Unique new Michelin star for Rome and prize like Young Michelin Chef of the Year 2021. At 34 years of age and four years after the recklessly enthusiastic choice to open a restaurant of his own in Rome in Via Mameli, in the upper Trastevere, after completing the world gastronomic journey, Antonio Ziantoni has not lost the modesty and smile that have always distinguished. He's not one of those who impose themselves with the science of their cuisine, he doesn't arrogantly throw you the star or the recognition of chef of the year, he speaks in a low voice, and looks at you with the slightly dreamy gaze of an Alice in Wonderland. In short, success hasn't displaced him that much and he has kept the joviality of his youth spent in Vicovaro, a delightful little town of just over three thousand souls on the border between Lazio and Abruzzo along the Rome-L'Aquila highway, where nature he is the protagonist, and the human relationships are still those of a healthy province.
A modesty and joviality that transpire in the memory of the sensations that surfaced in his mind at the news of his award: «Michelin had warned me that I would be awarded as Young Chef of the Year, and it was already a great satisfaction - says Ziantoni - but when they then awarded the star to Zia Restaurant in live streaming it was a blow to the heart. The first thought went to my brigade and the people who worked on this dream come true. I certainly developed my idea of cooking and catering, year after year, experience after experience. But it's like in sport: you never go to the goal alone, there's always a team behind it».
But behind this apparent meekness, there is much more than an unarmed young man, instead there is an iron will to affirm his personal version of the kitchen in the kitchen, in which he has always believed, which is a culture of autonomy of thought, of choice , of life.
Who has been able to build step by step starting fromALMA by Gualtiero Marchesi , where it consolidated its first foundations, then strengthened with experiences in North Africa, China and Australia, before moving on to France from multi-starred Georges Blanc where he appropriated the classical technique and in London by Gordon Ramsay, three Michelin stars who taught him rigor, to then take root in Italy for four years at Anthony Genovese's Pagliaccio, two Michelin stars, the chef-director who according to the inspectors of the Reds "talks about the ingredients and cuisines of the world, which he interprets in his own way, creating a bridge with Western and more homegrown experiences, in a fabulous journey".
And it is step by step that Antonio Ziantoni has managed to build himself as one of the most prominent exponents of the new young Italian cuisine, with cultural foundations well rooted in the territory that dialogue with international influences. His is a personal cuisine that manages to express itself in an original way but, as is his character, without flights of fancy so that the meaning of its contents, such as memories of the territory, always refer to recognizable flavors, focusing everything on a refined interpretation of raw materials in an almost obsessive adherence to the concept of seasonality which leads him to often change the paper plates.
For the readers of "Mondo Food" the Chef offers a recipe, "Crème brûlée with leeks, asparagus, hops, herbs and flowers", which brings back the scents of spring, to the sensations of recovery of nature this season, to its perfumes, an invitation to read this moment of the year with enchanted eyes from a chef who has made seasonality one of the strengths of his cuisine
The recipe: Crème brûlée of leeks, asparagus, hops, herbs and flowers
Ingredients for 4 people:
For the leek cream:
100 g of leeks
100 g of vegetable broth
Oil
Garlic
Timo
Pepe
Sale
For the creme brulee:
50 g of leek cream
250 g of liquid cream
75 g milk
40 g sugar
3 g salt
4 yolks
Pepe
Vanilla pod
Sugar cane
For the wild herb salad:
Wild asparagus
Hops
Watercress
Artemisia
Borage
Geranium
One hundred and one
Burdock
Procedure:
For the leek cream:
Coarsely cut the leeks, fry some oil, a clove of garlic and thyme. Add the leeks and deglaze with vegetable broth or water. Cook for 30 minutes and then blend with a mixer.
For the creme brulee:
Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan. Add the vanilla pod and seeds. Then bring gently to a boil. Meanwhile put the egg yolks in a bowl together with the sugar and the cream of leeks. Mix with a whisk. When the milk and cream mixture has come to a boil, remove the vanilla and pour a little at a time into the bowl with the leeks, stirring constantly to obtain a homogeneous mixture.
For the cooking:
Pour the mixture into a cocotte and place it in a baking tray with water to create a bain-marie. Bake at 100 degrees for 60 minutes.
Plating:
Leave to cool, cut with a cookie cutter, sprinkle with brown sugar and burn with a torch.
Arrange on a plate and sprinkle with wild herbs and spring flowers.
Aunt RESTAURANT
Via Goredo Mameli, 45
00153 Rome
Tel. 06 23488093 – info@ziarestaurant.com
www.ziarestaurant.com
