Between progressive sparks and spurs generated by inquisitiveness, La Madonnina del Pescatore celebrates its 40th anniversary with a menu that is pure discovery, of the area and of the world. At its core, everything that "the Cedronis" have done and keep doing with inborn elegance.
Photo credits: Lido Vannucchi, Lorenzo Cicconi Massi e Brambilla -Serrani
Photos of new dishes on the menu: Brambilla-Serrani
The restaurant
When the stars line up imagination, that picture becomes a reference point for the entire sky we are given to see. Thus, 2024 becomes the year of another Senigallia. We are in Marzocca and here, on a white beach with turquoise waters, Moreno Cedroni's imagination turns sixty, and the gastronomic reference when it comes to the sea, that is Madonnina del Pescatore, turns forty.
"Forty years ago began a journey that has marked my way of seeing the world forever. For the first time, I came across an image of rare beauty that often comes back to my mind. It is the image of the Cape of Good Hope. There, where two bodies of water, the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean, merge together while remaining distinct at the same time. An image so sharp, so immense, that it moved in me the desire to recreate similar fusion of two equally incisive forces in my kitchen. I identified these two forces in creativity and tradition, the building blocks, source of inspiration, creation and energy of my cuisine."
I thought about it a lot, and I could find no better words to begin this article than his, Moreno's own. In my hand I have a little white booklet that Mariella, his companion in life and vision, gave me, and leafing through it, images and words moved me. That is why I decided to use that image, described by Moreno Cedroni, as the perfect opening of a story that, after all, belongs to them.
If I go back forty years, I was seven years old, and while I was scraping my knees outside my house, playing soccer on a street that decreed goals to the sound of slamming shutters, today I imagine a couple of twenty-somethings falling in love, investing passionately in their return to the future. Because, as Andrea Petrini says , "the Cedronis have always had their feet in the water," and in 1984 Moreno and Mariella opened Madonnina del Pescatore.
No one knew how much potential there was in that spark, not even them, who as often as possible, travel the world to understand the cuisine and bring home reasoned visions in the whole of one trip. The sea at the center, a daughter and their 30 years of marriage in between, with everything else outside. Outside the box, of course, given that everything the Cedronis have done and continue to do with innate elegance remains inclusive, welcoming and engaging.
Travel is a fundamental trace for Moreno Cedroni and, from the school of Gualtiero Marchesi to his visceral love for the gastronomic genius of Ferran Adrià, his cuisine has always been the ultimate expression of contaminations both given and received, of encounters and clashes with every edge of the planet where, together with Mariella, one has had the pleasure of voluntarily stumbling. That is why, amid progressive sparks and creative spurs generated continuously by curiosity, La Madonnina del Pescatore celebrates its 40th anniversary with one statement above all on the menu : "Creativity is to not copy."
A quote from Jacques Maximin, that family friend Adrià always remembers. A respected Cedroni hymn in the originality of expression of each dish, coming out of that large window facing the sea, that has become a national gastronomic observatory, on the culture of the sea. Yes, because Moreno never knew he was an avant-gardist, he always discovered it later. From fish ripening and seafood charcuterie to Susci di Portonovo, projects that have made him an avant-gardist over time, thanks to the natural progression of research work.
A mission transformed into his The Tunnel, the lab where, with the great talent of Luca Abbadir - at Moreno's side since 2007 - the entire time is spent in a long series of culinary experiments. High technology at the service of tradition and taste, another secret sought to express more and more what imagination conjures up in a creative craftsman of good food.
The dishes
The menu of the journey that brings together sixty years of age, forty of Madonnina and thirty of marriage, could not but be a voyage itself and, above all, could not but be a dream. That of dressing each diner in the shoes of Marco Polo, so that they could set sail from his Adriatic, and ride the waves of spices and scents that reach the Far East. From Venice to Beijing, via Aleppo (the only 2016 dish), Tehran and Samarkand, in a series of courses that close with no less than three desserts. The last, is a map of the entire journey translated into a petit fours.
"Bagdad" is a cooked sea urchin cream with tahina, umeboshi and dates, "Tehran" is a ceviche of amberjack (one of his favorite fish, along with mackerel and eel) with hints of forest, partridge in soy and honey with enoki sauce and Chartreuse, "the Last Beijing" is then a Fusilloro with pigeon heart and raguse (a special kind of sea snails), fennel and almond tofu.
These are some of the dishes that encapsulate a complex sense of accomplishment. Intense flavors, sweet notes and strong components of vegetal acidity, coming from spices and fermented vegetables, not without small and centered daring of bitterness. As if to seek a sense of completeness in a journey that ends (in the savory creations) with a first course, a gesture of friendship, as when at a friend's house before going to sleep, one gets together around a spaghettata.
A room of restrained voices and warm colors seems to have been designed yesterday, and the front of house service is a set of precise movements that are never perceived. The feeling of being at ease is constant, and to see that Moreno of forty years ago returned to the enthusiasms of room service is gratifying, even for those who, in this day and age, think everything is always too fast. Then again, to count the time, it never goes by.
Perseverance is a gift, creativity is a gift, and perhaps technique can be as well, but it is the attitude of never feeling like you have made it, and that you earn it every day instead, never ceasing to struggle to keep exploring. From the Cape of Good Hope to today some water has moved in the undertow of Marzocca, and Moreno and Mariella are there, in their kindness, always figuring out where to point the bow again.
Address
Madonnina del Pescatore
Via, Lungomare Italia, 11, 60019 Senigallia AN
Phone: 071 698267
