Andrea De Lillo is the nin, a young man not yet thirty, from Torbole, a small village just north of the Trentino part of the lake. Andrea immediately began to listen. On one side was the property, on the other the territory, not least Francesco Vuolo, the maître d' who, after the departure of Giacomello and his team, chose to stay. He may be a nin, but he has more than enough experience under his belt: Osteria Francescana, Locanda Margon, Berton, Relae, Amelia, and Central. And the result can be seen on the plate.
“Who are you to wave your finger? You must have been outta your head.” These lyrics from The Pot by Tool are an explicit tribute to Manuel Dalla Bona, owner, together with Massimiliano Consolini, of the Belfiore Park Hotel in Brenzone sul Garda. Manuel and Max met on the path of hospitality, running on two non-linear and intersecting paths. Max followed in his father's footsteps. From the clinical eye he turns to his customers and the attention, even very operational, he pours into the entire structure, I wonder if he wasn't actually born in the hotel, as well as having spent a lot of time there because of his parents' work. Manuel arrives from the dining room. For him, service is about relationships, pampering, and experience. His greatest fear is probably customer boredom and, by extension, his own.
Neither of them waves their fingers in complaint, neither of them presumes to feel they have arrived. Neither of them puts the “I” before the “you.” Neither of them was afraid to change pace, even when that pace drew an initial burst of applause.
The hotel and restaurant
Manuel and I meet on the pier in front of the hotel. Or rather, I'm on the pier, he's on a jet ski. He tells me to hop on. I put on my life jacket. He advises me not to hold onto the side bars of the vehicle, so as not to increase the risk of flying into the water. “Nice to meet you,” I repeat to myself. He suggests I keep my left hand on the bar and pass my right arm under his, to anchor my hand to one end of his jacket. I think: we'll both end up in the water. Then he opens the throttle. The surface of the water flows by like a time-lapse video. In an instant, we are in front of an old lemon house on the opposite shore of the lake, on the Lombardy side. Since we are now well beyond the bounds of formality, I also open the throttle and fire off a string of questions to get an idea of the business that Manuel and Max have been running for a few years. Adrenaline before interviews, make a note of it.
There are only a few hours left until dinner at the Michelin-starred restaurant NIN—if you're thinking of Nine Inch Nails, you're way off track—that's the focus of my visit. Yet a few kilometers away—sitting on a jet ski is a detail—help to give a more holistic perspective even to a tasting menu, to clarify the horizon of the coexistence of gourmet restaurant slash luxury hotel, a pairing that can be found in various places in our country. Brenzone is a town that stretches for several kilometers along the olive-tree-lined coast, halfway between the urbanized Peschiera and the chaotic Malcesine. With its feet in the water, Monte Baldo watches slyly, influencing biodiversity without shouting. A microclimate open to those who listen to it and those who want to get involved. To those who do not need grandiose spaces or terroirs that fill mouths and guidebooks. Spoiler: during dinner, the mountain will be mentioned several times by both the waiting staff and the chef.
The conversation with Manuel continues a couple of hours later at the hotel bar, conducted with rhythm and kindness by Alejandro Rodriguez. I ask him to kindly prepare a cocktail with mezcal, he confides that it is his favorite spirit and, as expected, serves me a truly memorable signature drink. It is a day of coincidences. The background music leads to a musical comparison. I talk to Manuel about Tool, thinking we would quickly move on. Instead, he rolls up his shirt sleeve and shows me an unmistakable sign: he not only knows Tool, he worships them. From there, the words flow freely. He doesn't hide the fact that the Michelin star was a goal for both partners. The call to Terry Giacomello didn't come by chance. With the goal achieved, the risk of personalization is perhaps the thing that has come to the fore, even more than enthusiasm, and sustainability has ended up a little too much at the mercy of the current.
NIN, which means boy, has perhaps matured too quickly, risking becoming too independent. The restaurant is still part of the Belfiore Park Hotel. Waving your finger too much causes you to lose focus on teamwork. Manuel not only loves champagne, he is also a connoisseur, to the point of becoming a selector. His trips to the region of the king of classic methods are a regular event for him a couple of times a year. One of his traveling companions, coincidentally, is the brother of Andrea De Lillo, the restaurant's current chef. Thus, probably over a drink, the attempt to take one step back in order to take two steps forward was born.
The chef and the team
Andrea De Lillo is the nin, a young man in his early thirties from Torbole, a small village just north of the Trentino side of the lake. Andrea immediately began to listen. On one side was the property, on the other the territory, not least Francesco Vuolo, the maître d' who, after the departure of Giacomello and his team, chose to stay. He may be a nin, but he has more than enough experience under his belt: Osteria Francescana, Locanda Margon, Berton, Relae, Amelia, and Central. Andrea is a lake boy who, for his fine dining, has chosen an approach based on the trattoria principle: making the most of what is around you. “Even a gourmet restaurant, as I see it, should be influenced by the experiences and cultures you discover around you, but it should represent, to the fullest extent possible, the surrounding area.”
Finding catfish on the menu was certainly no coincidence. Andrea called the fisherman who had already thrown away more than 20 kilograms of them crazy, and now, when they are caught or get caught in the nets, he has them brought to him. He figured out how to clean and prepare them best, and even found a positive side to them: catfish don't have bones in the flesh, just one big bone in the middle. It's easier to filet, slice, and portion them. Andrea puts them in the cold room to age, then uses them for cured meats, tartare, sauces, and broths. When what the land offers is something dirty and nasty, you can turn away or face it head-on and try to make the most of it. "My range of action is about 80 square kilometers around Lake Garda. The most interesting relationship we have been building for several months is with the fishermen.
They cannot fish consistently, mainly because of the various fishing bans that apply to different species in order to protect them during the spawning season. Two weeks for sardines, one month for perch, another for tench and carp. The fishermen are scattered all around the lake. Different species are fished in different areas. In the north, the water is cleaner and deeper. They tend to be carefree; if they don't sell the fish, they eat it. We needed to get to know them and tell them about our work. As for dairy products, there is Latteria del Baldo, a small family business up here that makes caciotta, ricotta, and semi-aged cheeses. I rely on the Assenza market for fruit and vegetables, and then there is Fragoliamo, the hotel's own farm where we grow blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries, and recently also four different varieties of tomatoes.
Francesco Vuolo is the other nin, who probably stayed because nins understand each other immediately. When I ask him which customer he appreciates the most, he replies the one who is open to discussion, who asks questions and knows how to wait for answers, even those he didn't already have in mind. Every comment and piece of feedback from such a customer is a treasure that improves both the dining room and the kitchen. "My parents have a pizza restaurant in the province of Varese, which has been there for 50 years. What I would like to steal more and more from my family is the way my father and his brothers relate to their employees. They manage to make everyone feel essential. And in fact, they have been working with them for 30 years. I also had the honor of working at Enoteca Pinchiorri, an environment where there was more structure, even in the dynamics of respect. Then I moved on to another very familiar environment in France, as a sommelier at the Leflaive family restaurant in Puligny-Montrachet. These experiences have shaped the way I work in the dining room. I don't care about being called maestro, I want to be called Francesco."
When faced with young people who approach interviews by asking how many days off they will get and what the salary is, imposing yourself is no longer the winning strategy. The era of camaraderie is definitely over. This does not mean that we automatically become one big family, but rather that everyone feels they have the opportunity to express themselves and grow within a framework of responsibility. The fear of overworking knocks when you feel alone, even if you are surrounded by five or six people in a space of a few square meters. Or when performance is the only thing that matters. The microclimate of a kitchen is the breath of the community that lives there, in the acceleration of service or in the brigade's meal, in dedication or in moments of fooling around, in applause or in correction. Andrea quotes the phrase that hung in the kitchen at Relae, move fast and get shit done, as if to say: get the job done well and quickly. However, that phrase coexisted with a truly welcoming humanity. “There was an impressive level of humanity, the staff ate very well every day, with attention to allergies and intolerances. On Saturday lunchtime, we always opened a large bottle of wine to celebrate our Saturday. Organic Fritz Kola and glasses of wine, it was great.”
The dishes
Andrea keeps his word and immerses me in a blend of his two tasting menus, Radici e Venti e Correnti (Roots, Winds and Currents), which inevitably reflect the lake and the gentle giant of Monte Baldo, both in terms of protein and vegetables, which are never just a side dish. In Siluro, leche de Tigre, cipolla, the lake is the backdrop to a marvelous fairy tale. The villainous catfish impresses with its texture and bite, while the leche de tigre, also made with its head and fins, impresses with its intensity.
Rabbit, beer, and mustard is a traditional Sunday dish in the region that Andrea transforms into a gourmet porchetta. The rabbit is deboned, seasoned, and rolled. It is then steamed, sliced, glazed with its own juices, and caramelized in a salamander oven. The bitter note comes from a reduction of red beer blended with chestnut purée, placed at the base of the dish, to which mustard seeds and mizuna sprouts, blood sorrel and red mustard are added, all seasoned with tarragon vinegar and olive oil from the estate. The rabbit is perfectly lightened without lightening the dose of satisfaction. The pairing with Brett-Elle Oude Geuze from the Lambiek Fabriek brewery kept Francesco Vuolo at the table for too long, discussing with me and raising the chef's eyebrows - just kidding. The comparison did indeed take place. Without too much modesty, I pointed out to the maître d' that the extreme acidity of the beer overpowered the deliciousness of the rabbit. Furthermore, the beer was true to its name, in the sense that it really smelled like a bretted wine and perhaps even more so (I quote the description from a specialist beer website: woody notes of lemon zest and apple cider vinegar, together with classic but subtle rustic hints of farmyard, leather, playing cards, and cellar). During our conversation, an alternative pairing emerged, with a Schiava from Trentino.
Nettle gnocchi, macerated wine, lemon is a masterful dish. The nettles are harvested locally and have soft tips that are not too tough. The nettle paste is combined with potatoes, eggs, and Parmigiano. The acidic sauce is made from Contame, Nevio Scala's macerated Garganega, which is reduced with shallots and pepper, brought to a mirror finish and simmered with very fatty cream from the Baldensis Dairy. Black olives in brine are crumbled over the gnocchi together with a powder of nettles. The dish is finished with thin slices of candied Garda lemon. A dish that educates on acidity, making it delicious. The pairing with Radikon's Slavje is perfect.
Sardines, buckwheat, dashi, and carp, sea buckthorn, and koji are two other first courses in which lake fish leaves the comfort zone of small restaurants with beautiful verandas to take on more difficult challenges. And sea fish, silent. The first is a buckwheat ramen that reflects Torbole, the chef's hometown, where bigoli with lake sardines is made, an extremely salty recipe, a test at the limit of palatal endurance. Andrea transforms it into a delicate ball of tagliolini that pays homage to sardines, with a concentrated garum that is not off-putting, a dashi made with all the fish left over from processing (perch, catfish, pike) to which lake fish katsuobushi is added. The classic marinated ramen egg here is quail, to prolong the idea of delicacy and add a note of exclusivity.
The second dish is a carbocarba. It was created after observing that, after cooking, carp eggs take on a color that is practically identical to that of carbonara cream. This led to the attempt to create a lake carbonara, in the form of ravioli, with carp eggs, balanced with pecorino and trentingrana cheese. Carp filets in mousseline with a portion of fumetto make up the raviolo filling, while the belly plays the role of guanciale. The dish is finished with savory leaves and Sichuan green pepper cut with rice koji.
With Francesco and Andrea, we end up talking about their employers too. When I describe Manuel as the wild one of the pair, they both smile and nod. Max, on the other hand, is the hospitality genius. Together they complement each other, providing a kind of support that is never banal and never “scrutinizing” towards a restaurant that never waves its hands to demand attention. Rather, it lets itself be stirred by the lake, by Mount Baldo, and by a silent restlessness that can be felt practically everywhere at Nin and the Belfiore Park Hotel.
CONTACTS
Nin- Park Hotel Belfiore
Via G. Zanardelli, 5, 37010 Brenzone sul Garda VR
Phone: 045 742 0179
