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Getting on Michelin’s radar


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How does that work? Media reviews? Word of mouth? But what if you’re located in a, well, Michelin desert?

 

A restaurant in my dinky town in Marche (Italy) changed owners about year ago and has since been putting out food that shows a high level of creativity and quality. It’s located in the charming “castello” part of my hill town and has comfortable, nicely appointed rooms and a friendly staff. It’s regularly drawing diners from surrounding towns (roughly within 20 km). The chef sources a lot of his products from hyper-local producers, including pasta fresca, extruded spaghettone, saffron, burrata and mead (!). Meats come from heritage breeds: Cintato Rosso and Cinta Sense pork, Marchigiana and Chianina beef.

 

The owners don’t speak much English, meaning they have difficulty explaining the menu to guests who don’t speak Italian. So I’ve offered to translate their menu. Here are a few samples:

Pork loin carpaccio – Made with Cintato Rosso pork, a heritage breed, marinated in Rosso Conero wine and garnished with a Dijon mustard vinaigrette, caper berries and crushed Bronte pistachios

Cappellacci (Marche-style tortellini) – Stuffed with roast guinea hen, served in a pan sauce with chestnuts

Slow-cooked squab breast – Braised in mead and dried pear, served on butter bread and accompanied by sliced foie gras

Tartare of heifer beef – Made with Marchigiana beef, a heritage breed, served with mustard and sea fennel

 

I’m not saying this is * cooking but I think it’s Bib Gourmand level. There are only three restaurants in the area with Michelin reviews, and the closest is about a 45-minute drive away. The inspectors seem to be active on the coast – Uliassi now has 3 stars. The restaurant also doesn’t have much an online presence – no website or anything.

 

So, any ideas of how to catch the attention of the local inspector(s)? A review would also be a boost for the local economy, which it could sorely use.

Edited by cinghiale
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The local tourism authority would have a way of contacting mich.

Remember when you'd buy the guide and there was a little envelope inside to send them your opinion of a place?

I think the liver is important.

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I'm not really a fan. I find them kind of cloying. My wife likes them, though, so we sometimes pick up Lacrimas from Ma.Ri.Ca when we're in the area; they're quite good. If you ever find yourself in the Ancona province in late May, you can try all the Lacrimas you want at the annual Cantine Aperte event. €10 gets you a glass, a little tote to carry it in and free tastings at something like 75 vineyards in the province, which open their doors to the public for the weekend of the event. There's also one now during harvest time, it seems. They also take place in other regions, but I haven't gotten to them yet. Umbria would be great, I'm sure.

Edited by cinghiale
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On 2/3/2024 at 12:00 PM, Sneakeater said:

That's still more than I get!

(A Marchese restaurant opened in Brooklyn a few years ago but somehow they forget to put offal into their Vincisgrassi.)

(Cremini's doesn't use liver?)

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Posted (edited)

Chef has his offal game going for the summer menu:

Lampredotto sandwich: street food that I’m sure many of you have had in Florence. It’s usually translated at “tripe”, but my research showed that it’s actually made from the fourth stomach of the cow, the abomasum. Do we refer to stomach as “tripe”? Is there another word? I obviously can’t render it as “stomach sandwich”. The Germans have “Saumagen”, Helmut Kohl’s favorite dish, which is “sow stomach”, so no squeamishness there. I had the lampredotto about a month ago when he was trying it out. Delicious (according to the webs, it seems that everyone who eats them loves them).

Pajata: a new one for me. A classic Roman dish made with intestines from milk-fed calves, which is how I put it in the dish description. AFAIK the lining of the intestines creates a milky/cheesey sauce of its own accord. Can’t wait to try it.

He also has another Tuscan dish with a weird name: Tonno del Chianti. No, it’s not Chianti tuna but rather a pork preparation allegedly invented by Dario Cecchini (so he says). The chef showed me the prep in the kitchen, so I called it “slow-cooked pulled pork shoulder, served jar-packed under olive oil” (I know: the pulled pork shoulder is not slow cooked, but it was hard to fit everything in). It’s not unlike rillettes, I suppose, but I can’t rely on diners to know what that is. Cecchini says he uses “pork thigh”. Traditional recipes call for porky cast-off parts (which sounds great to me!) or even suckling piglets that won’t suckle.

Then there a new starter of wild salmon carpaccio cured in squid ink, which looks very nice.

A new primo is spaghettoni in a Mazara red prawn stock reduction with sea urchin roe and smoked cherry tomatoes. It’s the “red prawn stock reduction” that I’m not sure of. He calls it “bisque di gambero rosso”. I told him you can’t sauce a pasta (in English) with a “bisque”. He told me he stick blends the prawns with some brodo to make it. Still confused. Anyone have any ideas of what to call that kind of prep?

I’m not getting much traction with him on star-hunting. Doesn’t really interest him, though he acknowledges that one always has to aspire to be better. There are only three other restaurants in Marche with comparable menus that have one star.

ETA: salmon **carpaccio**

Edited by cinghiale
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Posted (edited)
On 2/4/2024 at 10:21 AM, cinghiale said:

I'm not really a fan. I find them kind of cloying. My wife likes them, though, so we sometimes pick up Lacrimas from Ma.Ri.Ca when we're in the area; they're quite good. If you ever find yourself in the Ancona province in late May, you can try all the Lacrimas you want at the annual Cantine Aperte event. €10 gets you a glass, a little tote to carry it in and free tastings at something like 75 vineyards in the province, which open their doors to the public for the weekend of the event. There's also one now during harvest time, it seems. They also take place in other regions, but I haven't gotten to them yet. Umbria would be great, I'm sure.

In more Marche news, the Cantine Aperte was this weekend. Had other commitments and couldn't go. But: the Brodetto Fest is this weekend. Might be time for a trip to the coast!

Edited by cinghiale
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1 hour ago, cinghiale said:

Chef has his offal game going for the summer menu:

Lampredotto sandwich: street food that I’m sure many of you have had in Florence. It’s usually translated at “tripe”, but my research showed that it’s actually made from the fourth stomach of the cow, the abomasum. Do we refer to stomach as “tripe”? Is there another word? I obviously can’t render it as “stomach sandwich”. The Germans have “Saumagen”, Helmut Kohl’s favorite dish, which is “sow stomach”, so no squeamishness there. I had the lampredotto about a month ago when he was trying it out. Delicious (according to the webs, it seems that everyone who eats them loves them).

Pajata: a new one for me. A classic Roman dish made with intestines from milk-fed calves, which is how I put it in the dish description. AFAIK the lining of the intestines creates a milky/cheesey sauce of its own accord. Can’t wait to try it.

Pajata is known as chinchulines in Argentina / Uruguay and it is really terrific, naturally stuffed with ricotta...

In Spain I've seen the fourth stomach as abomaso and it goes into tripe together with the other ones. In Japan it's Giara and is part of offal yakiniku (horumon). I'm not sure it's even marketable in the US. 

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