The quarantine passed "on the bench" to create new formats, to be launched as soon as possible in Milan. Thomas Piras tells how, together with Matias Perdomo and Simon Press, he is ready for reopening. With more desire than before
First there was the period of social recipes, often with a beneficial purpose. Then the moment of delivery came and now we are in the era of take-away food. All interspersed with a sea of interviews on the problems of the moment and the future. Since the beginning of March, the most famous Italian chefs have lived the strangest days of their career, made up (alas) of words rather than deeds. For this reason, the Contraste team is deserving attention: the Uruguayan chef Matias Perdomo, his Argentine right arm Simon Press and the man from the hall and cellar, the Milanese Thomas Piras. Disappeared from the world – apart from some initial ironic incursion by the chef on social networks – to hide a different reality, made up of daily work, projects, plans and four plans for restarting. "Three had already left, while a fourth we have invented in the last few weeks," explains Thomas Piras.
Good wines at competitive prices
A project is linked to wine, Thomas's great passion. To drink, a nice name: a new distribution and import of labels that will aim to discover apparently second row terroirs, but with a precise philosophy and great personality. Reserved for professionals. «It is a project that we invented together with the producer and friend Marco Tinessa, collaboration regarding the selection that has been going on for some time. Now we will concretize it on a national level: it is a distribution that wants to place itself in the range between 10 and 30 euros in price (restorative price), avoiding those now inflationary wine areas . The second project is a real one urban pasta factory within the city in the Porta Romana area, to be precise with a double entrance in via Orti and via Curtatone. About forty seats and cocktail bars: urban style, signed by Fabio Ferrillo of the Off Arch study, with the work temporarily stopped by the emergency.
Pasta and empanadas
"Although pasta is always associated with tradition, Exit Urban Pasta Factory it will be a contemporary place, which also focuses on sharing , Piras continues. "We like the idea that one comes to have a drink with friends and then stops to enjoy a plate of pasta, maybe even a dessert. No appetizer, no second course to change the connotations of the Italian restaurant that focuses on first courses . The other two projects of the Contraste team are linked to the large production laboratory, which has been open for two years Lambrate, with the aim of relieving the Contraste kitchens from more routine activities and being able to reason with greater freedom on any new projects. It is here that the empanadas at the base of the third project will be prepared: it is called Empanadas del Flaco. Curiosity: el Flaco is the nickname of Simon Press (while Piras is nicknamed el Pelato and Perdomo el Gordo) who as a good Argentine had been proposing the idea for five years. Finally we are convinced, the first store will be on the way S. Maurilio, one of the alleys around via Torino: small, because the concept focuses absolutely on delivery, never as trendy as in recent weeks.
Origin Contraste Rotisserie
"We have combined Argentine experience and craftsmanship with a gastronomic touch also made of process, standardization and technologies. The product is made in the laboratory, shot down after a first frying and regenerated in the store. It works from every point of view after a thousand tests even blindly, we tasted the product made two weeks before and it is always at the top. And so we can be confident when the project, we hope, will expand ", explains Piras. If Empanadas del Flaco is the fruit of long maturation, the fourth project is really the result of comparison in the weeks of the pandemic: Roc, a gastronomy ready for online debut and destined to find a store between Porta Romana and Porta Genova as soon as possible. Roc stands for Rosticceria Origine Contraste, but there will be no connection in the vision nor in the image with the starry one in via Meda 2. Here too there is the desire to stand out from the current offer, not so much on the culinary proposal as on the way of prepare and serve it.
Ordered the day before
«We start from an assumption: the lasagna will be lasagna, the puree will be the puree, the eggplant parmigiana will be eggplant parmigiana, but there will also be bolder and more sophisticated dishes thinking of a rotisserie 2.0. We are looking for a memory of taste well known and shared. The difference is that it will not be possible to order day by day, but the day before with delivery on the following one, at the exact time . The advantage? «We will have the overall picture of the deliveries we have to make, of the shopping to be made: zero waste for us, well-managed food cost, lower costs and guaranteed freshness for customers. And the packaging will be entirely composed of biodegradable and heat-sealed plastics. We focus heavily on hygiene, personalization, labels, portioning ", explains the Constraste partner. Given the skill and experience of the team in catering – both in the starred Contraste and in the Exit bistro – it is striking that they are all different initiatives and certainly not inspired by the two venues. «Standardization requires a method that is not ours, we are not capable of it. Apart from the obligation to always offer the highest quality, we believe in a system where the right space must be left for people, who bring creativity , Piras closes.
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