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New air at Heinz Beck's Pergola: contemporary look and new menu that looks to Rome and marries circular and zero waste philosophy

The three-starred chef focuses on the use of raw materials through biological or enzymatic processes that already exist in nature. In the restaurant, travertine and "Roman" materials coexist with precious Gallé glass and paintings from the hotel's historic collection

New air at Heinz Beck's Pergola: contemporary look and new menu that looks to Rome and marries circular and zero waste philosophy

La Pergola by Heinz Beck, the capital's eternally three-starred restaurant, has turned a new leaf: the renovation starts from the interior decoration, with a project signed by Jouin and Manku, a Parisian architecture and design studio that has decided to bring the essence of Rome into the inside the restaurant rooms, for a more engaging experience based on materials such as travertine, alcantara, terracotta and silk which blend with a precious collection of Gallè glass and some important paintings from the collection of the historic Albergo di Monte Mario.

“For some – say Jouin and Manku – Rome evokes the paintings of Piazza Navona by Canaletto or the terracotta shades of its architecture; for others it is represented by the pine trees that shelter from the sun in a summer sky, by the Dolce Vita or by Nanni Moretti's scooter rides. All this is condensed, distilled, and becomes the foundation of our project, in harmony with the work of the starred chef. Heinz Beck takes up the traditions of Italian culture and evolves them with his research and innovative techniques, to present classic flavors in a different light. Our project follows a similar philosophy: it reinterprets Rome while remaining faithful to the emotions it can arouse and its historicity."

Beck, the affirmation of the gastronomic philosophy based on the concepts of health, well-being and circular cuisine

But the changes do not only concern the environments: they also extend to the chef's menus whose philosophy is based on the concepts of health, well-being and circular cuisine with the use of 100% raw materials in all its components and now reaches a drastic reduction in waste, which in some cases becomes total. Heinz Beck, with his kitchen team, has concentrated in this period on finding the right synergy and the maximum use of the raw material through biological or enzymatic processes already existing in nature; furthermore, there is a strong focus on the plant world which tends to obtain, through the latest technologies, new and increasingly intense flavours. The chef had long since begun to replace raw materials from intensive cultivation with products from biodynamic and regenerative or spontaneous cultivation and, now, he has concentrated above all on the preservation of these extremely delicate raw materials and in most cases, with a shelf very short life.

Among the new dishes, "0,1%", a message to man and his impact on global biomass,

Among the new dishes, "0,1%" is the one that best represents the message that Chef Beck wants to convey to his customers: very often man tends to build and produce resources in a superfluous way without paying the right attention to what nature already exists. The name 0,1% is the percentage of the space occupied by man compared to the world's biomass, and represents how man in his small biomass often impacts with cold and aseptic materials. In Beck's dish the narration is entrusted to a cobblestone - a typical porphyry cube of the paving of the streets of Rome - made with a freeze-dried tomato and charcoal, which is reabsorbed by the force of nature, i.e. the spontaneous herbs, which surround it and which they reconquer the territory occupied by man.

There is also a real homage to Rome: the "Lamb on the Ancient Appian Way" which mixes the intensity of sheep meat with germ-activated legumes, whose arrangement on the plate draws the pattern of the paving of one of the most beautiful and significant streets of the Eternal City.

In addition to the room, the change will also be total in the mise en place. The table is made up of many elements designed and created specifically for La Pergola: from the ceramic flower vases created by hand by Madlen Ceramics, a Roman artist from Trastevere, to the waiting plates by Feeling's – the French brand specialized in the sartorial production of Limonges ceramics - and are characterized by the floral motif that we also find embroidered on the silk of the walls of the niches in the first room. The cutlery was also carefully selected and, among the various proposals, the Infini line by Christofle with its soft and essential lines was chosen for the savory dishes, while for the sweet dishes, always in line with the botanical theme, the Jardin line was chosen d'Eden in which each piece of cutlery features engravings of a tangle of vines, plants and flowers.

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