Gastroville

The restaurant is located in a suburb of Munich, and the initial impression was that it was a non-distinct room and terrace which certainly did not carry any sign of distinction. The greeting, however, was friendly and soon thereafter an unassuming easy going person identified himself as Mario, and he is the chef owner. He was polite and well groomed and was willing to describe dishes and answer questions without making one feel we were asking too much. I asked Mario if he had worked in other places and he told us that he was originally from Bergamo, home to the great Da Vittorio, and that he had worked for the three Michelin star chef Heinz Winkler and the famous Gualtiero Marchesi with whose cuisine I am not familiar. Incidentally we had dined at Winkler the night before and had concluded that he was delivering more like the mid-echelon two star chefs of France. So I expected to have a fine but not exceptional meal, perhaps more French than Italian.

I was wrong. What was in order for us was not just a fine and solid meal. It was much more than that. That is, it was a virtuoso performance, underlined by a singular vision rooted deeply in Northern Italian traditions, with superb ingredients and a technical mastery which made complicated dishes look simple and taste delicious. Indeed Aquarello delivered at a higher level than all of the 7 two star Italian restaurants in Italy that we had tried, and on par with Da Vittorio, which is also a two star restaurant. Could we have been especially lucky and was this a fortuity which would not repeat itself? Well, the following day, which was our last day in Munich (September 4, 2004) we had a reservation elsewhere and cancelled it to see if Aquarello would repeat the same performance with other dishes. It did. So I am pretty confident about the rating.

Very high standards are set early in the meal here. On one day the amuse featured an exceptional ravioli filled with artichoke puree and topped by raw as well as deep fried crunchy baby artichokes which was exceptional in purity and textural contrasts. Another day, Mario sent out the most creamy vitello tonnato which compared favorably with the good versions of this antipasti one can find at the highest level in Piemonte, together with thinly sliced, very fresh raw baby octopus with herbs. The use of herbs, not overpowering but just right and the care given to integrate them in a simple dish, proved that Mario took his mission of being the ambassador of Italian cuisine in Munich very seriously indeed.

Then came the five antipasti Gualtiero Marchesi that Mario had recommended and are pictured below. I would later learn that these dishes are inspired by techniques learned at the master, who purportedly is a great teacher, and they are not an exact copy. Clearly, in an era when some chefs plagiarize dishes and then deny the influence with a straight face, Mario is setting high standards. I also learned that these five antipasti are prepared daily and may be quite different from one day to the next depending on the available ingredients. On our visit they featured the following:

-gleaming tuna tartare with traditional pesto (using mortar and pestle);

-a baby cauliflower timbale with puree and shredded raw pieces with fine quality sevruga caviar, a perfect classic combination, luxurious and soothing;

-carpaccio of scallops on top of passion fruit puree with chives, which included exceptional raw scallops and restraint in passion fruit which works well by emphasizing the sweetness of truffles and adding a dash of acidity to contrast;

-cold black fettucine salad, served with gamberi and cherry tomatoes, red peppers and sugar snap peas, together with prosecco foam which adds some depth; and

-a deep fried rice ball, which is perhaps the best version of this classic dish served with fresh vanilla infused red pepper mousse, very light and delicious.

Usually all good Italian restaurants have good pastas, and this is a category which is very difficult to excel given the limits. Aquarello does excel in this category too for two reasons. First, the combinations are well thought out, and this is the case for classics,such as ravioli of burrata and ravioli with pear and gorgonzola, and also for more creative dashing preparations, such as tortelli of figs and foie gras and gnocci with baby leeks and caviar. Second, pasta preparations are ethereal in the sense that pastas are very delicate so that they never interfere with the basic theme they express. That is to say that pastas are a tool to bring out the best in their stuffing. One can add that Mario also likes preparing light and foamy sauces which seem to be a lasting legacy of Spanish chef Ferran Adria’s earlier invention. When used intelligently and without excess, the foamy infusions which disappear into the dish, do add a new and often complimentary dimension to the dish. For instance take the ravioli of burrata. Burrata is a fiore de latte cheese which originated in Puglia and it resembles a very creamy mozzarella with cream and curds in the middle. It is an exceptional cheese in its category. The three star Italian restaurant Dal Pescatore prepares a three cheese ravioli with a good dose of buratta, and this dish is justifiably famous. Mario’s version was on par and as soon as you bite into the ravioli, this milky, rich decadence oozed out. It then combined with a sweet red pepper or peperoni foam which melted quickly in the dish and added a welcome zap to this very delicate and delicious pasta. Similarly the gorgonzola dolce foam in the pear-gorgonzola ravioli and the prosecco foam which is served with the caviar and young leek gnocchi did elevate these dishes to a superior plane without overly complicating them.

As good as the three pastas I mention above, the one I chose to picture was the star. That is, the so called tortelli, which is the cut typical of Bergamo. It is filled with sweet figs when in season, and Mario uses goose foie gras rather then duck which is clearly stronger in flavor. Hence it stands on its own against the figs. A lighter foie gras foam and an almost caramelized cassis coulis painted on the plate interact with the ingredients, and each bite explodes in the mouth and alerts the taste buds. Obviously a dish which makes such a strong statement can also be tiring if you eat too much, but portions are just right, especially if you share the pastas This dish actually reminded me of the foie gras and fig jam preparation I fondly remember from the now defunct Faugeron which was one of my favorite classic restaurants in Paris. The difference is that the addition of cassis coulis has added the welcome acidity to lighten the dish and basically played the role of old balsamic vinegar which would also have worked.

Usually secondi or main courses are a letdown in Italian restaurants of high caliber compared to their French counterparts. This is not the case at Aquarello . Actually I am going out on a limb and say that one main course of the three we have tried (and we ordered the second time too) was extraordinary, one of the best main courses I have had in 2004 and should rate 19.5/20 on our scale. The other two were also very good, about 17-18/20 level.

The two very good main courses were the oxtail braised in Barolo wine and a saddle of Pauillac lamb with herbs. The first classic Piemontese dish which is quintessential Italian comfort food was elevated to a higher plane by the inclusion of feather light celery root puree and deep fried but greaseless crunchy celery root slices. The braised meat was soft enough to eat with a spoon if you want and the Barolo wine based sauce surrounding the plate was as rich as sauce bourgouignon. The rare Pauillac lamb, on the other hand, was gamey and flavorful and was accompanied by a flavorful gateau of eggplant and tomatoes which are at their ripest in early September. The skin of the lamb was rubbed with breadcrumbs and thyme which added to the crunchy texture of the skin. The light infusion of cooking juices and fresh herbs transported one to the realm of Provence.

As good as these dishes are, almost a year after having them, I am still salivating imagining Mario’s squab with red wine, walnut and parsley sauce. We order baby pigeon or squab dishes often in Europe, and I consider the slightly gamey tender squab meat to be a special treat as it blends well with rich ingredients, such as foie gras and also carries well sweet additions, such as various fruits. A simply roasted baby pigeon (squab) is often good in itself, but it is also a meat which can be off putting since older pigeons develop a nasty livery taste. Well, Mario was able to get a squab which is essentially the same level of one that is served in France’s greatest restaurants, such as Louis XV, ADPA, etc. But the treatment was equally ingenious too, with an unmistakable Italian touch. The touch came from the parsley puree and ricotta soufflé (sformato) which was ingeniously used to coat the pink and tender breast of squab. The breast of the squab was breaded and deep fried and served on the same plate for a wonderful contrast. Two complementary sauces accompanied the squab: a parsley puree and a red wine infusion enriched with several sweet spices, such as nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, etc. In addition the dish was paired with a whole fresh walnut cooked a long time in an infusion of red wine and walnut liquor. Fresh walnuts are a rare treat in Mediterranean countries where they are available, but they can only be found in late summer. It is quite a pain to peel them though. Their inclusion in this dish added both a textural contrast and a wonderful nutty/sweet dimension which blended so well with the gamey taste that I wondered why nobody had tried it before. If Ducasse is the master of creating squab dishes which are decadently rich and unmistakeably in the haute cuisine tradition, I think Aquarello ’s version is equally labor intensive and complex and harmonious, but much lighter. It definitely lifts one’s spirit and invokes pleasant memories that very few dishes are capable of invoking, even in the three star restaurants.

After so many delicacies, we were also dumbfounded to see that Aquarello also excelled in the sweet department. The four desserts we tried, the lemon ricotta tart, chocolate soufflé with coffee sabayon, chocolate cbrepe with grand marnier mousse, and the ricotta soufflé with pear coulis, may not win awards as the most original desserts of 2004, but they were all technically perfect renditions of some classics without any dose of heaviness or cloying sweetness. The feather light ricotta soufflé which should be ordered in the beginning of the meal was my favorite although by a very small margin.

The all Italian wine list at Aquarello is the only weak point of the restaurant. Prices are fair but choices are limited and there is little depth in vintages. But with Mario’s help it is possible to find some lesser known but quite interesting wines. He recommended for instance a 2000 Dezi “Solo” which is a Sangiovese based wine from a small producer in Marche. We also had a ‘99 Amarone from Begali which was a very good match with the braised oxtail. But I wish some older Amarones were available.

Aquarello also provides excellent value. It is very highly recommended.

Gastroville ranking: 17.5/20 (VM)