A path of continuous renewal: Riccardo Gaspari's ethical cuisine, Ludovica Rubbini's storytelling in the dining room, and a sustainable microcosm that draws food enthusiasts from across the country to Cortina.
Portraits by Giuseppe Ghedina
Landscapes and dishes by Chantal Arnts
In 2000, Norbert Niederkofler was the first to define the "Cook the Mountain" philosophy, envisioning a fine dining approach that used only mountain-sourced ingredients, with recipes and cooking techniques deeply connected to high-altitude regions. Since then, many have taken inspiration from his idea. Among the many projects that stemmed from this concept, SanBrite (along with Brite de Larieto) is one of the strongest successors.
The story
Riccardo Gaspari, born in 1985 and a native of Cortina d'Ampezzo, graduated from a carpentry school. He was a young ski champion specializing in speed events, then a ski instructor, and later he helped his father with the family farm and worked as a cheesemaker. He eventually transitioned to the kitchen at the family-run agriturismo, "El Brite de Larieto." In 2017, he founded SanBrite and became its chef-patron.
Ludovica Rubbini, originally from Bologna, had been visiting Cortina with her family for vacations since she was a child, gradually extending her stays for longer periods. She eventually chose to gain work experience in the dining area at "El Brite de Larieto." In 2017, she co-founded SanBrite and became its general manager.
Some say that it was Ludovica's presence that convinced Riccardo to become a chef for good, and we like that thought too. What’s certain is that the decision to create the gourmet restaurant, just a few hundred feet from the agriturismo, was a shared idea. SanBrite opened in 2017, introduced the concept of “Regenerative Cuisine” in 2020, received a Michelin star in the 2021 guide, and then a green star in the 2022 guide. This is in addition to other parallel projects like “Genesis” and BriteMobile.
Credit is due to the founders for envisioning an agricultural and wild-food-based kitchen in Cortina, for planning its evolution, and for turning it into sustainable actions that make sense both economically and socially. They also deserve recognition for doing things differently from the common approach today, where most start with a gourmet restaurant and then create a more casual version, like a bistro. Instead, SanBrite was the final piece in a story that began with a farm and continues to include the agriturismo, a dairy, a charcuterie, event planning, and even offering snacks and "merende."
Today, we simply enjoy the pleasure of sitting at a table in the restaurant and trying the tasting menu with a clear guide in mind: “Regenerative is taking care of the land we serve; regenerative is letting our animals roam free and making cheeses that change color depending on what they eat. For us, regenerative isn't a technique to master but a guiding principle for our products. The future of food, to us, is food that's honest, unmanipulated, and consistent.”
The restaurant
The restaurant is located along the road leading to the Faloria and Cristallo ski areas, in a traditional Ampezzo-style house with a stone ground floor and an upper floor that juts out, with wooden exterior walls. The dining room offers an unparalleled view of the Tofane mountains. The furnishings are a triumph of wood, stone, iron, and fabrics expertly crafted by local artisans. The bundles of dried flowers hanging from the beams add color and warmth.
Another notable achievement of the two founders is their ability to inspire and involve other talented professionals in their project. Simone Pandolfi, who joined the team in 2020, is now a maître d' who runs the dining room with a perfect balance of pace, charm, sensitivity, and expertise. Vincenzo Saladino has been the sommelier at SanBrite since 2019, guiding guests through a curated selection from the best wineries in Trentino, Alto-Adige, and Friuli, while also showcasing his knowledge of wines from other regions, especially in France. He has designed a wine list with very fair pricing.
The "Sentiero" Tasting Menu and the Dishes
The name of the open-handed tasting menu, "Sentiero," is no coincidence. A trail in nature is a path marked by experts, guiding travelers to a specific destination safely, regardless of the season. It's the same concept here. In the winter season, this tasting menu features techniques like smoking, preserving, and macerating. The experience begins with an aperitif: an onion ravioli with an onion filling; a wafer with pollen mayonnaise, black garlic, cranberries, and fermented cabbage; a tartlet with leek mayonnaise, mustard seeds, and heirloom tomato marinated in beetroot. This entirely plant-based start is delicious and crunchy. Special praise goes to the onion ravioli, which surprises with its intensity and depth of flavor despite using a single ingredient.
The next course is a programmatic manifesto by Gaspari, the Herbarium. It's a pure tasting of various berries and other items that change with the seasons—A kind of alphabet to understand the language the kitchen uses to communicate. It's educational and culturally enriching. Today's Herbarium includes: marinated chanterelles, natural rose pollen, cranberries, dried trout, fermented plum, spruce, and overripe carrot. This delightful array of flavors ranges from sharp acidity and intense saltiness to unexpected sweetness and more herbaceous, balsamic notes. These tastes convey a message: winter is the time to enjoy what was preserved in the summer. After getting a taste for the philosophy of the kitchen, the first true dish of the tasting menu arrives: snail.
This is far from the classic French-style snail. Here, the snail is cooked in parsley water, with Swiss chard and goat cheese sauce. It turns out to be unexpectedly fresh, with a pronounced acidity, perfectly balanced between the main ingredient and the herbaceous component. The second course in the tasting keeps the focus on a core ingredient from the local area, this time a vegetable, enhanced by other elements to elevate it and avoid any blandness. It's a marinated beetroot with Greek yogurt and trout roe, topped with a sauce made from kvass, a fermented bread drink typical of Eastern European cuisines, to which horseradish and carrot oil are added. The dish has a complex flavor profile, with pronounced acidity, and surprises with its delightful taste.
Before the next dish, the bread service arrives, with in-house baked bread and whipped salted butter. SanBrite's salted butter has gained quite a reputation, with over 462 Google search results to date. It’s fair to say its fame is well-deserved, and Gaspari's perfect salt balance makes it a favorite among butter enthusiasts. Next is a grilled onion, glazed with its own jus, with a creamy lard and onion mixture, complemented by a smoked pork broth. The inspiration comes from the classic onion soup, a typical dish of the region. Here, the smoked broth softens not so much the onion's sharpness, which is delicate and mineral, but the intensity of the lard cream.
The tasting continues with trout grilled on the skin side, set atop a fish and porcini base, accompanied by a salad of fermented plums and elderflowers. This dish is more traditional, comforting, and less surprising than the previous ones. The trout flavor is not as prominent as expected, and the elderflower doesn't fully stand out. The first pasta course consists of ravioli filled with slow-cooked beef tongue, served with three sauces: green sauce, cabbage sauce, and a celeriac jus. The fresh pasta is perfectly executed in terms of thickness and cooking, with a delicate filling and a well-balanced blend of the three sauces. This is comfort food interpreted through a "regenerative cuisine" lens. The next course returns to a completely plant-based theme with "Orto": a winter garden featuring extra-mature carrots, both marinated and raw, black garlic cream, chives, and finished with a leek broth. Overall, it's pleasant, though some individual flavors tend to blend into the background.
Venison marinated with spruce and smoked pollen, served with its jus and a base of bread kvass. The venison is perfectly cooked to the exact degree, and its serving temperature is ideal. This main dish, expected to showcase the quality of the noble and rich ingredient through precision cooking, turns out to be quite a surprise. The bread kvass once again deserves credit for adding a delightful depth, stimulating salivation, and giving the palate a pleasant rhythm.
The tasting journey ends with "Sottobosco," a dessert that visually captures the essence of the entire experience. It represents a winter forest. At the top is a slab of ice, elderflower, and yogurt powder, depicting the cold and snow of winter. Those who choose to break the ice find a creamy yogurt with larch, a carob cream, and a celery extract, hinting that every winter carries the promise of a new summer. Notably, the chef has stopped using added sugars in his desserts, relying only on the sugars naturally found in the ingredients.
After our "Sentiero" arrives, we are treated to a selection of petite pastries and candied fruit, adding a playful touch, and then a chat with the staff. It seems an expansion project is in the approval process, which will further enhance the environment with a new reception area, complementing the existing convivial room (already stunning and available for large tables or tastings), which recently replaced the former dairy shop.
Contacts
SanBrite
Località Alverà, 32043 Cortina d'Ampezzo BL
P. 0436 863882
