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The first agriristoro in Milan is called T'imo, is located inside Cascina Sant'Ambrogio and is perfect for an (aromatic) lunch in the company of friends

Between Ortica and Forlanini, he was born a few days ago Thyme. The first agriristoro of Milan it is located inside the urban farm of CasciNet, in the Cavriana district. The mirrored buildings in the 80s style remain in the background together with the gasometer, symbols of the past of a city far from the center, but highly productive, under which today the greenery and the sounds of the countryside dominate. Why agriristoro not a bar or restaurant? Because it is a place where you don't just go to eat, but also to refresh yourself, rest, relax. And because what you taste is partly produced in the Food Forest surrounding Cascina Sant’Ambrogio, especially the aromatic herbs, the same that resonate in the name.

Agriristoro in the city perfect for a lunch with friends

As you "follow the path", you have the feeling of having arrived at a friend's house or of having happened in the middle of a peasant party, of those that perhaps are no longer so easily found even in the countryside. If you feel lost, let yourself be guided by music. If you have to decide how to go, choose the bicycle: the pleasure of sitting in the shade of a fig tree will be greater. If you love yoga, plan your visit in conjunction with one of the many activities that populate the summer calendar. If you reunite with friends you haven't seen for a long time, this is the ideal place for a nice table.

What is a Food Forest (and why is it important to know)?

If you wondered what one is Food Forest, the answer is simpler than you can imagine: it is an ecosystem of trees, shrubs with small fruits, medicinal herbs, water, bees, insects, small structures made with natural materials. A forest developed following the principles of permaculture that the boys of CasciNet have chosen as an option to regenerate a semi-abandoned space in the city.

Agriristoro, for CasciNet T’imo point of arrival and not of departure

Cascinet it was born as a non-profit association to generate an environment in which culture, community and agriculture are in synergy. The Social Enterprise Agricultural Society was then set up alongside the association. The agriristoro is the result of a path that did not aim to inaugurate a restaurant, but the desire to build a meeting point with deep historical roots for Milan (although it may seem strange, Milan has always been a city strongly devoted to agriculture and today it is the second largest agricultural municipality in Italy after Rome). The people who are part of it have been taking care of the building and its surroundings for several years now. Among the various projects, in addition to the Food Forest and the Agriristoro there are also a community garden of gardeners, theKindergarten in the woods and a shared apiary.

Timo in Cascina Sant’Ambrogio

From monastery to farmstead, the Cascina Sant’Ambrogio has a thousand-year history. Over time it has hosted nuns and farmers, families and migrants. Never abandoned, at the beginning of 2000 agricultural activities stopped and the farmhouse began to suffer from a lack of new energy so, in May 2012, ten young Milanese, including the grandson of a historic inhabitant, began to clean up and open the farm spaces to the public: the farmyard, the portico, the former barn. The same where today you can come for lunch in the shade of some sails hoisted like umbrellas or tree branches (from 12.00 to 14.30). From 18 to 22.30 it is the time of the aperitif, except on Friday because that is the day of the social dinner (at the moment, to avoid gatherings, it is always necessary to book).

Aromatic lunch is served

At T’imo the aromatic lunch is made with seasonal ingredients and enhanced by the selection of smells that come directly from the garden: savory, santolina, lovage, orange thyme, tarragon and many others. You will compose the dishes, choosing a carbohydrate (Carnaroli Classico rice from Cascina Battivacco), two seasonal vegetables, and two proteins (there is also the vegetarian option). As an aperitif, together with craft beer or cocktails, you can order mixed saucers with tastings from the garden and from the farm or stuffed sandwiches made with a crispy homemade bread outside but soft inside, perfect for absorbing the moods of its ingredients. Those who participate in the social dinner (a "good" way to support CasciNet's activities) are offered vegetarian dishes with vegetables from the Vitalba farm or from the Vettabbia fields grown directly by the members. As for animal raw materials, they want to let people know that they come exclusively from ethical farms.

From Copenhagen to Valchiusella (Turin) to regain contact with nature. The history of Rantan Farmhouse

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

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Agriristoro in Milan, from T'imo aromatic lunch in a farmhouse – Italian Cuisine