Contemporary dishes but also traditional ones: this is somewhat the soul of the young chef at the helm of Fase, a spontaneous restaurant in the elegant Prati district of Rome.
Nestled among the more residential and less touristy streets of the Prati district in Rome, Fase is a young restaurant that spontaneously offers a truly interesting signature cuisine. It is run by an ambitious thirty-year-old chef, Federico Salvucci.
THE CHEF
Federico Salvucci, born in 1995, calls Belgium his homeland, yet his blood is divided between Norcia and Amalfi. Raised in Rome, he began working in a historic Roman tavern at Via Muggia 14, right where Fase is today. The desire for more technical training led him to the Alma haute cuisine school and, only later, he spent a few months alongside Chef Lorenzo Cogo, in the kitchens of El Coq in Vicenza.
However, the desire to return to Rome grows stronger and he arrives at the restaurant All'Oro, alongside Chef Riccardo di Giacinto. Federico wants to learn, to know and to improve, but above all he is curious. He wants to make everything that can enrich his knowledge his own and so he also begins to take an interest in the world of coffee. He had a brief but significant experience at Faro - Coffee Specialty and then in Saint Moritz. He returned to Rome, this time for good, to realize his dream: to open his own restaurant. Federico returned to the very same old tavern where he had started out many years before. The year is 2023 and Fase is born.
THE RESTAURANT
Fase is a modern and informal little restaurant. The large windows allow the small rooms to enjoy natural light during lunch and an intimate atmosphere in the evening, with a view of the beautiful villas of Prati. The minimal and elegant interior spaces recall an industrial style with a visual impact that falls on materials such as iron and wood. However, the focus is on the open kitchen and the chef's table, which allows a maximum of two guests to enjoy the dishes while peeking into the kitchen. On the walls are the chef's works which, together with the blue armchairs and the burgundy wall, vividly soften the essential furnishings, just as happens in the kitchen.
He begins by saying: “As in life, each phase plays its own role here”. The menu is divided into four phases, each with appetizers, first courses, main courses and desserts with strong notes of umami and fermentations from around the world. “For me, spontaneous cooking means no rules, so I can change a dish every day, I can put shallots in amatriciana pasta sauce, I don't have to follow any rules (except for seasonality) and I can present an immediate cuisine based on clear intuition starting from the menu”, explains Federico. Also in the kitchen is Alessandro Gentile, right-hand man and sous chef, who has already had important and significant professional experiences, and who has found a shared vision of ideas here.
It is not fusion cuisine in the common sense of the term. If anything, it is a combination of ideas that develop in several phases and in a continuous crescendo. In fact, in the different courses on the menu, you can find Roman tradition mixed with Asian cuisine, with fermented ingredients that meet regional Italian tastes.
THE MENU
Four phases in four menus, but also the possibility of blindly trusting the chef's hands in a three or five course journey, in addition to “Intrecci”: the menu that encompasses the synthesis of the four menus in a combination that intertwines the flavors and unmissable characteristics of each. The amuse-bouches do the honors with a fried black garlic puff pastry, broccoli cream, anchovies and cornflower petals; white turnip marinated with only oil, salt, vinegar, green apple gel and almond. All the leavened products on the table are homemade, bread and focaccia (semi-wholemeal and durum wheat) are accompanied by exquisite French whipped butter and leek powder.
We then move on to the appetizers, which already tell us a lot about the chef's attention to vegetable ingredients: grilled purple kohlrabi, raspberry vinegar gel, beurre noisette and centocchio. Acidity and fresh textures make this naturally vegan dish perfectly balanced. Then there is the very thin carpaccio of raw mushrooms placed on a soft and frothy duxelles of cremini mushrooms, together with lactofermented portobello and a touch of flavor given by the mushroom garum. As an accompaniment, grilled lion's mane, which the chef recommends using as a “boccetta” (a spoon used to scoop up sauce) for its lively meatiness, perfect for taking in one bite.
By now, among Fase's most popular signature dishes are katsusando with homemade brioche, pork capocollo breaded in panko, purple cabbage marinated in three different vinegars (raspberry, champagne, white wine) and homemade Asian barbecue.
The first courses really leave room for tradition and good local raw materials, starting with spaghettone cooked gently in buttermilk, black cabbage sauce, salted lemon gel and black cabbage powder. Then there's her half sleeve all'amatriciana or rather “not an amatriciana” because Federico, although aware of the original and traditional recipe, likes to add the sweetness of shallot infused with balsamic vinegar of Modena. A touch that, in his opinion, manages to distract the palate from the flavor of pecorino and guanciale, without distorting the iconic first course of Roman cuisine. In fact, it is more enveloping, full-bodied and sweet on the palate, leaving behind the typically strong taste of Amatriciana sauce.
That chef Salvucci's hand falls very happily on vegetable preparations is now well established, but his curiosity also touches sea and land, as with the Danish beef rib-eye, Russian kale lacquered with its own juice and a dense and concentrated Mexican dish based on beans, chocolate and tomato; Finally, the sweet not sweet with a base of crispy white chocolate crumble, a heart of chicory sautéed with garlic and oil, white chocolate mousse and homemade candied citron. A reminder that yes, it is possible to finish a meal without resorting to a sugar rush, but rather with a sweet finale that is consistent with the courses that preceded it.
The dishes are strictly seasonal and it is not unusual to find changes in the menu during the course of the meal, to respect the natural availability of ingredients. Chef Salvucci also likes to weave a close network of human relationships with producers, from local pasta factories to farms and the Mercato Trionfale, his real point of reference for bringing the freshest produce to the table. Whether it's from the land or the sea, Fase offers spontaneous cuisine that doesn't need rules, but only instinct and a lot of knowledge. The important presence of vegetable dishes on the menu is also reflected in the selection of wines, with about fifty labels, mostly whites but also sparkling and reds, as well as a few small but significant selections of sake and natural wines.
CONTACTS
FASE – Cucina Spontanea
Via Muggia, 14 – 00195 - Rome
Phone: 062415763 - info@faserestaurant.it
https://faserestaurant.it/ - https://www.instagram.com/faseroma/
