A love affair with aubergine
Picture 1: The breakfast room, Ristorante Reale
Perhaps because of its location of a former nunnery, Ristorante Reale hidden in the sleepy Abruzzi town of Italy has an utter-worldly sobering atmosphere, much contrary to its 3 Michelin-star status.
Niko Romito is the sobering mater-chef behind the restaurant. I saw him once in ‘Identita Golose’, one of the most heavy-weight annual events for top chefs (otherwise, also known as the egocentric chef’s gathering). He had demonstrated a dish of aubergine- one single cube of aubergine- nothing more and nothing less and yet it had been meticulously prepared: dried, soaked with 3-times reduced aubergine concentrate, glazed diligently and coated, again, with smoked aubergine peel. Pure genius! So out of dozens of other dishes demonstrated during the event, that inevitably adorned with flora and fauna and that with presentation that so pretty that they don’t resemble anything like food any more, I only remembered one aubergine,
dark-skinned,
somewhat brutal
plump
steep with infectious flavor.
I wished I’d tasted that cube of aubergine.
Two years later, when me and my chef husband Felice finally made our way to Reale, we were led to a tasting experience that’s not only you-see-what-you-eat and what-you-eat-is-simply-gorgeous kind of cuisine, but something even more.
The old good aubergine that I was so in love was not on the menu but dishes like ‘Artichoke and rosemary’ savoy cabbage’ and ‘pork and celeriac bear the similar adage: investigate the merits of a single ingredient, expose its full potential and took a single hero to the limelight.
What’s more, a dish can be appreciated not only on a standalone basis, but a transition from one to another such as the pasta dish of ‘cold linguine with Oyster’ following ‘Artichoke and rosemary’, a continuation of tanginess.
A dish is also a progressive tasting experience, not a static one- your first bite can juxtapose to your next one represented by ‘Liquorice granite’: slightly off the balance in the first but then gradually evolve to perfect equilibrium.
By the end of the dinner, my generally very fussy husband was speechless.
As for me, I was pleasantly amazed, but I never get over that piece of aubergine.
Picture 2: Pork Belly & Celeriac