A completely new project, a project of life, work and love for Carol Choi is Francesco Scarrone. What then is a bit the same thing, love and work, passion for what you do, every day, that fire that burns and you can't wait to feed.
History
A project born in Copenhagen, while both worked at Christian Puglisi's restaurant Relæ, and where Carol and Francesco fell in love, between a form of crusty bread and the creation of a new dish.
That project is called Rantan Farmhouse and saw the light in July 2019, in Valchiusella. After having thought of looking for a place in France that would make them fall in love, they arrived here and fell in love with this old stone house, with a beautiful piece of land around it, precious ground for their integrated farming project, organic manual farming, surrounded by mountains.
Many will wonder why it is right here, in a small lost Piedmont valley, when they could have opened the restaurant in any city, from Paris to Berlin to New York or Copenhagen.
But until we sit down at Rantan's social table, we don't understand why. Then, once you begin to taste the dishes created by Carol and Francesco, a whole world of experiences and sensations opens up. And only then do you understand that the two of them have found their perfect world right here, in Trausella, in Valchiusella.
The restaurant
Fourteen seats, two kitchen services a week, Saturday evening and Sunday lunch, a beautiful wooden table shared by the guests, all waiting, a certain emotion and a great expectation about what will be brought to the table.
The menu, a real surprise, with about ten dishes for tasting, ten items, a manic work in preparing the dishes, in the processing of vegetables, cured meats (prepared by Francesco, who buys the meat at the Agricultural Cooperative Valli Unite del Canavese) , a bread that smells of magic and good, served hot, with butter creamed at the time, that looks more like butter than whipped cream and that makes the eyes of all the guests light up.
The menu
The menu is the one that closes the summer and that in a few days will be replaced with the new one, full of products that smell of autumn. Because from Rantan Farmhouse Carol and Francesco use only seasonal products, most of which are grown (from vegetables, vegetables, some fruits, aromatic herbs) or collected during long walks in the woods, such as mushrooms, from porcini mushrooms to drum bats , perfect for breading, with a firm consistency. In the program there is also the direct sale of the products of the earth, the fruits, the vegetables and the vegetables that will come, those that will not be used in the tasting menu. Meat is never the protagonist, but it is always seen as an ingredient, as Francesco told us.
A few days ago they started to produce and sell the bread that is served at the table, because so much was the request, that they didn't feel like saying no. An extra job for them, but an immense joy for those who manage to buy a form of that bread, that smells of home and love for simple things, those made with the heart.
Who I am?
Carol Choi, a New Yorker of Korean origin, has had important experiences all over the world: from the Per Se of New York, to the Noma for a couple of years, then responsible for the bakery of chef Christian Puglisi at the Relæ in Copenhagen until 2016. Carol has the bread and the pastry in the blood and it is perceived by how it treats the ingredients, from how it respects them.
Francesco Scarrone he was born and raised in the Canavese and after high school and a short time at the university, he decided that his path must take a different direction, that of cooking. He attended the school of Marchesi in Parma (Alma) and from that experience began his journey far and wide to multiple and instructive experiences, almost all in the kitchens of starred chefs in northern Europe. He returned to Italy and worked for two years in the kitchen of the Consorzio restaurant in Turin.
The rest is the story of Rantan.
Rantan- a Farm House conviviality
Via Rueglio 39- Valchiusa, Fraction Trausella
