In Milan, in the centrally located Piazza Sempione, the first restaurant in Italy owned by a champagne brand has opened.
Delarocque Restaurant & Champagne is a modern, elegant and cozy venue, with a terrace overlooking the monumental Arco Della Pace and the sign that bears the name of an independent French winery in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, home of the great champagnes.
Delarocque Restaurant & Champagne is in fact the first restaurant in Italy owned by a champagne brand. “This adventure – says Franco Descalzi, CEO and majority shareholder of Delarocque 1815 – comes from the desire to build a high-level sartorial experience for anyone who decides to discover and taste our champagne in a unique context, in the heart of the capital of taste and fashion – Milan. I have always been passionate about bubbles. I grew up between Nigeria, France, England and Italy and here I have crowned my desire to enhance the history and tradition of the French label Delarocque 1815, through a restaurant that tells and celebrates the champagne, alongside a contemporary cuisine, ideal for the Italian public, a lover of taste, but also of elegance.”
At Delarocque Restaurant & Champagne, humble dishes of tradition are revisited by the young Neapolitan chef Pietro Tiglio using modern techniques and original ingredients to dazzle diners with an intense explosion of flavors. In the new seasonal menu, alongside classic dishes such as the plateau of raw fish – selected by the chef and accompanied by the juice of Amalfi’s best lemons – fish dishes stand out, including scampi with annurca apples, foie gras and puffed quinoa, linguina di Gragnano with clams, zucchini and botargo and, among the main courses, amberjack with eggplant, red onion and a tasty mussel guazzetto.
There is also no shortage of meat dishes, such as veal in tuna sauce with celery and capers or the unmistakable limousine beef milanese with rocket, grana cheese, confit tomatoes, balsamic vinegar sauce and mustard.
To enhance the taste of Chef Tiglio’s cuisine, the menu offers captivating drinks to be sipped before, after or during the meal in combination with the dishes, according to an itinerary tailor made for each client, and, of course, French bubbles, among which Delarocque champagne stands out.
Produced according to a careful handcrafting process, each bottle of Delarocque is unique, the result of the efforts of a small number of experts who take care of every phase, from grape pressing to fermentation, as well as the manual application of the French pewter label.
With its three lines Delarocque is a champagne to be tasted throughout the meal. Blanc de Blancs, the flagship of the house, is excellent for aperitifs and can be matched with fish dishes, as well as with cheeses having a delicate taste. Rosé, having amber hues, is particularly suited for fatty meats, such as duck or salmon, as well as in combination with chocolate. Finally, Brut, the most informal among Delarocque champagnes, is the perfect accompaniment for raw fish.