Argine a Vencò practices the sustainability that everyone talks about but very few actually carry out. “I find it impossible to serve an ingredient, no matter how precious and good, without the thought of what is being taken away from those who will come after us.” This is how Antonia Klugmann transforms nature's gifts into dishes of great elegance.
She is of little words and great talent, she seems shy but those who know her say it is not true, she has a vision of her own to which she has given shape in a Friulian borderland where she has found a home, L'Argine a Vencò di Dolegna del Collio, in the province of Gorizia. She is chef Antonia Klugmann, owner of a seductive, pleasant place where one feels good, owner together with her sister Vittoria of dreams, passions and ambitions that they manage to shape year after year.
Antonia Klugmann was born in Trieste in 1979; after graduating from high school, she moved to Milan and enrolled in the Faculty of Law, which she abandoned after three years to approach the world of cooking. He trained through apprenticeships, working in different places in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Veneto. She soon realized that the aspect that interests her most about the cook's profession is the creative one. So in 2006, at only 27 years old, she became an entrepreneur, renting her first restaurant in the province of Udine.
After an experience of four years, she decides to buy land where she could design from scratch a structure that would totally match her. She chose Collio Goriziano, a frontier territory in which she found many affinities with her native Trieste. During the years it took to build her new restaurant, she worked in Venice as chef first at Il Ridotto and later at Venissa. This is a summary of her official bio, but to know its nuances it is neither enough to read it, nor to have followed her when she was a judge on MasterChef Italia, much less land on the opinions of others, not even on this one you are reading. To get to know this chef you have to sit at her table, because you realize how true it is that someone can express herself through what she knows how to do and in which she has found her calling.
The restaurant
L'Argine in Vencò opened its doors in late 2014, and right from the start the idea was to devote itself to seasonal cuisine through very personal and identity-driven recipes, using only local ingredients representative of Friuli-Venezia Giulia's wide biodiversity. The basis of each menu is vegetables, fruits and herbs, both cultivated and wild, which Klugmann has always cared about and which appear copiously in the many different menus that follow one another seasonally. A key concept is sustainability, which everyone talks about but few actually carry out, sourcing locally, reducing waste and enhancing every part of the ingredients with their own creativity.
“I only ever cook what is beautiful and interesting to me. For many years I have tried to approach the ingredient with an awareness dictated by the knowledge of the effort behind its production by the artisan, the farmer and the workers in general but also the respect I have for animal life. Life that is sacrificed to bring the ingredient into our kitchens. I avoid using cuts of meat that are considered noble and I choose non-intensive and preferably local farms. Thanks to the fishmonger I work with, we have improved our selection over the years by choosing varieties̀ with less impact on the health of the sea and by paying special attention to fishing techniques. Fish resources are in very short supply, and I find it impossible to serve an ingredient, however valuable and good, without the thought of what is being taken away from those who will come after us. I would almost feel as if I were plundering the future from the next generation by thinking only of my own convenience and that of my guests.
We directly acquire cheeses only from small and local producers. As for vegetables we have always paid great attention to seasonality, we try through cooking techniques to get the most out of vegetables in general without waste. Having a small garden in front of the restaurant has been a school for all of L'Argine in Vencò. The more direct relationships you have with the production side, the more you develop an awareness of the resources needed in cultivation as well as in farming. We use only common and not rare herbs and on this front we are practically independent, thanks to the garden and the vegetable garden we have a really very low impact on wild nature trying to understand first of all what is the link between the wild and the cultivated," Klugmann says proudly.
Moreover, the chef is since 2022 WWF Italy's Ambassador for the Food4Future campaign, a program that aims to change food systems from production to consumption to make them more resilient, more inclusive, healthier and more sustainable, taking into account human needs and the planet's limits. “In 2024, tips dedicated to sustainability from citizens, companies and institutions are told by WWF as part of the Our Future Campaign. The chef was involved, in particular, in Blue Panda Week: a week in early September of public events, research, advocacy and education activities organized in Trieste where WWF's Mediterranean Sea Ambassador sailboat landed. Chef Klugmann participated in an institutional panel discussion having as its theme the enhancement of small-scale artisanal fisheries.
This is an endangered form of fishing that has the potential to be more sustainable and has great historical, social and cultural value. The Chef's contribution focused on how we can enhance the seafood that artisanal fishing offers, despite the fact that they are not always known to consumers," says her sister Vittoria, the other half of this place, a measured and brilliant Director who has as much if not everything in hand beyond the door of that kitchen as the life of the room in which diners experience that couple of joyful hours. Note of merit right from the room to sommelier Roberto Stella, here since 2018, who with élan and informality proposes the two wine routes choosing from the approximately 700 labels: one is meant to represent the territory that from Trieste rises to the Karst runs along the border with Slovenia and then reaches the foothills of the Pre-Alps, the other includes a selection of winemakers from the rest of Italy and abroad that correspond to Chef Klugmann's cuisine.
The dishes
But let's come to the kitchen, the tasting menus are definitely the best way to experience proposal and idea of L'Argine a Vencò, “Our Menu” of 7 courses and “Territory: Life in Motion” of 10. You won't find repeated dishes, difficult, the chef says she doesn't have great classics (“signature” if you prefer) or dishes she has become fond of over time but creations she particularly cares about that she inserts from time to time, as in the case of the dish dedicated to bread, currently the recipe she cares most about . A portioned slice of bread that has been soaked for a few days, roasted in a pan, topped with bread cream, fennel seed water, white wine reduction, glazed with bread cream. “It's an echo of a panada" (quote) with a texture you don't expect because it has a soft crispness and lots of length on tasting, depth and no, dairy doesn't appear even though you'd bet on it. Multidimensionality of taste and surprise aside, it's nice to see a dish dedicated to what unites the herdsman with the king, the bread, appear on a table of this course.
Among the others, the cuttlefish with hazelnut, queen of harmony and elegance, and then the cold spaghetti, peach and tomato, whose cooking is finished in a pan with a peach and tomato broth, is cooled using ice and served with the pan-cooked peaches and jarred picadilly tomatoes cooked with basil, are striking in their gracefulness, elegance and flavor. Chapeau. An interesting, curious menu, certainly light and nimble, you will realize after a few hours, made of selected ingredients, unquestionable technique, details beyond the plate and apt colors. All dishes, speaking of details, are served on and in ceramics from L'Arte nel Pozzo, a family-run workshop for over 30 years in Staranzano, in the province of Gorizia, with which the chef has fallen in love.
And then, for those who would like to fully experience Casa Klugmann, there are four rooms available to stay overnight, a much-needed project that arrived at a later date, now brought to fruition and able to make the experience at L'Argine a Vencò even more all-encompassing . A building dating back to the mid-1600s that originally served as a mill's grain store. The irrigation ditch, where the structure on which the wheel was grafted is still visible, now divides the property from that of neighbors where what remains of the actual mill is located. The project was overseen by “STUDIOMVA associati, architetti” of Trieste, with whom the sisters had already collaborated in 2018 to create the second room of the restaurant that overlooks the vineyards. Then in the morning, a gourmet breakfast is served in the garden, and you start being happy, again.
Contact
Address: locality Vencò, Dolegna del Collio (Go)
Phone: +39.0432.727730
Website: http://www.largineavenco.it
email: info@largineavenco.it
