The fine dining restaurant at Albereta, in Franciacorta, is part of Enrico Bartolini's collection of restaurants and relies on the daily work of the chef from Gattinara, who offers his precise, technical, but also deeply humanistic cuisine here. Awaiting the return of the Michelin star.
Photos of the dining room: Valentina Sommariva
Photos of the dishes: Lido Vannucchi
If there is a place where Gualtiero Marchesi still lives, it is not in Bonvesin de la Riva in Milan, where his creative career reached its peak, but in the more twilight (at least in Marchesi's terms) restaurant of Albereta, the Moretti family's resort in Franciacorta, one of Italy's temples of high-profile hospitality. Here, “el gran milanès” lived out his declining but still exciting years. And from here, in 2008, the man who changed Italian haute cuisine made his great refusal, renouncing, as Celestine V did with the papacy, his Michelin star (or rather, the two he had at the time), and launching his anathema: “Critics, now I criticize you!”
Since then, the restaurant in Erbusco, the flagship outlet of Moretti's resort, has gone through many phases, sometimes of glory, sometimes of transition, but it has never lost its role as an elegant experimental laboratory. It also benefits from the privilege of being located in a prestigious but quiet setting, far from the fashionable excesses of the metropolis. Of course, it has not regained its star, but the current curatorship by chef Alberto Quadrio certainly deserves such recognition.
The chef
Quadrio was born in 1990 and comes from Gattinara, a town of fog and Nebbiolo wines between Novara and Biella. A late pupil of Marchesi himself, for whom he worked at the beginning of his career at Marchesino in Milan, his CV includes experience at Joia with Pietro Leemann, at Asola with the controversial Matteo Torretta, also in Milan, at the Capri Palace, in a couple of important restaurants in Tokyo, at Disfrutar in Barcelona, at Geranium in Copenhagen, and finally finding a new mentor in Alain Ducasse, with whom he worked at the Plaza Athenée in Paris and for whom he was supposed to oversee an important opening in New York. Everything was canceled due to the pandemic, but fate, which seemed cruel at the time, ultimately proved to be almost benign.
No big deal, then. Quadrio consoled himself by taking over Cucine Nervi in Piedmont, then moved to Milan to oversee the launch of 10_11 at Portrait in Milan, a rather brief experience but not long enough to prevent him from leaving his mark with his controversial gourmet white pasta, which has spawned more imitators than Settimana Enigmistica, Finally, he moved to Aurum, first to work alongside and then to replace the talented Fabio Abbattista, who had in turn been seduced by the sirens of Milan, where he had opened his own restaurant, Abba.
The restaurant
Quadrio in Franciacorta has found a new maturity. It has taken up the Marchesian legacy, refined its idea of technical, territorial, and deeply humanistic cuisine, and is doing very well despite the double pressure exerted by the mentorship of Enrico Bartolini, Italy's record holder in terms of stars, who, as a consultant to the restaurant, watches over its growth from afar; and the stern scrutiny of patron Vittorio Moretti, who, before appointing someone as chef of his noble inn, subjects the candidate to various levels of professional and personal screening. It is no mistake to define the Aurum as one of the best restaurants in one of the most gastronomically vibrant and rich provinces not only in Lombardy but in the whole of Italy, and even now, as it prepares for the small mourning of the loss of the Camanini brothers' Lido 84 in Gardone Riviera, it retains excellences such as Dina in Gussago by the highly irregular Alberto Gipponi, and then Miramonti l'Altro in Concesio, Villa Feltrinelli in Gargnano, Casa Leali in Puegnago, and il Gambero di Calvisano.
The restaurant is located in a modern and refined setting, flooded with daylight thanks to large windows that offer a breathtaking view of Franciacorta and, in the distance, Lake Iseo. There are three menus: Momento, consisting of seven dishes based on nature and the season (€180), Connessioni (five dishes for €160) and Dialogo (four courses for €150). Those who are in a hurry or not very hungry, or who simply don't want to spend too much time at the table, even in a relaxed setting such as Albereta, can choose two or three courses from the €130 and €140 menus.
The dishes
Quadrio's touch is precise, knowledgeable, cultured, but with a touch of irony, regional but without dialectal inflections. We start with a few specials at the chef's discretion. In my case, a small series of stretching exercises for the palate and stomach: blackberries and fennel beetroot, amaretto pumpkin and red wine, the remarkable Egg and eggs, with black-eyed peas, caviar and celery, and whitefish carpaccio with a macadamia and cherry base. Then an explicit Homage to Marchesi, with a variation on one of his historic dishes, a celeriac prepared to resemble lard and accompanied by pine nut ice cream, pink pepper, and black truffle.
Then I delve into the thick of the dinner, zigzagging between the various menus. We start with fennel cooked in crust, to which wild garlic gives a delicate character, coffee elegance and verticality, and savory zabaglione creaminess and deliciousness. Then, certainly one of the best dishes of the evening, the pink oyster from the Po Delta, with oyster sauce, royale of seasonal mushrooms, grilled oyster, cardoncello mushroom slices, herbs, and a sprinkling of raspberry. A small marvel of balance between flavors and textures in apparent contrast.
The Piedmontese Manzetta with sweet and sour carrots and baked marrow, which is extremely tender, is served. The menu would then include Pasta di corte in fiore e arancia (flower and orange pasta), but Quadrio has something in store for me that he describes as his most “flattering” dish, and also his bestseller: Risotto Franciacorta with saffron sauce, black pork ribs from Monte Orfano, and cold gremolada with broccoli instead of parsley. It may be flattering, but what a treat. And the rice is cooked to perfection, à la Marchesi, I dare say.
Then comes the sturgeon, a fish that the province of Brescia has adopted, breeding it in large numbers and using cutting-edge techniques to produce high-quality caviar, for which this area is—as few people know—a global leader. In this case, the primitive fish is served with parsnips and black truffles. Next comes a tribute to the Bergamo giant sheep, a robust delicacy from eastern Lombardy, presented grilled with red turnip, onion, black cabbage, and various herbs.
We move on to desserts, and Camilla Guarneri from Syracuse enters the scene, a character of contagious effervescence: she offers an elegant Autumn Symphony with no added sugar as an interlude. Then the more substantial Chocolate and Pear Soufflé with Ricotta Stracciatella, a dish that fortunately eschews the current trend for non-sweet desserts, as if sweetness were a crime. Finally, a few final caresses, always sweet.
The service is efficient and of the highest standard, as befits a restaurant of this caliber. Those who prefer a more informal atmosphere can take a seat at Leone Felice, with its casual atmosphere, which specializes in vegetables from the garden and beef raised on the company's Maremma estate; or at the signature pizzeria La Filiale by Franco Pepe, which offers the now famous Margherita sbagliata (wrong Margherita) by the genius from Caiazzo and many of his other classic, original, or fried creations; or at Stanza 54, a classic “all-day” hotel bar where you can enjoy glasses of wine or cocktails accompanied by traditional haute hôtellerie dishes (Caesar salad, toast, club sandwich, lobster roll); or the healthy restaurant for those who want to cleanse themselves with the Chenot diet; or, if you feel like leaving the resort, the nearby high-protein Quintale, which specializes in grilled meat.
L’Aurum dell’Albereta
via Vittorio Emanuele 23, Erbusco (Brescia).
Phone. 0307762665.
Open for dinner on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and for lunch on Sundays only.
