The chef chose this area, a happy island in the Langa hills, and made it the location for this new restaurant, which opened in April 2023 and combines the comfort of rural hospitality with the elegance of fine dining.
*Content for promotional purposes
The relais, the chef, and the restaurant
Coltivare Agri Relais welcomes visitors with a warm and elegant embrace. A lit fireplace in the dining room, windows that offer views of the Langhe hills, an outdoor pool for the summer, and a few rooms for guests arriving from afar—everything speaks of care and true hospitality.
In the kitchen is Luca Zecchin, who tells us about thirty years of experience and a lifetime dedicated to taste. Born in 1980 to a Venetian father and Sicilian mother, the son of a generation of migrants who arrived in Piedmont during the Fiat era, Zecchin embodies that mixture of roots and movement that is the very essence of Italian cuisine. After graduating from hotel management school, he spent most of his career at the helm of the Michelin-starred restaurant Guido da Costigliole. Today, Chef Zecchin is leading a project of rebirth: transforming the farmhouse of the adjacent Brandini winery in La Morra into a contemporary, refined, and authentic restaurant. Luca chose this area, a happy island in the Langa hills, as his home many years ago, and now he has also made it the location for this new restaurant, which opened in April 2023 and combines the comfort of rural hospitality with the elegance of fine dining.
The philosophy
The cuisine literally starts from the land: 30% of the products come from the vegetable garden in front of the relais, and the other raw materials are sourced within a radius of 20 or 30 kilometers, including meat, freshwater fish, and seasonal vegetables. This is a way of staying true to the agritourism roots of the restaurant, a “vegetable cuisine of our own,” as the chef defines it, capable of surpassing Piedmontese standards without denying them, maintaining affectionate tributes to tradition on the menu, such as plin al tovagliolo, a combination of memory and comfort. But despite the emphasis on vegetables, animal protein is still present, and vegetarian cuisine is not the direction the chef would like to take. “I'm passionate about vegetables, I enjoy it, it's challenging,” he says, but it's not a radical choice.
Coltivare is a project that works, that exudes sincerity, where time passes slowly and taste is the real star. The name “Coltivare” was chosen for its symbolic value, explains Zecchin: “Around the table, beautiful things are cultivated, shared, projects, loves, and friendships are cultivated. I want this to be a home, not a restaurant”. The goal is certainly to put the customer at ease, including in the service, to create moments of relaxation where food is the common thread and tells stories that can only be fully heard when you are comfortable.
The dishes
One of the tasting menus is dedicated to grilling, a cooking technique that the chef loves and feels is his own. The dishes are characterized by being cooked on the grill or smoked. The most popular dish on this menu is spaghetti with enkir and smoked sturgeon, enriched with Italian caviar and beurre blanc, a delicious recipe that wins you over at first taste. Interesting and, in some ways, more surprising, given the simplicity of the raw ingredients, is the carrot fondant cooked in fig leaves, with its vegetable base of Val di Maggia pepper, black sesame crumble, and barbecued carrot, a bouquet of strongly aromatic flavors, with alternating notes of acidity and sweetness, in a combination that we find again in other dishes. The acidity, measured but always present, is one of Zecchin's distinctive traits.
The chef's soul seems to be hidden right here, in the carrot, in the spaghetti, but also in the leek cooked in oil from its leaves, with a sauce xo full of character, apple and ginger purée and agresto vinaigrette, another pleasant balance suspended between acidity and vegetal notes, where the umami notes of pork and sauce suddenly appear. The animal protein is secondary to the dish, serving the vegetable part and emphasizing it. A dish born from the chef's memory of Piedmontese leek and apple fritters, to which pork was then added to enhance two local products of excellence: Cervere leeks and Cuneo black pork.
“I am less of a technical chef and more of a food lover. I am more of a wild boar, my soul lies in the cacciatora sauce,” says the chef when we ask him about his gastronomic identity. The wild boar tenderloin brings another combination to the plate: bitter and sweet, between scorzonera and parsnip purée with rice koji, with a delicious sauce and careful cooking and use of aromatic herbs that make this rustic dish extremely delicate and elegant, without losing any of its intense flavor. Chef Zecchin focuses on enjoyment: there are many preparations, a lot of technique and complexity, but the end result must be something that can be savored without mental effort.
A dish that goes a little further in terms of technique is the smoked salt-cured pikeperch mi-cuite, with a rouille sauce, pak choi, bottarga, and bacon made from the fish's belly. Complex, with an intense flavor and a distinct savory taste, it is excellent paired with Barolo di La Morra. Returning to traditional dishes, always revisited by the chef, it is interesting to try the “Ris e coi,” Carnaroli rice cooked in roasted cabbage extract, served from the pan and placed on a beautifully presented plate featuring different variations of cabbage: black cabbage cream and chips, tapioca marinated in red cabbage, Brussels sprouts leaves, and marinated cabbage.
This type of service, explains the chef, allows you to see what's underneath, appreciate the work behind it more, value the many elements, and transforms a classic risotto into a contemporary, modern, appealing dish, even in terms of flavor. In 2023, Coltivare was awarded the Michelin Green Star and last year the Passion Dessert award, which the chef says was unexpected, but which certainly captures the consistency of the dessert part of the tasting menu, the latter managed by Federico Rolla, Luca's sous chef. The dark chocolate mousse and cream with beetroot, sea buckthorn reduction, and buckwheat crunch is interesting and unexpected. But the real surprise is the dessert trolley that arrives instead of petits fours: we saw the pure childlike joy of some foreign customers sitting next to us and, as if in a mirror, we caught our own amused, happy, lighthearted gaze. A conclusion that remains as a calling card for a return visit.
The project: a glimpse into the future
Chef Zecchin, in the chat that follows our lunch, reveals himself to be a simple, easy-going person, with no desire to be the center of attention. “Why should they talk about me? We cook food, we don't save lives,” he says with a laugh. Having grown up in an era without social media, when people were less inclined to talk about themselves and expose themselves, he acknowledges that “communicating and telling stories is nice, it completes the experience, but I'm not used to doing it.” Yet, in sharing anecdotes and experiences with spontaneity and humility, his personality, attitude, love for what he does, and even ambition shine through.
“Coltivare is still too young to know what its place will be in the future; it grows year by year. The team started from scratch, the dishes are slowly becoming more complex, and we are getting more comfortable with the place and the space. Today, Coltivare has everything it needs, but it still has to grow in the details, perfecting what I am already doing.” Chef Zecchin's dream is continuous growth, striving for perfection. He would like to be able to choose to modify a dish that is already perfect, to get even closer to perfection. He is a chef who strives towards a horizon that cannot be reached, that can only be touched, a movement that leads to constantly seeking improvement.
After all, cultivating is precisely this: a never-ending process that involves work, waiting, and trust. Zecchin cultivates flavors and bonds, and while the hills breathe slowly outside, perfection reigns in the kitchen, always one step ahead, like a goal that can be pursued and that becomes the very meaning of one's daily work.
Coltivare Agri.Relais
Borgata Brandini, 16, 12064 La Morra CN
Phone: 0173 328231
