It’s the pop-up experience, taken to entirely new heights: Presented by Mastercard, PRICELESS-An International Culinary Collective is the first-ever restaurant-in-residence concept, in which noted restaurants and bars from around the world are re-created—right down to the décor, tableware and even the sounds and views—at Spring in New York City, offering foodies the chance to not just savor the flavors of a far-away hotspot, but to feel transported to those destinations themselves. This fall, guests who book a PRICELESS table will get whisked away to The Rock, an Italian-influenced restaurant from Zanzibar, Tanzania (open until Oct. 31), Lyaness, an award-winning bar from London (open until Oct 31), and Kjolle, the Lima, Peru restaurant from Best Female Chef, Latin America winner Chef Pia Leon (operating until Nov. 20.)
All three spaces have been reimagined in NYC under the direction of Spring’s resident chef, Fabio Bano, who runs the in-house Spring Place restaurant. Located in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood, Spring is a stylish combination of members-only club, co-working space, and incubator where artists, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and other creative professionals can meet to exchange ideas and curate experiences. The company has also over the years partnered with noteworthy brands and chefs to host unforgettable culinary events; think a special New York Fashion Week menu by Rene Redzepi and noma, and a theatrical dinner from Kaspian. So when PRICELESS needed a singular partner for this one-of-a-kind concept, Spring—and Chef Bano—were a natural fit.
Chef Fabio Bano
Born in Bergamo, Italy, and trained under such noted chefs and restauranteurs as Pietro Leeman, Antonio Ghilardi, and Danny Meyer, Chef Bano most recently helmed the Giorgio Armani flagship restaurant, Armani Ristorante 5th Avenue, before bringing his “vision of modern Italian food” to Spring Place. We caught up with the personable chef to chat about what it was like to help create these immersive culinary experiences—and what dishes PRICELESS guests can’t miss.
Tell us a bit about your cooking philosophy and the Spring Place menu.
The cooking approach is seasonal, sustainable, fresh, and harmonious. I select the best ingredients—all vegetables and organic meats from local farms surrounding the city to support slow food. We process them as little as possible to emphasize their flavor, and serve them in a simple way, trying to find flavor combinations that highlight and reflect the original Italian taste. Plus, all our food is made from scratch, with the handcrafted pastas and breads made with ancient grain flours to reduce the gluten content and to respect the modern way of living. We have also curated a well-received wellness program for particular diet types.
What appealed to you about the PRICELESS project, and what is your involvement in helping to plan and organize it?
With the Mastercard PRICELESS project, it the first time we had to open three restaurants simultaneously—so it was definitely challenging. We had to logistically create three new kitchens, coordinate ordering all the ingredients (some of which were not even available in New York), and source other ingredients that were unknown to us. My work for the project is hands-on—me and my team supervise all three restaurants and creatively design menus for two out of the three locations.
Tell us a bit about working with each of the featured chefs and restaurants.
It’s always formative to exchange styles and ideas with other chefs, especially if they are internationally acclaimed. My team gets exposed to other types of food and cultures, which help them learn and get better and develop their skills further, too. One thing that Spring Place definitely teaches you is to think outside of the box!
The collaboration for Kjolle was the most organic—with Pia Leon being the decorated chef that she is, it made for a seamless collaboration. She does events like this multiple times a year while promoting the biodiversity of Peru, so it was a combined effort between us to replicate the exact food that she creates in Lima. I love that Kjolle is a very essential restaurant with defined flavors. We share a similar style of cooking, which is foraging ingredients and promoting them in a dish while respecting nature and the origin of the ingredients.
For The Rock, I had to create a menu all based on west African ingredients, so it was really a lot of fun. I liked how challenging it was to bring the entire Zanzibar food and culture to the table. Dining in that space is like attending a party; it is very convivial, and they really embrace it. Since they don’t have a wide selection of fine ingredients, we had to transform the dishes into “fairytale dishes.”
Chef Pia Leon of Kjolle
Are there any elements of the different menus that reminded you of Italian cuisine—techniques or specific ingredients?
The Rock was founded by three Italian pioneers who decided to build a restaurant on a remote rock in the middle of the ocean—so they brought some Italian fare to that restaurant, like gnocchi and tambi, which is a local noodle similar to spaghettini. They cook what they fish daily, which is a thing that happens in fish villages in Italy, too. Kjolle uses raw seafood and shellfish in a similar way that we use it for carpaccio or pesce crudo, just with different sauces. I love the Ollocus, which is similar to our patata ratta potato—just more succulent.
What are some of your favorite menu items from each space?
At Kjolle, I love the Scallops and Seeds because it is a reinterpretation of a classic ceviche, but instead made with guanabana milk and the burnt seed of pacae plant. And Many Tubers—Chef Pia Leon’s signature dish—is a tartelette made with Kanihua flour, a grain similar to quinoa, served with goat cheese and potato cream, and filled with all the tubers native of Peru. Another favorite is the Catch of the Day and Sea Urchin, as this is the closest to an Italian dish—ricci di mare crudi—in terms of preparation.
At The Rock, the Spaghetti Neri is a sexy dish that resembles pasta Carbonara, but made with sea urchin instead of egg, and a raw quail egg that brings the sauce together. We also add raw salmon for a last pop of ocean flavor in the mouth. I also love the charcoal whole roasted rockfish, which is cold-smoked with Zanzibar native tea, vanilla and hay, and cooked on the bone on the charcoal to preserve the all-natural juices.
And at Lyaness, the mixology program is truly unbelievable. In the Infinite Banana cocktail, they use all the parts of the banana, skin included, while the Peach Blow Punch is a refreshing and delicious drink made with strawberry clarified milk.