we skip dessert. We’ve had enough.

A full meal here, with a bottle of wine around €20 and a bottle of water will cost you near €100. While this may seem OK by London standards, it is a lot for trattoria food in Trentino (see e.g. here and here).

The service somehow attempts to be polite but it does not have a clue, it really doesn’t. An example. When we ask about the varieties in the wine SHE is recommending us, the waitress says she does not know. With a flash of inspiration she then looks at the label, but alas, she says that the label does not help. Well, it is probably Cabernet, or Merlot. Not Pinot Noir. We look at the label and we notice with interest that it lists exactly the grapes that make up this wine.

The result of the chef’s efforts is very mediocre indeed from the culinary point of view. This is merely ordinary, with touches of unacceptable (gosh, that artichoke), and very heavy handed cuisine with a tendency to destroy flavours, but which clearly believes to be of higher standards. It is extortionate by local standards in terms of value for money. Walk up the hill, take out €50 extra euros to dine at Locanda Margon, and you’ll feel you have saved money. The final straw for us for was to see a cook with the cigarette hanging from his lip while assembling a dish. This says it all, we thought.

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Menu Bollicine Locanda Margon

The day: 14th January 2009, Dinner.
The place: Via Margone, Ravina, Trento, Italy (tel +39 0461 349401)
The venue: Locanda Margon
The food: Modern Italian with a regional slant
The drinks: On this occasion, exclusively bubbly.

ADDED FEBRUARY 2010: The Lunelli family has now sacked Walter Miori – apparently they were not making enough money…which destroys the best of marriagies.

The association between Chef Walter Miori and the producers of one of the elite Italian bubblies (Ferrari spumante metodo classico) always had the features of a marriage made in gastronomic Heaven. We already reported from that Heaven, but this time we want to tell you about its most distinctive offspring: a ‘bubbly’ menu (menu Bollicine), four courses with bubbly pairings. While the Lunelli family (the owners of Ferrari) simply need to make their product available, creating such a menu is always a challenge for a chef: let’s see how Miori copes with it.

The bread arrives in its usual glory:

The next time you think you’ve had a good bread offering, please cast your mind back to this… Eight varieties plus grissini, all home made, all supremely fragrant and good. In our experience this is unbeaten.

And an off-menu amuse-bouche appears

It’s a Cream of Jerusalem artichokes, dill flavoured salmon, croutons. Very, very balanced, smooth, the flavours and temperatures caressing your palate, the delicacy well clear of evanescence thanks to the concentration and quality of the Jerusalem artichokes and the body from the rightly judged fatness in the cream and the olive oil, the salmon and the croutons. This was accompanied by the opening bubbly that features in the starter proper of the menu:

– Sarde in saor con spuma di polenta bianca(Sardines ‘in saor’ with white polenta foam)
– Ferrari Maximum brut

These sardines in the traditional Venetian preparation offer a startlingly decisive, almost risky, start to the journey: the sardines are bodily and intense, their exuberance softened by the sweet polenta and the unadvertised but crucial stewed red onions with pine-nuts and raisins (typical, however, of some version of the ‘saor’). So this becomes a sweet-acidic feast that pleases your eyes first (look at the gracious minute decorations) and then delights and opens your appetite. The bubbly accompaniment is discreet and unobtrusive, though its voice struggles to make itself heard among such bold flavours.

The primo is a

– Lasagnetta alla vaccinara (oxtail) con patate schiacciate
– Ferrari Perle’ 2003

The nice thing with great chefs is that they can surprise you. We’d never have anticipated an oxtail lasagne to be presented in this way. It is somehow destructured, with potatoes at the base, on which the oxtail ‘ragout’ rests, alternated with a lasagna sheet and finally covered by two more lasagna layers sandwiching some white bechamel. On the side, a ‘cannolo’ made of Trentingrana (the local response to Parmigiano cheese) and filled with a creamy foam of the same. Just describing the ingredients gives away the richness and variety in this dish. Yet despite the potential for heaviness (hard cheese, oxtail, bechamel), what strikes you here is lightness, the oxtail having been treated very elegantly, with no trace of excess fat either in it or in the bechamel, and with the Trentingrana present in the right amount. The cannolo is really a stroke of genius, because it adds both a crispy and an airy texture to the dense creaminess of the lasagne, as well as a backbone of refreshing acidity. But there are other elements adding further dazzling layers of flavour and textures, the herby note of ‘crescione’, the sharp comfit cherry tomato, the crunchy powder of dried pea skins and potatoes…our heads spin! So it is that a simple and very rustic dish has been transformed into a refined, complex ensemble (the next time we’ll show you for contrast an example of heavy-handed cuisine…). One of the best primi ever, interesting, for those of us interested in Italian cuisine, also because of its fusion of local and non-local traditions (Trentingrana and oxtail? You won’t find it on many tables!). The accompanying bubbly is more structured, darker in colour, and is a very, very good match.

Ooh, something is coming which we hadn’t read on the menu…

Our first thought is that the slices at the base are courgettes. Instead they are revealed to be asparagi. Asparagi, delicately concentrated, also constitute the filling for the ravioli, and how do you think they match the ‘mazzancolla’ (langoustine)? You are right, just perfectly. And the mazzancolla itself is stunning in flavour, impressive in cooking (we learn it is cooked in cocoa butter). The garnish is a bisque of the mazzancolla with asparagus: as you can see, this dish is amazingly clean looking and clean flavoured. Despite the absence of a copious sauce it does not lack any moistness. This is modern cuisine of true class. Class, like in the Perle’ bubbly, of which we get a second [or is it a third? :)] helping and we really begin to like… Because yes, we should say that we thought the pairing would be a single glass, and perhaps in most other places this is what one would have, but not here, in the sense that each single glass appears to be bottomless!

We are ready for the main:

– Faraona (guinea fowl) arrosto con mosaico di verdure
– Perle’ Rose’ 2003

This faraona is a classic Miori style dish, the cooking of the meat as accurate as ever, yielding no hint of dryness, all tasty moistness; the vegetables expressing a deep, kaleidoscopic fantasy of flavours; the trademark crunchy wafer bread, in one version with poppy seeds, and in the other with dried flowers; the clean, elegant reduction. We just relish and rejoice in the dreamy goodness of this dish, but we suspect others might have wanted a punchier finale, in line with the punchy sardine opening. In terms of food/bubbly combination, the rose’ with the guinea fowl might be the best so far.

And, with some sadness that we are nearing the end, we are at the dessert:

– Souffle’ alla ricotta di capra (goat cheese ricotta) con pere al vino
– Ferrari Maximum demi-sec

The souffle’ is delicately hearty, with a distinct egg flavour, the goat ricotta suffusing it with a subtle aroma, which combines majestically with the pears on the other side of the dish. The vanilla in the ice-cream (also with a strong eggy whiff) simply bursts out with all its flavour.

Ah, not over yet, look at the petit four:

good and nicely assorted, but what stands out is an unusual coffee-cup of zabaione flavoured with Maso grill, the house passito wine. Delicious.

The cost of all this? An amazing €70 for each the four courses with bubbly pairings, plus €3 for the water… One does feel as if he has won the lottery.

The service is warm and cordial but not obtrusive, the waiters always ready to put their intimate knowledge of every dish at your disposal. You really do feel pampered here. Reflecting with a cool head on this meal (it is too easy to be carried away by bubbly inflated enthusiasm…), we can only confirm that Miori stands out on an entirely different level in the array of our Michelin starred experiences. There is no way that cuisine of such imagination, consistency, precision and complexity can fit within a single star. And the value for money is simply unbelievable. Going to Locanda Margon is more than going to sample a restaurant: you really feel you are being treated with the passion of somebody who invites you at his own place. One episode testifies best of all the character of the man. At the end of the meal, while conversing with Franca Miori (who manages the front room and the external relations with smiling efficiency and warm courtesy), we spotted Walter Miori in the kitchen, obviously tired at the end of service, yet armed with cleaning spray, and energetically helping to clean the stoves himself (incidentally, if all kitchens are clean at a certain level, this one is maniacally clean). It is this humility and total dedication to his kitchen that shows up in one dish after the other, one visit after the other. We fail to remember one single instance of a below par or sloppy offering. Stars or no stars, long it may continue!

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Lo Scrigno del Duomo (upstairs)

The day: 3^rd November 2008, Dinner.
The place: Piazza del Duomo, Trento
The venue: Scrigno del Duomo Osteria and Wine Bar
The food: Simple Fine Italian
The drinks: Short but strong list, Italian based, with several lesser known varieties

We are temporarily in Trento and we are thinking of paying our beloved Franca Merz a visit …but it’s a Monday! I Due Camini, like many other places, is closed. So why not stay in the very centre of town, and try the less formal sister venue of the Michelin starred Scrigno del Duomo? While the formal restaurant is in a basement, this is at ground level. The interior is warm and appealing – it reminds us a bit of the Vinothek in Bad Mergentheim (which also had an associated starred venue).

The menu is short and offers simple but very enticing dishes. First of all, you can just have a selection of Salumi (cured meats) and Cheeses (€8.50 for 5 items and €10.50 for 7). The Cheese section especially would offer you a comprehensive sample of the best of the Trentino production, including of course the fabulous Puzzone di Moena. There is a €33 three course menu. And then there are various individual dishes or salads, such as Spinach ‘sformatino’ with Puzzone cheese and Finferli (i.e. girolles) mushrooms at €9 or Octopus carpaccio with vegetables, oil and lemon at €12.

In the meanwhile, the bread arrives:

A nicely presented ‘basket’, with a small selection of superior bread.

The bread is made out of stone-ground high quality flour and leaven. The result speaks for itself.

For first courses we go for:

– Homemade tagliatelle with roasted duck (€10)

– Val di Gresta potato cream with veal meatballs and braised savoy cabbage (€10)

Well well well these are very nicely presented dishes for an osteria! The potato cream is just slightly gluey, but the potato flavour is striking indeed. The meatballs are larger than we thought and just perfect, moist and fulfilling, obviously made with good raw material. And the olive oil is top notch which, as ever, elevates the dish.

The tagliatelle are good if a bit ‘nervous’. But what amazing taste, here we are at fine dining, not osteria, levels: the reduction is intense and velvety; the aromatic tang of the rosemary tends to dominate but it integrates splendidly with the reduction and with the excellent duck. A pasta dish among the best we’ve had of late.

And the secondi:

– Roman ‘puntarelle’ with tuna morsels and balsamic vinaigrette (€15)

– Warm beef salad with vegetables and Tropea onions (€11).

The puntarellle, a typical vegetable from the Lazio region (of course also in London we sometimes find wonderful version of them here), are pleasantly fresh and crunchy, while the tuna, although slightly overcooked is still tender. The acidic base is apt, with the flaked almonds adding a gentler, sweeter finish.

The beef is boiled, shredded and composed with the finely sliced onions, fennels and small carrots. A moist, light and succulent dish, in which once again the acidic hint adds to the sense of freshness. Very agreeable on the palate.

All in all, with some water and two glasses of wine, the total came to around €60. Good value given the quality.

The service was friendly and correct. We are very happy. We are happy because with all the things that are going wrong in Italy it’s nice at least to come across places who uphold the standards of our cuisine in this way. It does not seem to take much to prepare a simple rewarding Italian dish: excellent, possibly local, ingredients, correct cooking, don’t go too heavy with the fats, and a sprinkle of personal touch – you don’t need to master complex preparations as in French cuisine. Yet so few manage to get it right. They certainly do it at this Osteria. We find it much better value than the starred sister venue downstairs where, despite the presence of a good chef, the experience can be a little hit and miss (the place where to go for fine cuisine in Trento is here). None of it here, where everything, but really everything, was most pleasant and well priced. Try it.

A dish (or a few more) by Chef Walter Miori

Well, yes, we do have a ‘private’ restaurant life that goes unreported in this blog. But sometimes…some meals are so good that a hem of the veil can be discreetly lifted!

At the moment of writing are nearing the end of our Trentino period, and among our fond recent memories…

Walter Miori is a chef who ‘caresses’ his dishes and your palate, as with this stunning John Dory:

Tantalizingly hidden under fine slivers of fennel, garnished with Taggiasche olives and pumpkin seeds, and finished with a superb olive oil, this dish has it all: flavour, bite, freshness, simplicity, precision.

And how about this interlude:

This must be the best ‘canederlo’ in the world, its (and the grana’s) sweetness and texture a sublime match for the truffle. A lesson on how to elevate a rustic regional classic to a ravishingly elegant delicacy.

Talking about regional classics:

This orzotto (‘barley-risotto’) with sweetbreads is as gratifying as the best risotto: you can feel the perfect creaminess just by looking at it.

And finally (‘finally’, that is, just for this post…) here’s something that you really can only have at Locanda Margon:

This wonderful and dreamily presented duck dish is aromatised with Maso Grill, a Vendemmia tardiva (late ripened wine) produced by the vineyards just around the Locanda, and that you won’t find in the shops… What a dinner. Should you notice a second star falling, at long last, in the direction of Walter Miori, remember that -as usual!- you read it here first…

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Chiesa (Trento, IT)

The day: 14^th May 2008, Dinner.
The place: Via San Marco Trento (IT)
The venue: Ristorante Chiesa
The food: Modern Italian
The drinks: Italian and especially regionally based list, with a sprinkle of international alternatives, normal prices, also by the glass.

ADDED FEBRUARY 2010: Peter Brunel has now left this restaurant.

One difference between Italy and the UK is the stronger role appearances play in the former in social relations. At around 6.00pm, wearing jeans and trainers, we cross the open entrance of Ristorante Chiesa, near the Castle in Trento. After a minute of wait, a man in normal clothes emitting signs between annoyed and disparaging, no smile, comes and says :

‘Yes?’ [What the f… do you want, you miserable sods?]

‘Sorry to disturb you…’

‘Yes, actually I was eating’ [you time-wasters]

‘Sorry again, the door was open. Ehm, we’d like to book a table for the restaurant, if possible’

‘Yes, where?’ [you morons, how can you not know that there are two dining areas, one for lighter meals, and a restaurant proper?]

‘Do you mean whether we want to be inside or outside? (there is a nice garden outside the beautiful villa that hosts the restauran’). Inside’

‘OK, but not the gastronomic room, right?’ [as if two lowlifers like you could even think of going to the gastronomic room]

‘Gastronomic room?’ (our ears now pricked to the ceiling) ‘What’s the gastronomic room?’

‘You know, there’s a demanding menu, a view of the kitchen…’ [Oh Lord, why don’t you two just shove off?]

‘The gastronomic room, the gastronomic room!’ (in unison).

‘Ah, I see. OK. What time?’ [Will they be able to pay?].

‘8.15. Do you need a telephone number?’

‘No. Tonight it’s not so busy. But you are very lucky, you know, normally it’s impossible to find a place just like this, just dropping in’ [I won’t go to hell if I slightly exaggerate].

We are very lucky people. Many times in Italy we’ve been in empty restaurant rooms which are instead ‘normally’ full. So we arrive, now wearing the semblance of respectable clothes and a full smile, to the ‘gastronomic room’, greeted by our friend, now wearing a full room manager’s suit and the semblance of a smile.

We apologise again for having disturbed his dinner. ‘Not at all, not all’.

His attitude is beginning to change, and it will continue to change dramatically as the evening unfolds. More on this story later…Very nice room, this gastronomic room is simply the regular small restaurant room (five or six tables), vaulted ceiling, light colours, a modern linear feel within a historical context, including an old stove:

While we admire the spacious tables, we wonder about the reason why the view of the kitchen is prevented by a rolled down curtain. Maybe the Chef Peter Brunel, informed about our previous appearance, cannot bear the sight of us? More charitably, we think it is because, as often, we are, and will remain, ALONE: it is not nice to display a kitchen brigade that spends more time chatting than cooking.

The short menu carries enticing dishes, from both land and sea, the starters (€16-24) featuring squid, fois gras, veal, asparagus. The four primi are between €15-17.50 (a potato gnocchi with veal cheek ragout being the most enticing beside the ones we had); and the four mains, around €25-28, tempt you with mustard lamb and veal millefeuille from the land, but we’ll go for the sea. There are also two set menus, a small ‘Il miele nel piatto’ (Honey in your plate) menu at €30, and a full creative menu at €60.

Interrupting our meditation, the bread arrives:

A very nice variety, even if served from a tray (which we don’t like, but that’s a personal preference), we are particularly intrigued by the squid ink roll (the black one, obviously) with sesame seeds. The other rolls we pick (cumin, plain) were also good, as was the rye bread slice.

And shortly after we order, here is a present from the kitchen:

It’s a grilled scallop, garnished with excellent confit tomato, thin crisp corn bread slice and balsamic vinegar. The scallop is left whole (not halved) and it’s cooked almost perfectly (just raw in the core), very perfumed. A generous present.

Our choice of primi was:

– Risotto with pineapple foam, green apple, fennel, chervil, and roasted trout (€17.50)

– White asparagus Zuppetta (soup) with lobster and parsley emulsion (€15)

The risotto is not the best we’ve ever eaten. Man and Woman agree it is undercooked. But they part on their judgements of the rest: Woman finds apples and pineapple working surprisingly well and the trout excellent in its crispy and salty skin. Man is not ravished by the flavours (while not disliking them), which are anyway too many (he compares it unfavourably with a much better risotto, also with apples, recently tried here). The chunk of trout is generous and good, but the fish is dry, probably a cooking oversight. Overall, the dish is OK but misses the ambition it expresses with its beautiful looks.

The zuppetta, also very beautifully presented, offers delicate flavours, the asparagus combining very well with the parsley foam. The soup itself has a vaguely gluey texture. The lobster is disappointing, lacking both the freshness of the sea and flavour; and being also a little hard. The material does not seem up to scratch, and we muse that we would have liked this soup more without the marine addition: one of the many cases of ‘more is less’.

While we wait for our mains, we apologise with the manager for having disturbed his dinner: ‘absolutely not, it was my fault.

And then comes a quite literal sweetener, another complimentary offering from the kitchen:

It’s a grapefruit sorbet with small fruit cubes served in a perfectly transparent cup (no smudges, see how it is done, Lo Scrigno del Duomo?).

This is a real hit: fresh, pleasant, sweet but not too much and very balanced.

Here are our Secondi:

– Sea bass trio: roasted with ‘pequillo’ peppers; steamed with cous cous; tartare with Malossol caviar (€28)

– Lobster, boiled with mint, and with burrata and crispy vegetable chips (€25)

The seabass trio is very enticingly conceived and most elegant. But especially, it delights us with a perfect cooking technique. The roast bit was an example of how it should be done; the cous cous with the steamed bit (nicely wrapped in courgettes) was simply exceptional; and the caviar and tartare (served in the caviar tin) were a buttery delight for the palate. Such a great, light and clean flavoured dish would have deserved a top notch seabass, which, in our opinion, was absent from the party. So we enquired with the manager about the pedigree of the animal (after apologising for having interrupted his dinner) and sent him for an expedition to the kitchen. He returned with the following information: the seabass was raised in a ‘natural’ farm, meaning that it is located near to where river meets sea, and where the fish (‘branzino di valle’, valley seabass) naturally lives. It’s less fat than its off-shore brother, and ‘of better quality’. Be that as it may, the dish required a more flavoursome fish, which, we believe, in turn requires it to be wild (unfortunately we have imprinted in our memory a recent fabulous seabass at Locanda Margon).

The bowl containing the lobster is beautiful (the mise en place and presentation is exceptional in this restaurant), but extremely awkward. Not a big problem, of course, but the lobster itself is again substandard, effusing very scant flavour and disappointing in texture. A pity, because it came with an (unadvertised) orange foam that worked very well, and the accompanying vegetables were most lightly and elegantly fried. The burrata was lusciously good, too, adding some welcome fat substance to the dish.

We apologise with the manager for having disturbed his dinner: ‘absolutely not, it was my fault because I forgot to lock the door’.

Oh, but what is that, yet another present from the kitchen: a (white) asparagus bavarois.

Topped with grated coconut, this was beyond delicious, as intriguing as it was good, rightly fat (beside the coconut note also the dark chocolate stick), and smooth, and fresh, with that asparagus flavour keeping you on your toes and the crispy dried lemon putting just the right punchy dot…
come on, continue like this!

We’ll soon find out: here are our desserts:

– Chocolate Tortino with quark ‘mantecato’ (€11)

– ‘Surprise’ from the chef (€we’ll never know…read on)

The surprise is a sugar wafer, chocolate mousse with dark beer foam and strawberries. Very, very good: the match between the light and different sourness of chocolate and beer is fabulous. The mousse itself is well made, and the wafer is quite delicate. A classy, imaginative and well-balanced dessert.

The chocolate tortino may not be very original (so many chefs have it on their menus) but when it is as well prepared as this one was, it is endlessy fascinating. Moreover, this exemplar was perfectly paired with apple puree. The ice-cream is also light and fine, a pity that some of the nut bits in the base were stale (as it happens), the unwelcome flavour marring the enjoyment a little.

These desserts, already exceptional in themselves, became even more unforgettable because they were combined, courtesy of the manager, who by now was REALLY in the mood to please us, with two fantastic offerings: a Recioto di Valpolicella, and, especially, a phenomenal Pedro Ximenes (we did not note the producer, but it was a 1971). Chocolate with PX is one of the most sublime combinations Man and Woman enjoy on this earth, so by this time they were in love with the manager, and apologised for having interrupted his dinner.

The petit four generously followed, despite us having no coffee. Look how nicely they are presented:

With a bottle of Chardonnay Gottardi 2005 at €30 (good though possibly not as good in the white department as their Pinot Noir is in the red department) and a mineral water at €7 (yes, this restaurant has one of those pretentious water lists), the bill comes to €122.50. Very good value, we think, very good value indeed. And now, dear reader, while we are looking at the bill while writing these impressions, we realise what happened: they did not charge us for the desserts!! Thank god we left a generous tip, we’ll see how to redress this mistake. Overall, the dinner would have cost us about €140-145, in line with the top restaurants in Trento.

The service was relaxed and kind, almost entirely carried out, with efficiency and precision, by the room manager himself. From the rough and rude start with him at 6.00 o clock, we have moved to a friendly and informative conversation. He is a young but experienced professional, with much service abroad (Bermudas, London, St. Moritz…). He treated us very well, so it is hard saying negative things…but we would kindly suggest that it is crucial that chef and service staff work closely, so that every waiter knows what is in the dishes and is able to describe them with exactness to the customer.

What to say of the cuisine? In principle, this could be a great restaurant. Chef Brunel has been able to display, with some ups and downs –mostly ups- very great ability on occasion, with both a remarkable inventiveness, an impressive technique and a knack for presentation. He seems particularly strong in the sweet department. Nevertheless, we feel there is still some pretentiousness and lack of focus in his offerings, giving the typical impression of somebody who is trying too hard. A little relaxation, a little simplification, a little more evenness would go a long way to improve the experience. But, especially, if you go for this type of cuisine, you cannot afford any compromise whatsoever on the choice of materials: you cannot wow your customers with foams if what is underneath is not top notch. The raw materials definitely need improvement, at least as far as fish is concerned (who knows, maybe we would have had more luck with meat). We used the word ‘generous’ several times, because there is a clear philosophy at Chiesa (owned by the powerful local Chiesa family, by the way) not merely to satisfy, but to really pamper the gastronome, with elegance, many extras and generous (there we go) portions: maybe, however, it would be better to focus resources on the absolute quality of what is in the main dishes, because there are the flavours and textures that will linger in memory for a long time. In conclusion, on the basis of our visit, so far Chiesa does not appear to have quite attained overall the level of the starred restaurants around in the same price range, but we believe it has a great potential to do so and even to surpass some of them. So we’ll need to check again for progress at some point…

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