Three Michelin stars, Best of Italy from the Gambero Rosso Restaurant Guide 2018, confirmed as one of the world’s 50 Best Restaurants, Niko Romito’s restaurant Reale offers more than one reason to travel to Castel di Sangro, a small village on the hills of Abruzzo. This chef’s tireless research has led him to an unexpected dimension of haute cuisine, one that attracts those who want to enjoy a unique experience off the beaten track.
The chef who did not want to be a cook
A native of Abruzzo, Niko Romito did not want to be a cook. He went to Rome to study economics, but before he could finish his degree, his career as a broker was interrupted. He had to return home and to his father’s trattoria, out of duty. With his sister Cristiana, he read, studied, taught himself and improvised. The rest is part of the history of contemporary cuisine: 3 Michelin stars in seven years, a Guinness World Record, and cooking that floors you because it’s unlike anything else.
None of the stylistic traits of contemporary dining
When you think about top-level restaurants, you think about the opulence of the place, the richness of caviar and champagne, luxury made apparent if not shown off, and frivolous spectacular presentation. If you think of any trendy place, however, you think of the usual “tradition and innovation,” the constant description of ingredients and preparation, the evocation of memories behind every dish. At Reale there is none of this.
It would be easy in Abruzzo to appeal to tradition, evoke memories of childhood. Or you could go in the other direction by creating a fusion with ingredients from distant travels. “Abruzzo is mainly an ideal for me now. An ideal of concentration, reflection, respect and truth – applied to the ingredients,” Romito says.
Here there are no grandmothers, bad teachers, putative fathers, signs of a shift in French, Spanish, or Nordic kitchens. You won’t find any fonds, foams, elaborate plating, decorations, the touch of color and the list of stylistic traits typical of the last 30 years of contemporary cuisine and the last 30 restaurants you ate in. It’s pointless playing “Guess who ate here.”
The Reale is a restaurant that appeals to those who like to “eat well” and those seeking mental nourishment. It will surprise anyone who thinks that haute cuisine is all about show. It will surprise those who have eaten in a thousand similar dinners with the same concepts, but who are looking for a truly personal message and dining experience.
Simple – apparently
“Apparently simple,” is how Romito defines his cooking. Simple to look at, both in its presentation at the table and in the description on the menu. “I don’t want an ingredient to dissipate. Rather, I want it to explode in the mouth with all its vitality.” Nothing is taken away. It all works toward a centripetal movement that concentrates flavors, aromas and sensations.
Onion, Parmigiano and toasted saffron reduction (on the menu since 2010), artichoke and rosemary, roasted eggplant, tomato and caramelized fish – historic dishes in the restaurant – as well as char-grilled pancetta, smoked beef, where the dish arrives with one single ingredient. Tomato capellini are white, not red, tortelli with chicken are served bare, like a plin from Piedmont. The Pane (bread) with an uppercase P, becomes a course, arriving alone at the table. “It is often said that my cooking is simple,” he writes in his manifesto 10 Lezioni di Cucina (10 Cooking Lessons). “It’s absolutely correct, in the sense that it lacks complication. And yet, it involves considerable complexity. Complexity in the kitchen can be advantageous, complication never.” So while the smoked beef is a piece of meat, there in the dish, and described in two words by the waiters, in the mouth it’s fascinating in its consistency, its aroma and the sensation of the meat. It’s very good, very tender, there’s no need to tell you that it’s the fruit of months of labor and around two weeks of cooking.
So much research, but into what?
If you put 10 ingredients in a dish, you may get confused. If you only put one in, it’s difficult to not notice any flaws. This is why Romito’s recipes rest on precise balance, and on a research that goes on for months, engaging the kitchen team in a modern research lab to explore new areas of study – of meat and vegetables, fermentation and pressure-cooking. What does a chef research? “A way to bring high quality downwards. Economically sustainable models,” says Romito, the chef who nearly became an economist. In fact the work of the laboratory and the 3 Michelin-starred restaurant Reale is comparable to haute couture on the catwalks. There’s also the ready-to-wear line, the jeans, the younger lines. Then the brand grants licenses to allow specialized companies to produce accessories such as glasses and handbags, cars and furniture, which can be identified with a specific style… Romito thinks the same way, he creates an imprint and then standardizes and replicates it.
In the course of Reale restaurant’s research, the culinary academy Accademia was created - both hosted by Casadonna, the charming guest house; then followed by the Spazio restaurants in Rivisondoli, Milan and Rome, the Intelligenza Nutrizionale project for hospital catering, the cooking at the Bulgari restaurants across the world, Bomba fast-food, the Pane bread laboratory for the distribution of frozen bread for haute cuisine, and Alt, the gourmet service station on the SS17 highway to Castel di Sangro. Proof that he does not need to move to go far.