Solidity and strategic vision beyond the plate, for a sign capable of filling the restaurant without giving in to fashionable detours: Marco Martini scores a model of haute cuisine that works, challenging Rome's “all glitz and glitter.” The credo of a chef-entrepreneur and his good team.
"A restaurant is not a photo gallery on Instagram, nor is it an abstract philosophical concept: you have to get your facts right to run it, rather than taking storytelling courses. If you're working steady you always put two things at the top of the list: employees and customers. The former paid and fulfilled, the latter happy to come back. Then we also talk about the rest."
We meet Marco Martini vis à vis on a Friday evening in the rooms of Mantis wine bar - one floor below the starred namesake and one floor above the expectations of finding ourselves addressing the hot topics of the overexposed gastronomic entourage. His intro almost throws us off: he doesn't start with the slew of awards pasted on the door, much less ride the long wave of the new tasting menu. Marco seems to want to rattle off hard data in place of the gourmet fairy tale, challenging a all glitz and glamour Roma immersed in weekend congestion.
People arrive in groups, they are fellow diners and never anonymous payers to be carded with table numbers. The talk spins, the facts speak. “Let's have a look in the kitchen": the chef suddenly gets up after stretching us two Mantis seaweed fritters, a tactical whim ‘stolen’ from the use of fishermen who turn the scraps stuck to their nets into delicacies. “He who lives by sacrifice sharpens his wits.” It's the pre-dinner you don't expect, at the height of tension as the service begins. You instinctively imagine an anxious clanking, the nervous team, the busy station. Instead there it is, the brigade winking at you as the chef opens the cell with hams crammed in a nice row. The positive tension goes past the glass: you are seeing live how the wheel of a restaurant "on the move". As well, against the tide, beyond the main flow.
The chef and the restaurant
Marco said more in 30 minutes than we could have gotten out of him in retrospect about the courses tasted in 3 hours of dining. He said perhaps what we usually struggle to write: dining is about what it does not appear to be, invisible foundations at the base of a tower of stacked dishes. Respect for a team to instill confidence in. The supplier in the flesh beyond the bar code. The consistency of presenting real food net of cerebral sophistry. The combination of pragmatism, strategy, economics. And now that we've put it down on paper, we may as well scroll down the menus, because the real ingredients are upstream.
First, fine dining has its smart stand-in: those who want to dine in the newly opened wine bar (also run by Martini with partner and sommelier Andrea Farletti) one flight of stairs down. Those who go up, however, access the main sign, a reflection of a chef who has taken Michelin to three different locations since its inception, earning him the title of Italy's youngest star in his time. And to think he had made his debut with rugby, the competition nurtured by years of workouts. Instead, he finally scored on the pass.
In between are the evolutions alongside Antonello Colonna, the London training at Tom Aikens, the temperament of the former Colleferro-born boy, who carves a path through the dense fumes of "cooked cuisine." The only shortcuts, those to return home late at night dodging the capital's chaos. Reflexively, it is as if the communicative opening gives shape to a restaurant with sharp profiles, forthright and material in its management of the lights that invade the space thanks to the wide glass coverage. The gaze falls at regular intervals on the squiggly flooring, the bare tables devoid of tablecloths, and-even before-the soothing tones of the winter garden at the entrance to the Art Nouveau villa that houses the sign.
Tightening the double knot between stage and backstage, the easygoing welcome (and glasses) of Andrea Farletti, who over the years has imprinted an “outside the box” cellar full of exclusively natural references (well before the clean label became a must have). The result is a crescendo of wines with a lively sip, capable of dialoguing with the courses of the four itineraries on the menu accomplice to the selection of the excellent maître and sommelier Giuseppe Rastelli.
By the way: locality splashes into pole position with Romanissimi, a crossover of "main dishes" that travels from the Tiramisu di coda alla vaccinara to Rombo, saltimbocca and chicory (150 euros for 6 courses). Absorbing seasonal hues and fragrances is the Percezione itinerary (6 acts at 165 euros), while Empatia taps the terrain of discovery, offering 10 totally blind passages (195 euros). Last only by listing, the Vegan-etariana formula, subject to the free “a la carte” excursus. As for the team, the circle is closed by the rank duo composed of chef Dino Felici and sous chef Simone Carmignani, “the driving force behind a project that even now I still don't tire of calling a ‘dream,’ ” Marco confesses-a hand on the apron laces and a foot already in the kitchen.
Dishes
There's no typical “zero waste” refrain to accompany the welcome: the transparent wrapper surrounding the "100 percent seeded”cracker speaks for itself, to be taken away after the meal in case a small piece is left over. Strange but true: doggy bag included and no self-aggrandizing rhetoric. So the range gradually extends over the Roman guilty pleasures map, until it follows oriental traces: the ethereal Puffed Rice with Russian Salad, the Takoyaki, shrimp cocktail and smoky pink sauce , and the salty alter ego of the Cono gelato (a waffle filled with amatriciana, Pecorino cheese tip and dehydrated Pecorino cheese topping like grains) parade in sequence.
Then there's " Il nido," the birth of carbonara, an effective summary of complementary textures: Parmigiano mousse, marinated egg, mezza manica pasta shape, and guanciale. The first course that sits comfortably in its freshly hatched shell, an elegant slap in the face to the overblown carbocreme.
Would you have thought that a seafood appetizer could remind you of the mash up of flavors in an ultra-condensed pizza? It happens in Seppia alla Capricciosa, which reconnects the popular legacy to the precision study of the subject matter. “In the early days I delivered rounds to people's homes, that's my pre-culinary background. Hence the idea of enhancing every single element of the Capricciosa," the chef explains. There are the homemade artichokes in oil, the cooked ham sauce, the baked olives, the marinated quail egg to be cracked at the moment. And finally, champignons cleverly “disguised as porcini mushrooms”-“ raw, dehydrated for a short time, then breaded with the ‘noble mushroom’ to emphasize its earthiness and deep woody hints.”
To push the ping-pong between substance and appearance, Marco introduces a principle of seafood porksmithing: in "Sogliola e porchetta " the fish is spiced with exactly the same processing method as the pork, "while to simulate the crispy part of the rind we dry the skin". So when you eat there come two parallel impulses: on the one hand the sonorous crunch, on the other the fragrant effluvia of the rind. Anyway, the pork doesn't disappear: it takes back the running scene, its belly flavored by the fennel that the chef harvested over the summer months. “Plants and wild herbs we source for ourselves". So much so, a lemon sole base and a steamed chard leaf are enough to degrease the palate.
You cannot miss the Cacio e pepe, however “hidden in the pasta”. It is in fact the filling of a Fagottello with ajillo shrimp and finger lime: the “heart-warming” interior exploding generously, releasing all the comfort of the cream cheese; the exterior splattered by a red turnip and charcoal motif, almost psychedelic in its chromatic impact.
" I chose the white shrimp pairing above, 'Madrid trattoria' style and 100% true to the poor Spanish recipe. The red shrimp makes your life easier, you put a scenic garnish on it and you're good to go. The humble one, less emblazoned and more complex to process, on the other hand, pushes you to elaborate the preparation." In short, little garlic and oil: Marco corrects the distortions of the tourist dish to reintroduce it clean and honest. “The whole body of the crustaceans goes to make up a base with which to mantle the bundle, the finger lime makes the taste buds perky. For me, the acidity is the fuse of curiosity, otherwise you'd cross your cutlery mid-taste."
Another round, another format: clean break with the unmistakable Bottoni alla picchiapò, swaddled in camouflage clothing by three opposing toppings: turnip tops, Pecorino romano and sea urchins, a pleasing camouflage between the terrestrial and the aquatic.
"The 'Surf and Turf' is a pet peeve of mine, as is the idea that salvage cuts are not 'misery,' but nobility," Marco chimes in. “In fact, I've always ignored trends: what makes a mark is historical memory.” In three words, back to the future. So boiled it is, disassociated from Pecorino Romano that inspires a garnish sauce. The double balance rules the books, bitter for the vegetable and iodized in the lemon curls. Unabashedly greedy is, among the main courses, the Green Pepper Lamb, made dynamic by discs of white turnip and marinated shallots.
Just enough time to imagine the Grand dessert and a “blue banana” of the Blue Java variety, bold in its minimal aesthetic and low sugar content, surprisingly appears. “Because desserts that are too sweet stimulate the desire for saltiness. In contrast, with a soft roundness you get up light and satisfied." The end of the meal summarizing travel notebooks, plus a lively aromatic charge. The goal, to combine the cool pigments of the unripe Hawaiian fruit and the vanilla hints of that already “in a state of grace.”
“No, it is not a copy of a modern work. In these cases you just have to observe nature closely. Because we cooks are not artists, we are craftsmen."
Contact
Marco Martini Restaurant- Mantis
Viale Aventino, 121, 00153 Rome RM
Phone: 06 4559 7350
