The guide (rightly) suspends scores in cents for the 2021 edition, but continues to report excellence in each category. Four new Three Forks and particular attention to the premises engaged in delivery and take away
It is a particular year, unfortunately. Very hard for the entire restaurant. Exactly as Slow Food decided for its guide to taverns (with the abolition of snails), also the Red shrimp has seen fit to review the rating system of The Restaurants of Italy, presented in Rome in live streaming. No scores but bands. It is a vision that is as constructive and non-punitive as possible. «We tried as much as possible to limit the failures, but with equal attention a beacon was lit on who managed to reinvent himself, who put new formulas into play. And for this reason the votes were put aside for a year, keeping the forks, globes, bottles, casseroles – one, two or three depending on the degree of excellence -, but we did not want to play on the extra penny or in less than in the past ", explains the director Laura Mantovano. A sensible choice: the spring lockdown and in some cases the summer break prevented an assessment similar to what normally happened. On the other hand, in the more than 2,500 cards appear – where there were and still are – the new take-away and delivery services, indicated with special symbols. Mirror of very, very complicated times.
The four climbed to the top
That said, the 2021 edition is not free from changes within the individual categories, starting with Three Forks. Faced with the impossibility of judging it, Idylio by Francesco Apreda – The Pantheon Iconic Rome Hotel comes out (but we are sure that for the Neapolitan chef it is only a break) and four places enter. Two in the capital: Glass Hostaria by Cristina Bowermann and theImago of the Hotel Hassler where until spring 2019 there was Apreda, replaced by Andrea Antonini. Andrea Aprea, "director" since 2011, finally conquers the Three Forks Vun which is the restaurant inside the Hotel Park Hyatt Milan, with two Michelin stars. The fourth new entry is represented by The little Prince of the Gran Hotel Principe di Piemonte in Viareggio with executive chef Giuseppe Mancino, also two-star. In the other categories, the changes from the previous guide are minimal.
The East is the protagonist
The special prizes are interesting. The one for the emerging chef in memory of Alessandro Narducci went to Emanuele Lecce della Tavernetta in Spezzano della Sila (CS) while the novelty of the year is (rightly, for us) Peter Brunel in Arco (TN) which has created an evocative restaurant with great cuisine. Not surprisingly, it is an important signal on the path to contamination the award for the restaurateur of the year, assigned to Liu family: Claudio, Marco and Giulia (Italian by birth, but Chinese by origin) are increasingly expanding the perimeter of their network in Milan where they are well known. From the first Iyo – the only ethnic one with the Michelin Star – they reached six places. In this sense, the award for the best proposal by the glass that went to is even more sensational Mu Dim Sum, one of the best Chinese cuisine restaurants, also in Milan, and whose sommelier is Egidio Giovannini. Unthinkable until a few years ago.
Romito and Bottura ex aequo
Two other highly coveted awards are those as pastry chef of the year (Fabrizio Fiorani of Il Duomo in Ragusa) and for the best room service that ended in Calabria – another not secondary signal – al Qafiz of Santa Cristina di Aspromonte(RC). The tasting of the year? The 2020 del Reale in Castel di Sangro (AQ) e With a little help from my friends of the Osteria Francescana in Modena. The menus respectively of Niko Romito and Massimo Bottura in fact are both formidable.