Inside one of the Palazzi dei Rolli in Genoa's historic center, Alessandro Ferrada and Iacopo Briano, former founders of BF Gallery, have created ETRA, an immersive experience between art and cuisine. In charge of the dining side, combined with the exhibitions, is chef Davide Cannavino, assisted in the wine cellar by Chiara Campora.
The restaurant
The concept is original: inside Palazzo Doria de Fornari, which is part of the Rolli series, cultural entrepreneur Alessandro Ferrada and paleontologist Iacopo Briano opened the art gallery Stupendo in 2020, after a Wunderkammer in Brussels. Three years later, it evolved into Etra (art in reverse), a blend of art gallery and fine dining. But this is not yet another restaurant placed in a museum, or the equally common display of artworks on the walls: in fact here cuisine and art go hand in hand, with menus inspired by the collections in a synaesthetic key.
They have chosen for the purpose a distinctly creative chef, well-established in the city: Davide Cannavino, who has already gone through Luca Collami's Baldin, in his Michelin-star days, and an internship with Paolo Lopriore, which he still feels, before 11 years in Voltri at the helm of Voglia Matta. With him in the cellar is partner Chiara Campora, a sommelier and taster who as a banker carries on a dual business, for love and for love of wine. Hers is a 250-reference list with lots of Liguria and lots of bubbles, which also imprint the pairing.
Until October, it will be time for the first Italian exhibition of DS&vT, a duo composed of Ferry van Tongeren and Jaap Sinke, whose acronym pays homage to Darwin. They express themselves through the technique of taxidermy, working on animal carcasses, which communicate fluently with the gallery's concepts and menu. Above the window of the open kitchen looms, for example, a sinister king crab caught in the Sea of Japan, while to the side, the skeleton of a Sumatran tiger is ready to snap.
Immersed in such evocations, Cannavino's cuisine has not lost the flash of irreverence. It oscillates between avant-garde compositions with edgy tastes, and classicist trials (two signatures are the brown stock risotto dedicated to Nino Bergese and in season the hare à la royale). It is divided into two courses: Elisir (6 courses at 85 euros) and Evergreen (8 courses at 110), from which it is possible to choose a la carte. The restaurant is open only for dinner, except on Mondays, but the day starts at the market at 8 AM, because only fresh ingredients are processed. And everyone does a little bit of everything, since between the dining room and kitchen, there are just four people.
“I learn about the artwork in advance, and it certainly influences my thinking on the plate as well,” Cannavino explains about the genesis of the menu. "Living Etra 18 hours a day, I get absorbed by it, but without overdoing it. Puglisi's previous exhibition, for example, inspired me with the black and white scallop; taxidermy, among other things, the Campari butter skull divertissement."
The dishes
The starting point is peach sashimi, marinated in tosazu vinegar and colatura, seasoned with tomato seeds for additional acidity and sumac, the chef's favorite spice, whose aromatic freshness unites the South and the Middle East. After the acidity, the iodine: the oyster is served with soft almond mousse (in keeping with the Scabinian pairing of the virtual oyster) and sea lettuce granita, for a summer burst, perhaps to be rebalanced in the doses.
The langoustine is torch-burned, to preserve succulence, and served with green gazpacho, spicy nasturtium, samphire, and lemon reduction. Then the classicist contrast of morchelle, a homage to France. Where the mushrooms are stuffed, as tradition dictates, with foie gras and cooked in butter and their broth, before the Ligurian (and Lopriore-sque) touch of extract and bay leaf powder. “Because some dishes give a sense of place, others do not: Etra is a black box in which to travel.”
Shelved for seasonal reasons, the excellent spaghetti with anchovy, gentian and raspberry, a match of primary flavors jolted by thermal contrasts, it's the turn of the lukewarm tubetti with sour sauce, dill and caviar: an outcast, soup-like format, served almost cold with classic Mornay sauce, dill for freshness, spring onion oil and caviar for the contrast between misery and nobility. "Squid and trumpet zucchini are a classic combination, already interpreted by Flavio Costa and Luigi Taglienti. Our version includes the dish and two satellites: the freshly seared, almost raw flesh, brushed of its stock with marjoram zucchini sauce; the mousse roll of the scraps and the flower stuffed with innards and zucchini."
After the pre-dessert, a natural wild strawberry sorbet, comes the Ligurian lemon, trompe-l'oeil reconstructed from Verezzi citrus fruits, with lemon and white chocolate ganache, filled with zest and albedo jam and glazed with cocoa butter and white chocolate.
Contacts
ETRA
Piazza Raffaele de Ferrari, 4, 16121 Genova GE
Phone: 010 731 6733
