A small place where Enrico Croatti builds and reinterprets his own concept of haute cuisine made of technique and avant-garde, but always with distinct feeling.
The chef and the restaurant
Chef Enrico Croatti 's greatness lies in being first and foremost truly a great cook, thoughtful, enthusiastic, curious, highly capable, but without showing off and remaining humble, a rare aspect nowadays among so many narcissists at the stove. At his place, at Moebius Sperimentale, you will find his smile and passionate tales along different menus made of technique, mouthwatering dishes, memories and thoughts that he manages to make edible and part of a journey through his gastronomic and flavor culture.
As you might have guessed, you have to arrive in the Moebius cocktail bar, have a drink at the number 38 World's 50 Best Bar counter and go upstairs. There, on a scenically suspended mezzanine in the center of the restaurant where you can forget about the music and noisy toasts, devoting yourself to the creative cuisine of the Romagna chef between one of twelve seats of which six at “la barra” admiring the work of the brigade.
Enrico Croatti was born in Rimini and it was there that he made his first tagliatelle together with his mother Franca when he was only twelve years old. A marked and direct path, marked by remarkable experiential stages in world gastronomy. From Angelini Osteria in Los Angeles to Paul Bocuse at the Auberge du Pont de Collonges, from the three-starred Akelarre in San Sebastián to Les Terrasses de Lyon at Villa Florentine in Lyon and on to the Grand Hotel Miramonti Majestic in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Then came 2019, the year of the realization of an important project, moving to Milan to give birth to Moebius, now one of the most successful Milanese places where cuisine, music and hospitality coexist in a great way, especially thanks to the Tapa Bistrot where they enjoy convivial tapas and dishes that combine local ingredients with international influences.
But it is in the fine-dining restaurant Moebius Sperimentale that the magic happens, his little place where he builds and reinterprets his own concept of haute cuisine made of technique and avant-garde, but always with distinct feeling. Successful, so much so that in 2024 also came his first Michelin star (Croatti had already obtained two, the first in 2013 at Dolomieu in Madonna di Campiglio and the second in 2018 at Orobianco in Calpe -first Italian chef to receive a star in Spain-). And in the same year he is also executive chef of Lubna, listening restaurant bar in the Fondazione Prada area, a new project always in the “pierced” hands of the good entrepreneur Lorenzo Querci.
The dishes
There are three tasting menus, Mare, Terra and Libertà, of 6 courses the first two, of 8 the third free hand. Native turbot served with its pil pil, sea fennel and caviar prepared on the outskirts of Milan, very fresh, made especially at the restaurant's request. Next door coexists the Sapore di Mare with a seafood salad made with red shrimp, capa santa, snapper, all cut into sashimi, served with fresh wasabi, finger lime, kombu seaweed and a secret sauce made by the chef, all to be eaten with tongs.
Deep and comforting is the mushroom soup, at the base of the dish two kinds of green sauce, one lime base and the other Mexican. Pioppini, cardoncelli and ostra mushroom, whipped with a sauce with rice paste at the base and the ostra cooked in oriental broth, to which coconut milk is added, the base has twelve kinds of mushrooms cooked overnight and the whole is finished with fresh morels and finger lime. The tribute to the piglet sees is a pottery in the shape of the sacred pig on which are laid salted candies of lacquered pork belly, irresistible. Accompanying them is the ham croquette, creamy and warm. A special ham from a collaboration the chef has established with an artisan breeder of Cinta Senese black pork, “They make it especially for us, with a firm seasoning (about 38 months),” Croatti says.
And then the chef's son dish, agnolotti di ossobuco, which has never been off his menus since 2007: “They traveled a lot and then came back to Milan,”, he smiles; inside ossobuco made in the traditional way, shorn with a knife and remantecated with its marrow to make up the filling. Served with a sauce created from the pure extract of the ossobuco, saffron and gremolata, it's a mouthwatering and delightful bite.
And won't you try its veal sweetbread? Marinated overnight in juniper berries and duck fat, accompanied by a wine and sage sauce, it is finished with fresh truffle and alongside artichoke. A delicacy made to perfection for those who love the genre.However, destabilizing an already great set of dishes was the apple soup with fermented veal heart. Seasoned with extra virgin olive oil, salt and 12-year-old traditional balsamic vinegar from Modena and served with a seaweed on top, the heart was fermented in a raw beet juice and salt. The strips of meat look like carpaccio, but instead it is raw veal heart fermented. A wonder.
“It comes from the game of recreating a cold apple soup, then pure green apple extract to create a contrast. We worked the heart for another dish, put it together and found a connection,a balance between the acidity of the apple and this minerality of the heart. The fat plant and the balsamic juice gave it that savory, fresh touch that when I tasted it I said wow!" And that is also our expression at the end of this dinner at Moebius Experimental...wow!
Contact
Via Alfredo Cappellini, 25, 20124 Milan MI
Phone: 02 3664 3680
