A single word is enough. If there is one thing that talented young chefs have in common when dealing with their first solo experiences, it’s their ability to be concise. Zia, Giulia, Jacopa, and so on. The names of the places you can label as “bistronomia” (gastronomic bistros) are always just a single word. The concision of the name often reflects the offer, because bistronomia is indeed a gourmet restaurant, but one that offers refined cuisine at affordable prices, renouncing any frills that go beyond the kitchen. The service tends to be more down-to-earth, often without the fancy tablecloth; some place even let the clients seat themselves.
Such choices allow the restaurant to cut costs and privilege the sensory experience of food, focusing on the kitchen and offering stellar taste without superfluously sidereal ambitions. The young chef who chooses to open a gourmet restaurant in a bistronomia format is able to cook at that level and manage that kind of stress in the kitchen, but they offer themselves to a wider audience, trying to attract curious palates without getting fixated on formalities. To put it in sporting terms: they break out into the minor leagues, which require as much dedication, and perhaps more than in the majors.
The precursors
If you have to trace bistronomia’s geneology, the first to launch the trend were Davide Del Duca and Alba Esteve Ruiz, at Osteria Fernanda and Marzapane respectively.
Over time Del Duca has changed location and refined his aesthetics with an elegantly rustic cuisine (only apparently an oxymoron). But its value has always been that of knowing how to combine strong tastes, difficult ingredients and elaborate cooking, giving rise to incredibly delicate dishes. It achieves all this while remaining one of the best values for money in the city.
Alba Esteve Ruiz had the merit of bringing a breath of fresh air to Rome and her interpretation of Roman-Spanish bistronomia, with deep experience in some of her country’s finest restaurants. Alba arrived very young and grew up with Marzapane, the project created by the owner Mario Sansone, in love with French-style bistronomia and an excellent coach. Alba left the restaurant where she’d made a name for herself to set off on a new adventure. Meanwhile at Marzapane, the talent scout Mario Sansone, recently launched another promising young man, Francesco Capuzzo Dolcetta, and the new direction is enjoying great success with critics and the public.
Alba, on the other hand, has just settled into her new project, Antica Fonderia. Even though the name is composed of two words, it suggests that the format of Alba’s new creation is slightly different from the bistronomia that it helped launch, with choices that are perhaps even more heroic. In this new project, the Spanish chef takes the helm at the stove, with ancestral cooking, grilling and charbroiling meat from all over the world along with vegetables to be rediscovered. But she can’t forget her origins, with strong dishes like carbonara, made with her deftly feminine touch.
The new wave
Others have also helped shuffle the cards in Rome. In chronological order: Retrobottega, Giuseppe Lo Iudice and Alessandro Miocchi. They’ve taken the “no frills” philosophy and run with it – leaving clients to set their own tableware. In the beginning they also drove foodies from all over the world crazy by not taking reservations, so customers would line up patiently along Via della Stelletta. Then they spread out to the neighboring locale, without however increasing the capacity, and from there they granted the luxury of reservations. Their “counter” cuisine has set a new standard: craftsmanship, excellent ingredients, the ability to get involved 100% by being both chefs and hosts at the same time. The only flaw is that they are slightly over the budget limit of €50 ($55) per person that we set.
From the same stable of talents produced by the two-star Anthony Genovese comes another exponent of this new wave: Antonio Ziantoni, chef and owner of Zia. His cuisine is contemporary and exciting and we wouldn’t be surprised if Ziantoni were promoted to the higher category. Without taking anything away from the other chefs mentioned, his proposal is the one that comes closest to the “conformism” that attracts Michelin stars, both in the kitchen and in the service – which is never piecemeal, but always rigorous and attentive – entrusted to the sweet hands of his partner Ida Proietti.
Also from the same school, the boys at Jacopa, Jacopo Ricci and Piero Drago, who are making a name for themselves among the capital’s gourmets. And they’re doing very well with the restaurant opened inside the San Francesco hotel: a breakfast room during the day and gourmet restaurant in the evening, with a terrace for those who want to enjoy an aperitivo with some treats coming from the kitchen.
Pierluigi Gallo has also passed through the kitchens of Anthony Genovese, even though his real mentor was Niko Romito. He was in the of Reale kitchen when Romito won his third Michelin star. Although of Campanian origins, Gallo, like Romito, is also Abruzzese by birth and training, and he transmits his land through his place in Via Giulia. Like the street, Pierluigi Gallo’s restaurant-project is called Giulia, and for over a year it has found a place in the hearts of the capital’s foodies.
To keep an eye on
Two other addresses we visited in recent months have been on the same wavelength. Though less consolidated in terms of operating time, they are nevertheless promising. A common feature is that they are pleasant places, with chefs who have significant experience and are able to create memorable dishes. This is the case of Verve inside the D.O.M. hotel, with a restaurant on the ground floor and a fabulous terrace amid the rooftops of Rome. Here Adriano Magnoli and Antonella Mascolo, chef and pastry chef respectively, ply their craft. As a couple in life and vocation, the two come from the school of Riccardo Di Giacinto, chef of the starred restaurant All’Oro.
Another noteworthy address is Aqualunae by Emanuele Paoloni, in the delightful Piazza dei Quiriti, in Prati. Originally from the Marche and with a hint of Austrian in his blood, Paoloni moves as well with seafood as with meat, pulling a host of treats from his toque.