Day three in Rome had us marvelling at the Pantheon!!! Okay first off this building? architectural delight… can’t quite comprehend the full brilliance of the architect(s) and everyone involved in creating this. I can honestly say, this is one place where the pictures will not do it enough justice and seeing it in person is the best way.
What made it even more cool was aside from the building itself being a masterpiece there were fantastic pieces from Joseph Pace and it was fabulous – pieces made from pearls, stones essentially BLING!
I digress, apologies….back to the food then yeah? My first chef’s table experience was at Stem’s by Neo and it was unreal. We literally were seated in the kitchen and got to see how things worked, like UNREAL! And just like that H O O K E D! Aulis was another incredible experience. Simon Rogan’s development kitchen where all ‘potential recipes’ are created, fine tuned and what not, to then make the menu in any of Simon’s restaurants! So, I was well excited when I realised that we were at chef’s table in Marzapane and when I tell you, it was epic… E P I C okay?! With taster menus , you get a sense of what you are about to experience from the menu but this menu was FREE STYLE PERFECTION! The dishes were not only unique interpretations but were essentially based off the vibes of the chef and his sous chefs!
We started with aperitifs which was fermented focaccia made with potatoes, fat from cured pork, and black pig ham served with brut champagne. I don’t know about you, but 😋.
The simple aluminium plate, which I took to mean, ‘it’s more about the food, than the crockery’ and it worked! It was delicious! Carrot salad fermented in kimchi sauce with prawns paste and peach
paired with a Muscat that was not sweet? Listen.. my palate exploded!!!! There used to be a show on Netflix called salt, fat, acid or something this dish would be a visual representation of it! Then came the tuna and Octopus tentacles. Italian tuna is smaller than other tunas but that is just a fun fact ha! The tuna was served in tuna broth of bones which was smoked .. phew!
Do you see this? The muscat nulled what otherwise would have been a really sharp salty / acidic taste of the tuna, it really was a pleasure to my palate! The octopus tentacles with pickled celery and aromatic pepper granules in vinegar, two words…. NAILED IT! A few dishes in and I was well on my way to the pearly gates of food heaven! Then Chef asks us to choose between Jerusalem artichoke or Pig’s feet as the ingredient for our next course. Err Filipina here… Pig’s feet please and thanks 😀 well he went IN. Pig’s feet pressed in celery in red bean sauce.
talk about a whole new take on pig trotters ha! Also served some sweet bread and PAUSE! I have not had sweet bread in ages.. last one was like 15 months ago, and it was the perfect one to break the dry spell. This Veal sweet bread served in an in-house cream fresh and Japanese inspired seasoning made your girl a very happy bunny! The pasta was no average pasta in a tomato sauce.. oh no, this was tomato pasta made from smoked kidney fat as was the risotto – it had to be the creamiest kidney fat on the planet and served in a mug?!
The aroma from the squid cured fried rice?
Chilllllleeeee! I could not wait to tuck into this rice made from squid tentacles broth, lemon juice and pepper flakes. It was too good! Sword fish in a sauce made from the bones with sage and a bonitos tuna (yep we had another tuna because why not?) in reduced sauce and Japanese infused dressing.
Totally different from the first tuna, this was bolder in taste – intense flavour and taste which was why it was paired with red wine! Italians are still the only ones I know who pair red wine with fish and get it right every time! Nine dishes in and the pork chop arrived in banana type leaf with pine nuts and olive oil! It was the textures for me, it gave me crunch, bite and flavour, ouuu the flavours!!!!!
At this point, I would have been okay with a scoop of gelato, vanilla flavour for pudding because this menu was the ONE! Ha! These cats were like nope, you gonna get PUDDING! Specifically, egg whites – the softest, fluffiest dissolve -in-your-mouth with vanilla flavour
served with grapes! Yeah! I was well and truly DONE!
Marzapane… You turned up, showed out and owe me NOTHING! You guys OUTDID yourselves! Thank you for an incredible food adventure and my merch! I will be donning it on with pride.
Saluti
Ndidi
p.s. the fantastic team at Marzapane (a slide show)
