A fine establishment. Better yet, a palace of gluttony. Under the careful watch of Bruna, her four children – Rosella and Francesco in the dining room and Enrico and Roberto in the kitchen – make sure that everything moves along perfectly. The client is treated like a king. The attention given is impressive, one feels important, filled with satisfaction, and happy. This is, ladies and gentlemen, one of the finest restaurants in all of Italy. Worthy of the courts of Versailles, in every sense of the word. He only too well does justice to the three stars he obtained in the 2010 edition of the Michelin.
Like everything here, the kitchen has class, a lot of class, something that distinguishes the Cerea family. A cuisine that is proud of its classicism, an honest, vigilant classicism, especially in terms of techniques used. Supported by sublime, sumptuous ingredients that are served in enormous quantities. The flavors are robust. The refined succulence is a constant. The guest is satiated with flavor.
To be quite clear: the proposals get better at Da Vittorio with each passing day. This shouldn’t surprise anyone since Enrico and Roberto are two young intelligent and conscientious chefs in constant technical and conceptual evolution. They absorb history, progressing with wisdom at each step. A single stellar creation suffices as an example: the “cloud” of Iranian oscetra caviar. An ethereal potato foam encircled by an exquisite bean curd. It is served over sour cream and provides a bed for the majestic sturgeon roe. The textured and forms change, but the flavors are preserved, captured with an astonishing refinement. Sublime.
The chapter on pastas and rice was especially poignant, with eight stellar proposals. The raviolone, translucent, delicate, stuffed with a thick ricotta and spinach cream, served with a liquid egg yolk that bursts and floods the plate with a golden delight full of white truffle; outstanding. The paccheri a la “Vittorio” were stunning–a daring reinvention of Italian tradition. The pasta, immense in quality, an immense flavor of pasta, an immense texture, al dente and meaty, are presented impregnated with a tremendous tomato-parmesan emulsion that melts both ingredients together while preserving their individual flavors, with the aromatic and colorful addition of fresh basil leaves. Flawless traditionalism. Another masterpiece: the risotto, al dente and creamy, intense, ostentatiously crowned with a seemingly infinite amount of shellfish: Norway lobster, scallop, lobster, cockles, mussels, sea snails, scarlet prawns… cooked to just hot, maintaining all of their natural attributes. The seafood and rice could not have been prepared more intelligently, infused with an expressive bouillabaisse, hidden under the grains of rice, bursting through at surprising intervals. The Cérea brothers don’t stop amazing the gallery. Their art of treating the raw sea products, which is gathered in their book Damare, is perfectly demonstrated in the Norway lobster ravioli, extraordinarily fresh, which transmits purity to the palate and is stuffed with an expressive fish jelly and accompanied by a wasabi sauce. Another lucid and truly delightful construction is the tuna snout proposed with cod tripe and a hot lentils salad; a dish inspired by the cotechino, taking the same form and bringing a new structure to the tuna world. The huge gnocchi stuffed with fonduta de fontina and truffle is an indisputable source of pleasure and history; tastes from the childhood greedily expressed. The paccheri with seafood, we should say seafood with paccheri, is the best seafood dish we have ever tasted in Italy. The best dish regarding quality, quantity, variety, technique, complements and visual impact is the red prawn with lobster, king prawns, scallop, mussels, clams and baby octopus with shellfish soup, parsley oil, baby tomatoes and the pasta filled with the delicious soup. And the luxurious moments go on and on, like the Sicilian tuna belly with grilled foie gras and apple with cinnamon; nobility and courageous harmony.
The desserts deserve the highest honors; the melted chocolate semifreddo with fried gianduja and tangerine sauce is a perfect example of the delicious proposals included in this section.
In a few words: monumental dining with a cuisine in development.
