As part of the Prato Nevoso “Gusto Montagna” event, chef Alessio Manzoni talks about life in contact with nature through the iconic dishes of Agriturismo Ferdy. This family-run business started in '89 in Lenna, a small town of 600 inhabitants in the province of Bergamo, is now flying high with a Michelin Green Star and a restaurant business that is as ambitious as it is conscious.
The flavors of the mountains
Gusto Montagna, the gastronomic festival now in its eighth year, continues to celebrate the link between fine dining and Alpine tradition by bringing big names in Italian cuisine to high altitudes.
The ski resort of Prato Nevoso, a small jewel of the Ligurian Alps with 130 km of ski slopes, welcomed this year a firmament of 6 Michelin Stars and 2 green stars, a mix of experienced chefs such as Carlo Cracco, Pino Cuttaia and Antonio Guida, and new recruits of green cuisine such as Chiara Pavan and Alessio Manzoni. The events kicked off on January 17 and will end today, March 21, hosted in charming chalets in the area, such as the central Osteria Le Stalle, the oldest restaurant in the village made of stone and wood, with a warm alpine atmosphere, and the scenic Chalet il Rosso, at an altitude of two thousand meters, with a veranda with a breathtaking view, accessible by cable car.
In these weeks in Prato Nevoso there is a beautiful atmosphere of anticipation, curiosity and openness, which shines through the words of all the restaurateurs who find themselves opening the doors of their kitchens to chefs of great stature, with just the right amount of reverential awe, but also with a great desire to get involved, to team up, to make the kermesse a pole of attraction for the many tourists who reach the area; visitors attracted by the many entertainment opportunities beyond the snowy peaks. In Prato Nevoso, in addition to pure mountain air, you can breathe life: between sunset après-ski, concerts, gourmet dinners, sports and family entertainment, weekends fly by.
Alessio Manzoni: the chef
In the third leg of this journey from chef to chef, we meet Alessio Manzoni, who brings to the Ligurian Alps the flavors of the Bergamo Orobic Valleys, like an echo that spreads from valley to valley, telling the story of the mountain and its peculiarities.
Alessio, a cook by vocation since the age of 14, after gaining experience touring Italy and Europe, and after many years spent alongside the Scarello family in the 2 Michelin Star restaurant “Agli Amici” first and then at “Agli Amici Rovigno”, in Croatia, awarded a Michelin Star after only 75 days of work, since 2021 has started a new adventure at Agriturismo Ferdy, awarded a Green Star last year.
Ferdy Wild is a solid and resilient company, but also a story of rootedness to the land, of valuing rural tradition, a broader and deeper vision of living in the mountains and taking care of them. A place where, guided by environmental sustainability, they produce cheese, cured meats, wine, beer and many goodnesses enriched by wild herbs. A company that has also been able to make itself contemporary and appealing, with a stable presence on social media made possible by the charisma of Nicolò Quarteroni, Ferdinando-Ferdy and Cinzia's son, who recounts through glimpses of family life and work this beautiful reality.
“The one with the guys from Ferdy Wild is an evening strongly desired,” says Adelasia Zitta, owner of Osteria Le Stalle, ” because we feel we speak the same language as them, made of substance and empathy. And it is precisely from this concrete and welcoming attitude that the tasting menu starts, with a toast made in the garden among snow and lit braziers, eating salami and ancient corn chips.
The dishes
In the same vein is the amuse bouche served at the table: bread made with rustic flours and hay infusion, whipped Bruna Alpina butter and a salvaged broth made from kitchen scraps, followed by one of Ferdy's signature dishes, the “Polpettina 1989,” of wild herbs harvested at high altitude, with a stringy heart of hay cheese, fermented blueberry and smoked cream mousse.
After this introduction, which teleports you to pastures permeated by Heidi's joie de vivre, comes “Eastern Orobie”, made with filet from Etik cow, grass-fed only, free-range and late-career. The highly successful dish plays between the Alps and the East, using the shabu shabu cooking technique and the flavors of ponzu sauce and coclearia, a mountain cress reminiscent of wasabi. The iconic “La Me Aca” risotto is an explosion of aromas that is hard to forget: Carnaroli Riserva San Massimo rice is cooked in a decoction of milk and hay, then complemented by a sauce of alpine romice (a wild weed typical of livestock staging areas) and brown ground with fir and chestnut flavors.
Another tribute to the world of the mountains, so complex because it encompasses as much the aspects of edgy rusticity as those of hospitality, which immediately takes you back to the peasant past, to the nights our grandparents spent in the stables listening to fairy tales warmed by cows and oxen. The same scent of sun-dried grass can be found in the Cauliflower fondant, baked in a hay crust, served with beurre blanc, lemon balm oil and chicory coffee. Concluding the journey comes “ Il Bosco,” a dessert that is the gastronomic equivalent of a rejuvenating walk in the undergrowth, both visually and in flavor, with moss sponge, a buckwheat and mushroom earth, blueberry creamy, yogurt, chocolate namelaka, and then fir essential oil and Ferdy's balsamic bitters jelly, made in-house from hand-picked herbs.
In a place where snow blends with the warmth of Alpine hospitality, Gusto Montagna confirms itself as an extraordinary event that combines culinary art with the beauty of the Ligurian Alps, where each dish tells a story, a deep connection with the territory and its resources, and the commitment of the great chefs participating in the review is a tribute to the mountain itself and its charm, which inspires and conquers. A gastronomic journey, but also an invitation to rediscover the magic of a mountain that welcomes and surprises, each time in a different way.
Contact
Ferdy Wild
Localita' Fienili, 24010 Lenna BG
Phone: 0345 82235
