The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Program has drawn the world's attention to the ethical and democratic principles of food, and to greater respect for food resources. For its part, the Coronavirus epidemic has represented an important alarm bell to induce the world population to consider the table, not only as a factor for satisfying needs, but also, indeed above all, as a fundamental tool for ensuring well-being for our body .
"Let food be your medicine and medicine your food" so recommended Hippocrates, the father of medicine, already in 400 BC. «Man is what he eats» reiterated the German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach, 2.200 years later. But, to tell the truth, the aphorism has not had the necessary effects in times of unbridled consumerism. Until a mysterious enemy of humanity called Covid made everyone reflect on the need to change register at the table.
Umberto Amato, 61 years old, patron of La Fontanina di San Pietro in Monte Argentario in Tuscany, to tell the truth, did not have to wait for these signs to convince himself of the need to ensure our body healthy and genuine foods and above all beneficial nutrients without this giving up the pleasures of the table, its flavors and its colors.
He has always believed in it since he was a child when at the age of 13 he haunted the family restaurant opened by his father, a chef on ships, who had decided to give up sailing and put himself in the kitchen of his wife's old family home. Next to the restaurant there was a hectare of land, mostly with olive and fruit trees and then a vegetable garden which attracted the interest and passion of the young Umberto.
Those plants he watched grow, bear their tasty fruits, he cared for them with love, they fascinated him for the genuine flavors they gave, clean flavors, without pollutants and chemical agents. Just as clean and fresh was the taste of a pure spring that flowed into the ground with which the garden was irrigated, and which gave the restaurant its name: La Fontanina.
It is natural that Umberto also grew up in the kitchen of his home restaurant until he felt the strong call to learn about new culinary cultures, new ways of thinking about cooking, new systems and new materials. And so it was that in the mid-nineties, while new venues were opening on the Argentario and Porto Santo Stefano on the wave of Vippaiola fashion that had chosen that sea frequented by Dutch royals, artists, painters, film stars, he, in contrast, he decides to leave his father's country restaurant to go and have new experiences abroad, in France, in the Caribbean, in the USA, especially in Japan, home of one of the most balanced and healthy cuisines in the world, where he exaltation of the taste of a food is pursued by trying to preserve its purity, where attention to the wholesomeness of the food, to its freshness, is paroxysmal.
Music to the ears of Umberto Amato who is a convinced environmentalist and advocate of nutraceuticals in the kitchen, who is enchanted by so much science. He remains ten years away from home. Only when he realizes that he has learned all the basic secrets of a healthy cuisine does he decide to return home, bringing not only the memories of extraordinary experiences but also many ingredients, seeds, herbs, an example above all the Japanese Kuzu to be used instead of starch , to be planted in his garden, as well as the knowledge of modern cooking and food preservation techniques.
And today Umberto Amato leads the kitchen of La Fontanina with one eye on the taste and pleasure of his customers and the other on the affirmation of a flavor-healthiness equation.
The vegetable garden of the past is now a garden of precious essences that his 84-year-old mother personally takes care of every day "She was born in 1936 and knows wild herbs perfectly because during the war they were a fundamental element of the family's diet : Wild chicory or Cicorione to be steamed and then sautéed with garlic and oil, Chard to be boiled, Borage in early spring and before it flowers to be fried or mixed with ricotta in fillings, rich in Omega 6 or Wild Fennel, which is dried to obtain the very fragrant yellow flower while the fresh tips are used to make pesto or to season pasta with sardines or anchovies”.
Walking through the wonderland garden of La Fontanina we come across many aromatic herbs close at hand: thyme, marjoram, oregano, various types of mint and sage, catmint, bay leaves, rosemary, dill, lots of basil of different species, chives, parsley and coriander. “With many of these, says the Chef, using light vacuum cooking together with extra virgin olive oil, I make flavored oils for meat, fish, but also for creaming pasta and risotto”.
Then there are the more particular ones: geranium citrosa or citronella, with which to flavor creams and ice creams, Luigia or limoncina herb, to flavor meat or chopped in salads and which assists the digestive function, dog rose, "with which I make a flavored salt to put on fatty liver and raw meat”. Acetosella, with its characteristic sour taste, excellent in soups, rich in vitamin C, "which has flaming and decongestant power".
We still meet tufts of lavender, "to be used very sparingly due to the strength of the essential oils present in the green part of the plant" with which, for example, tasty chocolates are made with white chocolate.
Further on, Amato displays luxuriant rhubarb plants two meters high, a plant known since ancient times for its digestive properties, hepatoprotective, purgative, purifying, and decongestant and which according to some recent studies would be able to counteract leukemia cells. "Of the rhubarb, the chef points out, I use its beautiful red part (petiole of the leaf) to make Chutneys, i.e. sour/sweet/spicy sauces, to be served as a jam together with cheeses".
Absinthe plants take us back to the times of French bohemian life in the XNUMXth century, from which a distillate was obtained that was very popular among the artists and writers of Paris with elaborate rituals and extravagant accessories. And it brings back even further some incense plants that are proudly displayed in a corner of the garden. “But Absinthe and incense – says Amato – I'm still studying their use … work in progress. I like to experiment – he adds – and having an Eritrean mother-in-law, I also bought Berberè (a very fragrant, albeit very spicy, spice mix) which I use with some types of fish; as well as Fenugreek, with which I flavor the lamb, and Ras el hanout, with which to flavor the couscous that I serve with a swordfish Chevice”.
Pepe could not be missing from this overview, let alone if Amato uses the one from the supermarket! “I use my own blend of peppers which I grind at the moment with an old crank grinder and which give fish dishes an indescribable freshness: Tellycherry pepper mixed with Timut pepper”.
In short, going to the Fontanina is like stopping to eat in an ancient apothecary of Benedictine friars, where everything is homemade, like mother's jams with tangerines, plums, peaches, apricots and everything is designed for the well-being of the body in respect of nature.
And the extra virgin olive oil is also homemade, flavored with the beneficial effects of the Argentario salt winds, of which Amato is proud, with which Amato gives flavor to the fish that arrives every morning from Porto Santo Stefano, and only from suppliers known and guaranteed, while the meats and cheeses are rigorously of Maremma origin.
Because at La Fontanina the genuine and simple flavor of the Maremma gastronomic culture with its clear-cut and recognizable flavors represents the strong point of a cuisine that ensures a gustatory experience of great territorial level.
Even if his menu is influenced by the experiences gained abroad with international proposals to which the cosmopolitan tourism of the Argentario is very sensitive. And here in the paper we find octopus cooked in terracotta; Sicilian bucatini; shellfish soup, lobster, scampi, local white prawns and fresh oregano; pici with seafood; Lamb loin with fenugreek. Cottage cheese cake.
Finally, a word on the wine list. Initially very open to the great international labels, Champagne, high-level white and red wines from countries with oenologically important regions, the result of his foreign experiences.
Over time, however, Amato, in love with his land, has broadened and deepened his gaze on the territory, identifying many labels that in recent years have raised the bar of their quality, reaching important positions on the national enological level.
