If it is indeed San Pellegrino that promotes and sponsors the most important events related to the world of Italian but also global high-end cuisine, there is a reason, and we discovered it during FuoriSalone.
If you had tried to call Superstudio più in via Tortona and were lucky enough to find a seat, you could have participated in Live from Milan, which kicked off with the first day of Design Week, Tuesday 8, and ended with the last event on Sunday 13. Each day a starred chef would offer his or her very personal take on spaghetti, tacking together a menu that had this pasta as the mainstay. A total of two appointments per day, lunch and dinner, with three rounds for each and a live show cooking before the meal.
So on Friday the 11th we arrived at the location, and after being accredited, we were offered an aperitif, which could only consist of San Pellegrino sparkling water and Panna natural water. At 2:35 p.m. sharp, we were seated in a small glass room, like tables of four seats each. It was only then that I found out that this was not a simple tasting of a plate of spaghetti but a real lunch! First we were treated to an olive stuffed with panzanella and eggplant marinated in sunflower honey, followed by an (almost) squid ravioli, which was delicious. Bellavista Alma Cuvée Brut Franciacorta appeared from the first course and the waiters did not spare themselves in offering it, but those who did not like it could have continued to dine on water. Finally we come to the long-awaited spaghetti with Nolche olives, cherry tomatoes and Vendicari oregano in a lemon scent. Dishes are always professionally explained during service and cutlery changed for each course: professionalism is always welcome. At the end of the pasta, chef Fabio Pisani circles among the guests' tables with his unfailing smile and graciously answers questions from curious and enthusiastic, but mostly excited, people like me.
Just to spoil us to the last, we are finally served a dessert of bread and jam with Venezuelan chocolate mousse and a drizzle of oil.
Sated, satisfied but above all pleased that San Pellegrino with the collaboration of such competent chefs every now and then reminds us that the strength of our Belpaese lies in occasions like these: affordable, structured and qualitatively (excuse the now overused term) excellent!
