Massimo Spigaroli is a very humble and quiet man with a food passion.
He is world known for his food and holds a Michelin star, which he chooses not to display it as he feels it is unnecessary! He meets us on arrival at the restaurant with a shy smile and firm hand shake we felt very special as the other arrivals did not get the same treatment. That good old Retreat business card sure works a treat, it is amazing the doors our it is opening for us, we are really meeting food giants.
So lets recap on last night dinner
Our little starter was cold green soup of zucchini with a ricotta island and an anchovy with a Parmesan crips.
Then We both had a starter of crayfish terrine which was art on a plate and not like any terrine we have ever seen. It was on a long rectangular glass plate everything was deconstructed the terrine was little rounds cylinders with the finest shelled crayfish tails sitting on top only the size of a small prawn.
Around the plate was flowers, caviar, crayfish caviar, Melissa leaves, a new taste for us like a soft mint but not quiet, mayo and raspberry vinaigrette.
Then I had a agnolotti with green stripes how they have done this is was amazing and it was filled with partridge served on a bed of celery purée garnished with asparagus tips and foie gras. YUM.
Sandy had Parmesan gnocchi with hens broth served at the table from a silver ornate carafe into her dish was a beautiful chicken wing turned inside out with the bone cleaned perfectly and left for silver handle to hold it, it looked so posh.
My main was entrecôte of black pig matured for 120 days. It had a strong taste and was a bit fatty for me maybe an acquired taste, but still enjoyable.
Sandy's main a lightly spices Germana duck twice cooked with herbs and mustard grains.
After dinner we headed out to the courtyard and Massimo joined us for a coffee. We got to sit and talk about the veggie garden and our passion for gardening and food also just the three of us. It was a bit of a challenge, but again it is amazing what understanding of each other you can get with the same passions, persistence and miming skills. Massimo asked us to join him the next morning just the two of us on a private veggie garden walk and with a translator for some of " my " more difficult questions we managed to understand each other and he thanked us for taking the time to look at his veggie garden with him..... hello..... It was our pleasure......Massimo's passion for his veggie garden goes back to his childhood and the need in Italy at that time to be able to survive from what you could grow.
So lunch today we prepared it with one of his top chef in the kitchen after we picked salad together from the veggie garden. The salad was a modern arrangement of leaves, flowers and a poached egg on a square black slate it looked amazing, I took photos so I can " try " to recreate it back home but it was a work of art is all I can say....
His gardeners were planting new herbs as an experiment and he was intrigued by how Sandy used some especially the Asian herbs he has not used before. It was funny to see the look on his face when Sandy was talking about Vietnamese mint and coriander pesto! So before you knew it they were swapping recipes.
Tomorrow lesson will be jams and preserved veggies cooking lesion.
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