Young chefs who made their bones in the starred kitchens and who are rewriting the list of restaurants not to be missed in Rome
One word is enough. If there is one thing that unites the talented young chefs struggling with their first solo experiences is the ability to synthesize. Zia, Giulia, Jacopa and so on. The names of the rooms that can be included in the "bistronomy" category are always composed of a single word. On the other hand, the summary of the name often reflects the offer, why the bistronomy is a gourmet restaurant, but offers a refined cuisine at affordable prices, giving up above all the frills that go beyond the kitchen. A more pop service, once the cloth tablecloth is removed, someone entrusts the customer to the mise en place and so on: costs that you choose to break down to favor a sensorial experience concentrated on a kitchen with starry echoes, but renouncing the sidereal ambitions. The young chef who chooses to open a gourmet restaurant in a bistronomy format comes from starred experiences, is able to cook at that level and manage that kind of stress in the kitchen, but is proposed to a wider audience, trying to intercept curious palates, but not fixed with formalities. To put it in football terms: he enrolls in another championship, which deserves to be followed as much as and perhaps more than that of the first category.
The forerunners
If it is necessary to do historical philology, among the first to launch the trend there are Davide Del Duca and Alba Esteve Ruiz, respectively Fernanda and Marzipan. With time Del Duca has changed location, he has refined himself in aesthetics, but he resists with his elegantly rustic kitchen, apparently an oxymoron, but his quality has always been that of knowing how to combine strong tastes, tough ingredients and exaggerated cooking, giving life to to incredibly delicate dishes. All of this probably remaining one of the best value for money places in the city. Alba Esteve Ruiz had the merit of bringing to Rome a breath of fresh air and his interpretation of Roman-Spanish bistronomy, with strong experiences in the best stars of his country. Alba arrived very young and grew up with Marzapane, but at a certain point her balance broke and Alba left her original creature for a new adventure. Left in the hands of his socio-host Mario Sansone, who entrusted the kitchen to Francesco Capuzzo Dolcetta, Marzapane has changed course, focusing on traditional cuisine and returning to more popular prices, with great critical and public success. Alba, for her part, has just settled into her new project, Ancient Foundry. Already the name consists of two words suggests that the format of the new creature of Alba moves slightly away from the bistronomy that helped launch, with perhaps even more heroic choices. In this new project the Spanish chef engages in fire, with ancestral cooking, the grill and coal, with meat from all over the world and vegetables to be rediscovered. But he does not forget his origins, his strong dishes like carbonara, and his delicately feminine hand are always there.
The new wave
Always going chronologically, the ones who broke the cards in Rome were the boys of Back Room, Giuseppe Lo Iudice and Alessandro Miocchi. They have exasperated the philosophy of "no frills", with their drawer in which to find the mise en place to set the table on their own. At the beginning they also drove foodies from all over the world with a booking ban, so customers patiently lined up on Via della Stelletta. Then they expanded to the nearby shutter, without, however, increasing the seats and from there granting the luxury of booking. Their "counter" kitchen has been a school: craftsmanship, excellent raw materials, the ability to get 100% involved by making chefs and hosts at the same time. The only flaw is that they are slightly out of the budget of 50 €, but an extra effort is enough and you can taste the tasting menu at 55. Always from the same forge of talents, the kitchen of the two-starred Anthony Genovese, comes another exponent of this new wave: Antonio Ziantoni, chef and patron of Zia. His cuisine is contemporary and exciting and we would not be surprised if Ziantoni was promoted to the higher category. Without taking anything away from the other chefs mentioned, his proposal is the one that comes closest to Michelin star conformism, both in the kitchen and in the service, never sliced, but always rigorous and careful, entrusted to the sweet hands of the companion Ida Proietti. Also from the same school, they are also establishing themselves in the heart of the gourmet of the capital the boys of Jacopa, Jacopo Ricci and Piero Drago, who are doing very well with the restaurant opened inside the San Francesco hotel. Breakfast room by day and gourmet restaurant in the evening, with a dependance on the terrace for those who want to enjoy an aperitif with some whim that comes from the kitchen. Pierluigi Gallo also passed by the kitchens of Anthony Genovese, even though his true mentor was Niko Romito. It was in the kitchens of the Reale when the third Michelin star arrived for the Abruzzo chef. Although originally from the Campania region, Gallo is also born in Abruzzo and trained and transmits his territory to his kitchen in Via Giulia. Just like the street, Pierluigi Gallo's restaurant-project is called Giulia and for over a year it has settled steadily in the heart of the capital's foodies.
To keep an eye on
On the same wavelength there are two other addresses that we have visited in recent months, less consolidated as a time of exercise, and yet promising. A common feature is that they are pleasant places, with chefs who have important experiences behind them and are able to create dishes that are remembered. It is the case of Verve inside the hotel D.O.M, with a restaurant on the ground floor and a fabulous terrace on the roofs of Rome at the top. Here they "militate" Adriano Magnoli and Antonella Mascolo, chef the first and pastry chef the second: a couple in life, the two come from the school of Riccardo Di Giacinto, chef of the starred restaurant All'Oro. Another noteworthy address is Aqualunae by Emanuele Paoloni, in the delightful Piazza dei Quiriti, in Prati. Marche origins and a pinch of Austria in the blood, Paoloni moves well with both the fish and the earth cuisine, pulling some real gem out of the hat.
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