Antica Osteria del Teatro, Piacenza

Enter into the Antica Osteria del Teatro, Via Verdi 16 in Piacenza, it's like to retrace a piece of history. The coffered ceilings and blazons tell a distant past that goes back to the fifteenth century. The characters displayed and the ancient iron ensign declare a spent time, more than a century, as pouring wine, where were meeting the fans of opera to comment the shows of the Municipal Theatre. In the three magnificent rooms, now furnished with fine furniture and symbolic sculpture, Chef Filippo Chiappini Dattilo and his team orchestrate a daily theater inviting flavors. At the customer service Giancarlo Grassi, historical Maître sommelier and collaborator of Filippo from the beginning of the adventure, helped by Daniele Bolpagni and Ilaria Liridi, in the kitchen (where passed a certain Italo Bassi) Tommaso Negri assists while Elena Grilli and Giovanni Sandri are dealing with starters and desserts. On all the Master supervises, collaborates, comments, remember, the signature to his culinary temptations creations. All reveal a deep love for landscapes and Piacenza for the humble but formidable raw materials of this area, not without great attention to the evolution of taste. So the traditional "Bomb of rice with pigeon”, favorite dish of Elisabetta Farnese becomes "timbale of rice with pigeon and mushrooms” in which the bird is cut into thin slices and placed outside the rice, rather than being the filling. While the classic "Tortelli Farnese”, with ricotta and spinach, have an extraordinarily elastic, thin sheet, the result of a paste made with many egg yolks. "Outstanding, substance and aesthetic vision should be discounted to present time, raw materials and production methods should instead remain as possible true to tradition," pronounces the chef Chiappini Dattilo, elected in 2002 "Best Chef of Italy” and award winning of all major food guides. This is the secret identity of a kitchen strongly linked to the territory, starting from the exploitation of commodities such as unique and inimitable elements to build dishes of great taste and strong personality. "Piacenza is my theater. I grew up in the valleys - the chef recalled, I lived for many years in Carpaneto, capital of Val Chero - and I chose to stay because there are many things to do, know and admire. In the kitchen I try every day commodities with the obsession of those who should not take the wrong choice: a tribute to my land, in short, the character of these places, their secrets, their hidden wonders." The epidermal and infinite love that Filippo Chiappini Dattilo reserve to the kitchen comes from afar, from his childhood: "I enter into the kitchen the first time as a child. I still feel the sizzle of fried of my grandmother and the smell of homemade pastries. I watched for years the gestures and customs of the family, the miracle of an idea turned into food, the infectious joy of a successful dish. I used to play with the stove and in the evenings with flavors of the valley, in the happiest autumns and winters of my childhood. I was amazed in front of the ceremonies of boiled and delicate origami created from nothing with a strip of pasta with ricotta. When I went out in the backyard I was trying to find in the air the same tastes and I dreamed the magic formula to imprison them. In the summer, in Valnure or in Valtrebbia, I learned about flowers and herbs, I preferred the interminable sessions of trout fishing, the quiet serenity in a nature that I felt beautiful and unspoilt. I became an adult and this world stuck to me, as memories do not go away. My colored kitchen is also this: "a continuous thread between the seasons and the table, an alliance of aromas and flavors that changes every day depending on what the land produces" reveals the chef, recognized symbol of Piacenza. Over the years he researched the fruits that were disappearing from the market stalls, he experienced the meat of small farmers in the mountains, has tested the nectar of vines laden with history and tradition, a bit as the experimental modern artist, a bit as the Renaissance artisan, he realized, tested, created with dedication. Up to pay homage to its most secret and trusted addresses. All zero kilometer or not to far! Antica Osteria del Teatro Via Verdi, 16 29100 Piacenza Tel 0523323777 www.anticaosteriadelteatro.it Text Silvia Salvaderi