Nothing is left to chance, and it isn’t only a sequence of delicious dishes. For the chef of I Due Sud, the gourmet restaurant of the Hotel Splendide Royal Lugano, the making of a menu means creating a gastronomic journey that carries the guest into an experience made of both memories of the past and contemporary cuisine.
The menu “Il pomodoro che non c’è” represents remarkably well the philosophy of the chef of Italian origins. It is in fact by tasting the dishes of this culinary path, culinary bridge between “the two Souths” from which the restaurant takes its name, that one discovers Domenico’s Calabrian origins along with his great passion for the ingredients from Ticino, the land that adopted him.
Memory plays a fundamental role in the chef’s gastronomic experience. Guests are virtually taken by the hand and guided to discover places, habits, rituals and wonders seen from the eyes of a child who discovered cooking, whom today —as a grown up that has become a cook— proposes again with his personal vision in a gourmet way. “I don’t want to create an imaginary cuisine made up of many words —Ruberto says— but real, true, tangible. It’s like at the cinema: I never choose a science fiction movie, I like real stories better”.
Having to choose a dish that best describes this experience, it is a must to mention the “Linguine from Gragnano, tomato essence, smoked ricotta and pepper”. This course, which today revives with its complex and harmonious vortex of flavours, was born as a poor dish, inspired by a simple family tradition. “Imagine a basic, homemade, uneaten tomato salad. At my house —Domenico explains— when something was not finished, it was kept for the following day. It also happened with the tomato salad which, left to rest for one night, began to release its essence, creating a very tasty liquid in which all the taste of the tomato condensed.” And it is precisely in this aromatic “tomato water”, that the bronze-drawn linguine are cooked and finally stirred with Ticino alpine butter (here the second “South” claims its place on the palate) and finished with pepper and smoked ricotta from the Sila mountains. The result is an extraordinary combination of flavours that gives the sensation of a simple yet sophisticated dish.
In this preparation process lies the explanation of the mysterious name of the menu: “Il pomodoro che non c’è”, which means “The tomato isn’t there”.
As a matter of fact, the red vegetable is not in the plate, but its flavour is, thus creating an unexpected surprise on the palate. The soul of the tomato, extracted and used as cooking water, becomes the protagonist of a gastronomic game for those who, at the first bite, feel all its juice, without ever seeing it on the plate.
The same menu, which can be considered the most representative of I Due Sud concept, features a buffalo cheek course. With this elegant and flavoury dish, chef Ruberto has paid homage to ticinese traditions by using locally sourced cherries that are put in jars with spirits, as it has been done since ancient times. In doing this, however, Domenico has put his personal touch, adding some Ticino Merlot that transforms the dish into a particularly evocative creation that fully respects his gastronomic stance.
The path leads back to Calabria with the purple shrimp, a variety of rare excellence, the absolute protagonist of one of the dishes on the menu. Domenico says that the fishing boats arrived in the port of Crotone, with freshly caught prawns that were tasted whole, carapace included. “I was amazed —the chef explains— it was a real show, one of my best childhood memories, one that never leaves you. The purple shrimp had to be one of the flavours that tell my story.”
Anecdotes and scents of the sea also return with the red mullet, that he calls “allo scoglio”, just like the famous first course. In this case, the trick lies in the cooking technique: with a stew of shellfish, the chef transforms this classic into a more refined dish. Domenico smiles and confesses: “It is as if I had substituted the simple spaghetti with the red mullet. The result is a marine explosion in the mouth.”
The menu ends with the dessert that pays homage to the king of citrus fruits: the bergamot. It is not easy to find, especially in Switzerland. But Domenico and the producer have a special relationship, a direct link that allows the chef to have only the best of Calabrian bergamot available.
All of this happens while sitting at the table of I Due Sud, simply letting yourself be guided by “Il pomodoro che non c’è”, a unique human and gastronomic journey. Like the memory of each of us.
Find more informations on the website of the restaurant : https://www.splendide.ch
