Pretentiousness and the mountain
When cooking should be prioritized over storytelling
This post here is to remind you that my other blog,
is available in both English and Italian, and there is one in-depth article each month.There, I write about mountain food and ways of living, trail tracks and mountain refuges, and the sustainability and taste of the mountain. From mellow green pasture Alpine valleys to rock scrambling peaks, from the Dolomites to volcanos - all things food and mountain.
Every first Saturday of the month. Go check it out:
We spent the summer in the Italian Alps, delighted by delicious food, strengthened by power hikes and thrilled by climbs - we can now reach grade II, which means that a trained climber can ascend and descend ropeless, but we cannot.
Between hikes and mountain refuges with their traditional food, we visited a couple of restaurants - among our favourites, in a sort of summer pilgrimage in places we like.
We ventured to the Garda Lake to visit our friends Andrea and Marco Leali of Casa Leali. We tried their delicious new menu, featuring an unmissable risotto with arugula and kiwi. We visited Renato Bosco and his crunchy pizzas and Simone Padoan at I Tigli for his delightful pizza creations. In June, we visited our dearest mountain cook, Alessandro Gilmozzi, at El Molin to taste his splendid summer menu (I have already written about him several times). We went to Sanzeno, dined al fresco at Osteria Casa dei Gentili, and had the unmissable copper pan-roasted trout at Baita Marnara in Maso Milano. We have not visited the Camanini brothers at Lido84 or dearest Peter Brunel in Arco this year. We are also missing a visit to the Alajmo universe and Osteria della Villetta.
But this year, as every year, we tried one new restaurant, and in this case, it was a much-anticipated restaurant in Pinzolo, Val Rendena, Italy. Our mountain guide is from this valley, so we have naturally spent quite some time there, which is our starting point for multi-day hikes, climbs, and mountain ascents.
We went with our best intentions and high expectations, as the restaurant boasted an inspiring manifesto:
“We want to make cooking truly sustainable, trying to reduce waste to a minimum and favouring a very short supply chain with local producers. We want to make cooking truly sustainable, trying to reduce waste to a minimum and favoring a very short supply chain with local producers.
Each ingredient belongs to a season, the moment of the year in which it best expresses its characteristics and this is what we are looking for. Our menu changes with the seasons, we give ample space to traditional local cheeses and there is no shortage of vegetarian options. And, there's no service charge.”
The stakes were super high.
But as always, entering with low or no expectations would have been better. The menu was disappointing, with an astonishing ill-treatment of otherwise perfect ingredients. Especially meats were so mistreated, I felt compelled to write an article about eating meat - and exactly in the moment where I’m considering giving it all up!
If you want to know the rest, you will have to subscribe.
In this article:
How not to treat meat: destroying beef should be a crime - Part 1: the Tartare
How not to treat meat: destroying beef should be a crime - Part 2: the Tagliata
Why is everything sweet, salty and dry?
Serving wines at room temperature when it’s 28 degrees: a sommelier faux pas
