With Emilia Vegetale, Mattia Trabetti, chef at Alto in Fiorano Modenese, once again confirms his technical mastery. At the Michelin-starred restaurant of the Executive Spa Hotel, a journey that gives voice to nature to explore new frontiers of green haute cuisine.
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EMILIA VEGETALE
In this menu, the chef traces the geography of Emilia's flavors, gathering seasonal products from each area and transforming them into impressive dishes that are technically complex and harmonious on the palate. The surprise lies in realizing how delicate—and risky at the same time—it can be to approach the world of vegetables without falling into banality, especially in a region where meat and “rich” flavors are a well-established tradition. This itinerary confirms that vegetables are an extraordinary starting point for experimenting and reinventing taste.
THE CONTINUOUS EVOLUTION OF HIGH-END CUISINE
“A continuous evolution rooted in tradition” is the claim of Emilia Vegetale, a menu developed according to clear and consistent principles, based on a strong sense of identity and territory. At its core is the desire to create a journey with a recognizable narrative thread, capable of combining technique, seasonality, and a conscious approach to raw ingredients. The objectives are to enhance each ingredient through precise choices, to convey a personal vision of cuisine, and to offer an experience that is both innovative and respectful of gastronomic roots.
“The menu is always based on the concept of Emilia Vegetale: the aim is to exploit, enhance, and bring the vegetables of our territory to the table. We search for little gems and special products, sometimes wild or from local suppliers, working closely with the vegetable gardens that surround us. The basic principle is to offer a vegetable menu that is neither banal nor predictable, especially in a region like ours, which is strongly linked to the world of fat and pork, where vegetables are often considered secondary. Instead, we want to create a vegetable menu that appeals to both vegetarians and omnivores, showing how rich, interesting, and complete this universe can be," says Mattia Trabetti.
STREET FOOD FROM EMILIA: CREATIVITY AND TERRITORY ON THE PLATE
Mattia Trabetti recounts how he brought Orto d'Emilia to the table and what values distinguish this gastronomic journey, consisting of eight courses and amuse-bouches that reinterpret the region in a new light. Street Food from Emilia is an introduction to a vegetable-based journey through Emilia and includes welcome entrées that set the bar high: a filo pastry wafer accompanied by tartar sauce and tempeh prepared with diavolo beans, a variety typical of the Modena Apennines. This is followed by ciaccio, a traditional crêpe made with chestnut flour, served with berberé cream, chestnut honey, and malga cheese. A tomato and Parmigiano sponge, complemented by mayonnaise and a carrot aged like a salami in koji, fermented rice that changes its structure and intensifies its flavor. To conclude, a nigiri of local rice and a carpaccio of celeriac seasoned in soy sauce.
THE SEASONS GUIDE CREATIVITY AND TASTE
Seasonality is the guiding principle behind this menu, influencing both the choice and preparation of dishes: "We are very much guided by the season and the products we are able to source. Today, however, the seasons are unpredictable, and this provides an additional stimulus: it forces us to decide how to proceed week by week. In the world of vegetables, as we don't work with large retailers, the products are never identical, so we taste them continuously and bring to the table what the local area has to offer at that precise moment. Inspiration also comes from the experiences I have gained abroad, as well as those of the other members of the team, in contexts where a vegetable-based menu has always been conceived in a natural and direct way. This approach allows us both to offer customers a double choice without making them feel limited and to enhance the strength and potential that a vegetable ingredient can express within a dish."
A JOURNEY THROUGH THE FLAVORS OF EMILIA VEGETALE
The tasting continues with Crescentina di montagna, served with the signature dish: the word ALTO, where the first three letters are cauliflower cream, the O is Parmigiano cream, and inside is a sweet garlic cream. This is followed by Ricotta, produced exclusively with cream from the Il Casello di Acquaria dairy, located in the Montecreto area, within the Frignano Park and a short walk from the ALTO kitchen. It is lightly smoked and served with bread, confirming how central the quality of the raw ingredients and their origin are to Mattia Trabetti's vision.
Puntarelle, turnip greens, and mandarin orange are the opening dish of the appetizers, a cream of turnip greens, puntarelle salad dressed with mandarin orange juice, mandarin orange in mustard, egg yolk cream, black cabbage powder, fried capers, and caper leaves. We are in the area between Reggio Emilia and Sassuolo, and ideally this journey continues towards Piacenza with Finocchio e Canapa (Fennel and Hemp), fennel seasoned with chopped oil, parsley, and garlic, cooked on the grill, served on a bed of Mediterranean mayonnaise (sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and green pepper) and “watered” with a sauce of toasted hemp seeds, fresh sea fennel and pickled fennel.
Cruciferous vegetables, hazelnuts, and beer are the dish that takes us back to the lower Modena area, where cabbage and savoy cabbage, the typical vegetables of this season, are served with a base of stewed savoy cabbage compote, then drizzled with white wine vinegar, fermented purple cabbage, hazelnut mayonnaise, toasted hazelnuts, grilled Brussels sprouts, blanched curly kale with a salad of raw purple and green cabbage, and to finish, a reduction of dark beer and chive oil.
It is natural to reflect on the work behind each dish and, consequently, on how creativity, technique, and research form the very foundations of this menu. In this regard, Chef Trabetti explains how, on a technical level, working with vegetables is very stimulating, since "it is possible to apply a greater number of techniques than with animal products. This allows us to develop new flavors and interesting combinations, using fermentation, oxidation, and tools such as koji to create, for example, miso. It is important to remember that the plant world does not exclude the use of dairy products or other products such as bread, eggs, or derivatives of other preparations, making it much less limiting than it might seem."
We remain in the Modena area and surroundings with Risotto, cardoons, almonds, and bergamot: "A dish that requires more dedicated and intense work, almost always present on every menu, is risotto. For us, risotto represents a true white palette, on which we can create, combine, and structure various flavors without ever being banal. In this case, this risotto combines the bitter note of cardoons with their toasted part, cooked on the grill; almonds, with their dual sweet and bitter soul; and bergamot, which brings freshness and lightness to the dish. Risotto is undoubtedly a dish that we care about particularly and to which we devote more time and attention."
Precision and care. Two other essential elements of ALTO's cuisine that reflect the desire to leave nothing to chance. Another example is the use of lentils in the Emilia Vegetale menu, particularly in the lentil tortellini, which take us back to the tradition of “learned, fat, and red” Bologna. The tortellini are stuffed with a lentil miso cream, creamed with a roasted lentil broth and finished with fried lentils and sage oil, creating a dish rich in nuances and depth of flavor.
Bread and Onion, which follows, is a dish that leaves behind its humble origins for a decidedly sophisticated interplay of textures and contrasts in the mouth: a sweet and sour red onion compote and a layer of onion braised in a pan and then finished in the oven, stuffed with bread miso. Finished with bread chips and bread crumble, fresh horseradish, bay leaf oil, and a broth of charcoal-grilled onions.
From the area bordering the provinces of Modena and Parma, we travel along the Via Emilia to Bologna and then turn north towards Ferrara, which is represented in Emilia Vegetale by Assoluto di Zucca: "One aspect we like to work on a lot is developing different components of the same vegetable within the same dish. In this case, the only real ingredient is pumpkin, but by working with every part of it, we obtain different flavors and textures: from the cream made from the pulp, to the marinated slices cooked on the grill, to the broth prepared with the skins, which gives a more bitter and intense note that is not normally appreciated. The dish is completed with pumpkin seed oil and toasted seeds, to add further nuances to a single ingredient." .
This journey through Emilia's vegetable world concludes with dessert, a dish created by ALTO's kitchen to highlight two other key elements of the Modena area. The first is Carpi rice, used in a panna cotta, accompanied by puffed rice, cream, and a rice wafer. The second is Vignola kiwi: on the banks of the Panaro River, there is a small local farm that produces kiwi sorbet, which enhances the flavor of the fruit, giving it a sweet and fresh note.
CONTRASTS AND TECHNIQUE: HOW ALTO'S CUISINE CELEBRATES EMILIA'S VEGETABLE PRODUCTS
Emilia Vegetale represents a culinary journey that successfully enhances the products of the Emilia region with personality, transforming them into dishes capable of surprising. Its strength lies in the carefully studied contrasts with which each ingredient is reinterpreted: each course is the result of careful and meticulous work on the raw ingredients. Emilia Vegetale is not just a menu, but a real experience, in which the territory tells its story through vegetables, revealing their versatility and ability to surprise even those who prefer omnivorous cuisine. It is proof that vegetable cuisine can be complex, highly technical, and surprising, but also capable of creating unexpected harmonies between aromas, tastes, and textures.
ADDRESS
ALTO RISTORANTE
EXECUTIVE SPA HOTEL – ROOFTOP
Via Circondariale San Francesco, 2- 41042 Fiorano Modenese, Modena
Phone 0536 175 3281
