2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-06-06 02:02
On an afternoon that is not a spring, much less a Roman one (a spring which, as they say in Rome, if you understand and understand) I discovered " Colbert", The new bistro in Trinità dei Monti housed in Villa Medici, which has been the seat of the French Academy in Rome since 1803.
A cafeteria and kitchen space accessible to the public and to those who want to enjoy the villa - never say enough how beautiful it is -, with a particular opening hours (as the museum management wanted): from 10 to 19, in order to cover breakfast, lunch, snack and aperitif. You can also have dinner on Thursdays.
After all, we know, after the venues that celebrate TV star chefs, the foraging of chefs with upturned mustaches and the whimsical gourmet spaces of the designers, it is time for museums.
They invited me to the official opening since the place had been running in for a couple of months: an opportunity to present the place in the heart of Rome and the idea of the four young Roman entrepreneurs who won the public tender for the management.
Camilla Porlezza And Marco Baroni, the couple of former advertisers who 3 years ago opened a pastry shop in the Eur area, The Foundry, replicating two years later in Prati, as well as Maddalena Salerno And Marco Del Vescovo, creators of Means, an "itinerant advertising" agency that rents special vehicles for street food such as the Piaggio Ape.
The four decided to scrape the sad refrigerator full of Algida ice creams to make way for a kitchen that intends to create a particular concept of fusion: Roman cuisine and omelettes, hamburgers and French cheeses, as well as desserts, pastries and a nice choice of wines.
The menu is curated by Arcangelo Dandini, cook and patron of The Archangel, address known to the Romans for the quantity of perfection continually applied to pasta, and of Torture, dedicated to an impeccable variation of another traditional Roman dish: the supplì.
The sixteenth-century palace that dominates the city from the Pincio hill, formerly the residence of artists surrounded by a garden that extends over seven hectares, offers a splendid view, there is little to say.
Princely, indeed ducal interiors (you can eat in the Gallery of Duke Ferdinando de 'Medici among post-Renaissance masterpieces), walls decorated by illustrious painters, tables designed by well-known architects, iron chairs, alternation of colors, pleasant integration between historical and modern elements.
For once we are spared the omnipresent "unpaired" (all different chairs and tables) which sadly made many of the recent Roman openings uniform.
The lemon garden is the ace in the hole for the summer season and leaves a good impression, as do the tastings offered by Dandini, such as the cauliflower and anchovy cream, and the desserts (obviously provided by Fonderia).
I also came to the inauguration to ask a question, I want to understand from the owners of the Foundry if Colbert is a way to diversify or if there is more, and I am referring to the confectionery sector, a growing sector but perhaps not so profitable.
“Open the Colbert because the sugar doesn't pull? (Mom asked me without filters, so I ask the question directly to Marco Baroni).
“Yes, this is also one of the reasons. In Italy we are not used to the 'sweet break'; on Sundays we buy pasta, we take the cake for the birthday, but generally we prefer to spend 10 euros for a cocktail teasing moldy chips and not 3 euros for a single-portion cake .
So, while New York goes crazy for Raindrop Cake, a dessert made of water, in Italy the cakes are losing their charm?
Maybe that's not the case, but at the moment the gin and tonic with a view of the wonders of the Eternal City represents a more prudent investment.
But I am ready to modify the small culinary certainties - even the Roman ones, with new ingredients, if they come from France even better.
I will leave the time necessary in the bistro to get up and running, then I will return to the Colbert of Villa Medici to find out the prices and taste one of Dandini's “open baguettes”: the one with the brisket with Roman broccoli has already become a small catchphrase.
Colbert
Villa Medici
Viale Trinità dei Monti, 1- Rome
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 7pm