Reale restaurant, famed chef Niko Romito’s 3-Michelin-starred concept, inaugurates it’s reopening with the launch of a Vegetable Tasting Menu that narrates the journey of the Michelin-starred chef’s research into the infinite flavors, nutrients, and creative possibilities of vegetables – presenting this protagonist of the gastronomic springtime at Reale, together with a menu of great classics and new dishes.
The decision to reopen the Reale restaurant with a tasting menu dedicated to vegetables is the response to a creative process born 20 years ago and which, through continuous research and experimentation, translates into the desire to ennoble simple ingredients through creativity and intuition.
“This year, more than ever, I realized that vegetable dishes are those in which our creativity is expressed in a way that is as disruptive as it is absolutely spontaneous, and this is where the new vegetable tasting menu comes from,” explains Niko Romito. “A table of colors, tastes and flavors, which have flavor nuances that other ingredients do not have.”
“The key,” he adds, “lies in the preparation, because the creative process that guides the transformation of the ingredient, exalting its gustatory strength, preserving its intrinsic purity and intervening on its structure and nuances, becomes, paradoxically, more important than the ingredient itself. The creative exercise is stimulated by the obligation that the raw material itself imposes to follow rules, to submit to constraints that, in the vegetable are very rigid but if respected and interpreted, they take it to another dimension.”
“A well prepared dish is a dish that satisfies the person eating it,”continues the chef, “and a carrot or a cauliflower have the same dignity as a great dish of meat or fish. The new tasting menu is the result of an enormous work within the world of vegetables, which gives it back the complexity and completeness it deserves but which is not taken for granted, especially when it comes to common perception.”
Gastronomic literature itself has never really exalted the goodness of a vegetable, but rather focuses on how good a vegetable is from a nutritional standpoint and therefore why it is necessary in a balanced diet. According to the approach of the Reale restaurant, this outdated cultural heritage must be overcome by those who have the knowledge and the competence.
Today, more than ever, the chef’s job is to guide, as well as surprise, to open a horizon on a language that is increasingly up-to-date and respects the needs of a changing world.
The Reale Restaurant Vegetable Tasting Menu
Pea ice cream Carrot Red onion, Vermouth and pink pepper Bread Broccoli leaf and aniseed Celeriac, hazelnut and cardamom Roasted cabbage Forest infusion with almond ravioli Beans and chard Linguine and bell pepper Roasted endive with potatoes and rosemary Radicchio and peanuts Cauliflower au gratin Orange
Reale Restaurant À La Carte Menu
Trout, almond and bay leaf Eel, lemon, roasted garlic and red pepper Roasted squid, pink grapefruit and black olives Lamb chops and potato mayonnaise Chicken and lettuce salad Onion, parmesan and toasted saffron sauce Ravioli with sheep ricotta cheese and water Fettuccelle of semolina, red shrimp and pink pepper Fusilli, chicken, rosemary and green bell pepper powder Pigeon fondant and pistachio Torbato beef and potatoes Cold duck and smoked water Sea bass, lettuce and capers Liquorice granita, wine vinegar, white chocolate and balsamic vinegar Essence Meringue, raspberry and toffee.