Asoli from the stars to the bistro, for democratic quality cuisine

He is only 27 years old but Andrea Asoli already has a long history behind him. Roman, trained at the school of Antonello Colonna, first, at the luxurious Met in Venice, Michelin star, then, passing through Venissa the refined Marzobbo restaurant, where together with three colleagues he conquered a collective star of the authoritative French Red Guide, to then land at the very prestigious Chateu Monfort a stone's throw from San Babila, all stucco and antique furniture. He has a story and he has courage. Why when Andrea Berton, the big name with two stars in Milanese cuisine, has set his eyes on his talent and proposed to take on the adventure of a new restaurant formula, far from the muffled atmosphere of the aristocratic restaurants where he had worked up to that moment, he didn't think twice about it. He moved, bag and bag, to the Brera neighborhood that couldn't be more trendy, and settled down in the Pisacco kitchen where he gave birth to a successful gastro-bistro.

A new formula born from the idea of ​​a group of professionals (managers, lawyers, art collectors, architects) who have entrusted Berton for the sake of good food to create a new restaurant concept, fast, streamlined but of quality. A trend to which many starred chefs are converting from Cracco to Niko Romito, from Alajmo to Bartolini, from Giancarlo Perbellini to Cristina Bowerman.
In this case, however, the step is decidedly bolder, not a restaurant to offer signature dishes and more affordable prices. But a real bistro, where everyone eats passionately together. And where Andrea Asoli at the head of a compact brigade of super-motivated guys, he can indulge himself by expressing the best of himself by interpreting the concept of the place, a traditional cuisine with an elegant line. It is no coincidence that the most requested dish in his Bistrot is the Milanese risotto which he from Rome interpreted with a pinch of respectful creativity by placing a light white veal ragout sautéed in a pan on top to give it more consistency and a delicate cooking juice

The concept that Berton had in mind was that of a "pleasant place, full of quality, but lean cuisine" in a context characterized by a fresh, very refined design, precise and informal service, focused on bistro dishes , direct and elegant, with an Italian identity”.

Is it too much to ask? Absolutely not. The young, but tenacious and stubborn, Asoli believed in this enterprise to the end and carried it out in the best possible way. “My cooking in Pisacco – he says – is different from what I did in the starred restaurants where I worked. Here I like the idea of ​​catering simple dishes by making it clear how they can have a much different effect and give other sensations if made with excellent raw materials, with a touch of imagination that does not distort their identity and history - because each dish brings with it the cultural roots that generated it – with modernity.

Calculating that the clientele comes to us, eats a first course, maximum two dishes and runs away, with a stay of about 10 minutes during peak hours, the challenge that I have set myself is to be able to provide, in that short space of time, a sensation that remains in my client's memory, of having explored a qualitative border unimaginable before. I could say that mine are modern, youthful dishes that approach gourmet cuisine in terms of cooking and preparation techniques".

And the thing went to the point that the The Gambero Rosso guide has awarded Pisacco the "three cocotte" this year highest national recognition for a bistro. Satisfied?

“And how not to be? But in any case, for me the Tre Cocotte do not represent a point of arrival, but an intermediate goal, which gives me the desire to further improve my level.

Certainly the transition from a starred restaurant to a bistro requires a great deal of courage when it is not the result of withdrawing into oneself. But certainly Andrea Asoli knows the thing about him.

“Some might think that when I went from a five-star hotel restaurant to a bistro, I took a step backwards. None of this was a conscious choice of growth. After having acquired so much knowledge in the kitchen, I felt the need to make the economic concepts of running a restaurant my own, I wanted to master the management culture, take care of suppliers, procurement, technical and economic aspects. An obligatory step to realize my project of a restaurant of my own”

A restaurant that will be closer to Pisacco than to an elegant starred restaurant, where you can make cuisine within the reach of all budgets.

Pisacco is therefore for him the experiment to decline with new solutions and customize when he will be in charge of his restaurant. Because his desire is to amaze, to make people understand how a "democratic" cuisine can be created, how quality and taste are within reach, without the need for risky experimentation, and where the components of a dish can be identified by reading them in the their becoming but also in their origin.

And it is evident that to arrive at such essentiality the obligatory path – ironically – is that of haute cuisine, which alone knows how to take you to the essence of the material and its processing.

Where the young Andrea arrived by chance after having attended the hotel management school in Rome at a very young age.

"I am self-taught - he likes to say - in the family I have had no one who has introduced me to the fascination of cooking, I have not had any master who has taken me by the hand".

And the spark? At 19, after hotel management school he went to France to take his first steps in a three-star Michelin restaurant. “And there, seeing the price you pay and how many sacrifices quality requires, I understood that this would be my path, the challenge with myself. And I must say that thanks to Andrea Berton today I see many interesting paths on my horizon".

Pisacco – Via Solferino 48 – Milan – https://www.pisacco.it – closed on Mondays