At Le Cementine, located in the H-Farm Campus in Roncade, a team of young talents serves up the vibrant flavors of a refreshingly innovative cuisine, following in the footsteps of Le Calandre. “Massimiliano Alajmo means joy to me,” says Chef Mattia Ercolino.
Photos by Lido Vannucchi
The restaurant
It seems like an oasis of greenery, just a step away from the Venetian Lagoon and near the lush banks of the Sile River, with meadows dotted with wildflowers—splashes of red, yellow, and white caressed by the wind. However, it's actually a cutting-edge campus, where future leaders may be in training.
This place is called H-Farm, and among its attractions is a dining experience curated by the Alajmo brothers. Its pinnacle of excellence is the restaurant Le Cementine, where a team of young talents offers a cuisine that follows in the footsteps of Le Calandre but is more relaxed and refreshingly innovative. The restaurant itself is stunning, with its decorative floors that give it its name and large windows overlooking the greenery. In the warmer months, tables extend outside.
There’s also a garden, which will soon host charming aperitifs, sometimes as preludes to collaborative events. The restaurant is headed by Mattia Ercolini, a thirty-year-old born and raised in Padua. After attending culinary school in Abano, following his older brother’s footsteps, and spending some seasons in the Euganean Hills, by the sea, and in the mountains, he soon encountered his mentor.
“At first, I liked eating more than cooking. Then my father gave me a dinner at Cera for my birthday. He always encouraged me, saying that my efforts would eventually be rewarded. That dinner left me spellbound. As I left the restaurant, I said to myself: 'If I become a chef, I want to do it like this, creating emotions.' So, I was determined to enter the gourmet world, no matter the cost.
I enrolled in the Alajmo Master of Italian Cuisine, spending six months in Vicenza. Then I did my internship at Le Calandre. I started as an intern, became responsible for Il Calandrino, opened Amor in Milan, which closed due to COVID, and joined H-Farm in 2021 to oversee various projects, including the pizzeria, the greenhouse, and Le Cementine. When the previous chef left, I finally took his place.”
A singular mastery, then. Intensely evident in the dish. “To me, Massimiliano's cuisine is an expression of joy; then there are various concepts like lightness. But for me, it’s happiness.” He often visits for menu changes and events, but the relationship is constant.
The concept
If inputs come from Roncade, perhaps due to the emergence of some early vegetables in the garden, the menu drafts are shared, then the details of the recipes are fine-tuned collaboratively, whether they are new or revised. Mattia and Massimiliano always decide what to plant in the garden, which also sends some crates to Rubano. When the vegetables are ready, the team members handle the harvest, covering up to 70% of the summer's needs. They also practice foraging, hunting for flavors to complement meats and fish from selected farms that respect animal welfare.
After three years, the restaurant already has its seasonal signature dishes featured in a Classics menu, which follows the garden’s offerings and defines the restaurant. Then there’s the Campagna menu, dedicated to meat and vegetables, and the Sile menu, focused more on the lagoon, with new dishes, inspirations from Le Calandre, or other group locations. All menus cost 130 euros and can vary—one day it’s Swiss chard, the next it’s kale if it’s looking better. The bread (puffed and black with seeds, plus burnt wheat tarallo, spicy oregano “rubanese,” and fennel carta musica) comes from the Mamma Rita laboratory in Padua.
The wine list is managed by Ilaria Ravanelli, who worked for two years at Le Calandre with Matteo Bernardi. It favors organic and biodynamic wines that are not extreme but elegant, selected from the discussions with Bernardi, Raffaele Alajmo, the other group sommeliers, and the purchasing agent. The glasses are rotated, and the pairing is based on intuition. In the dining room is also director Laura Roncaccioli, arriving from Stern.
The dishes
The first bites are vegetable-based, "to keep it light and to welcome you to the garden." Examples include radish with sunflower sauce, cherry tomato stuffed with tomato sorbet, and peas in their pod.
Among the starters, the Pea Soup with tarragon, nettles, asparagus, pepper sorbet, and chicory stands out, a dish that plays on the contrast of temperatures and textures between the hot, thick cream, the sorbet, the asparagus foam, and the crispy pea-filled pillow.
Another highlight is the delicious veal meatballs, prepared classically and rolled in melted Parmesan to create a crispy crust, served with Parmesan fondue, grilled artichokes, Swiss chard, or other garden vegetables.
However, the chef particularly excels in the pasta dishes. Consider the exquisite spring risotto, with a mix of vegetables that varies, such as peas, fava beans, herbs foraged along the Sile River like hop shoots, dandelion, and nettles, asparagus sorbet, and extra virgin olive oil.
Or the irresistible spaghettoni with Bloody Mary, a classic garlic, oil, and chili pepper dish enhanced with garden green beans, hop shoots, Tabasco, and Worcestershire sauce, paired with a cocktail of cherry tomatoes and Tabasco, minus the vodka, reimagining a classic tomato pasta.
For the main course, there’s grilled squid with its ink, romesco sauce made of tomato and pepper, almonds, and slightly smoked snow peas and green beans. Among the signature dishes is the spicy glazed hen, a small bird glazed with a sauce made from its roasted bones, spiced with chili, and finished with oyster sauce, combining countryside and lagoon flavors, a combination well-known in classic cuisine.
The desserts are excellent. The fruit salad on apple pastry with a frozen whisky sour block to nibble alongside the sparkling lemon foam is delightful, as is the Terramisù, a playful reinterpretation made of mascarpone cream and truffle, earthy beet granita, and more prized black truffle on top.
Contacts
Le Cementine
Address: Via Sile, 6, 31056 Roncade TV
Phone. 3276774581
Website
