The Forma restaurant in Civitavecchia is only 7 years old, but it can already boast dishes that have become great classics for its loyal customers, such as the Sea Egg (soft egg with raw tuna with lime on a dark potato cream and salmon roe) or the Carbonara Egg (with pecorino foam , bacon and truffle). Not to mention the chef’s signature dish Gianluca Formichella, those Spaghettoni with sea urchins and paprika which are now impossible to remove from the menu, with punctual cooking, the creamy sauce in which the spice enhances the sweetness of the sea urchin. Formichella grew up in the kitchen, observing with admiration his father, the chef of a family fish restaurant, and fascinated by the “always well organized chaos” of the service. Then the desire to continue in his father’s footsteps, developing and refining skills and techniques thanks to the professional course at the Gambero Rosso school and many years alongside chef Paolo Trippini in Umbria.
So in his Forma – abbreviation of his surname – he put all the enthusiasm of returning home, the hard work and the ability not to be beaten down by Covid, which came to put a spoke in the wheels just when things were starting to go well. After all, what else could a young chef who often repeats “I wouldn’t know where else to see myself if not in the kitchen” do? Of course, he wasn’t alone: alongside him was his partner Valentina who works in the dining room and the sommelier Diego Gigliotti, “always on the ball” in suggesting local wine innovations. And if Civitavecchia is famous as a port city, he – who also treats fish masterfully – chose a historic place in a street in the old part of the city, where signs of the bombing of the Second World War are still visible (Civitavecchia paid a price very high as it is strategic for the port and the railway) in a building that was gutted and deliberately not rebuilt as a ”place of memory” in Via Trieste.
The room reflects the same feeling as the kitchen: past and modernity combine between ancient walls with exposed stones and post-industrial style details (the pipes on the ceiling) and minimalist equipment. Even in Formichella’s dishes he juggles between old and new, technology and craftsmanship, always in the name of the strength of flavours. For amuse-bouche he chooses maximum comfort: a small rice supplì (but with herbs and a sweet fennel cream) and the timeless butter and anchovies crostini, but with an upgrade: homemade bread and anchovies, chosen, nice and plump and processed in own. Then start with the appetizer, such as the delicious grilled and glazed octopus, served with barbecue sauce of peppers and scapece courgettes, perfect in terms of sweetness and acidity. It continues well with the risotto with asparagus cream, red prawn, fish tartare and lemon.
The latter can bring happiness both carnivores and sea lovers (don’t worry, there is no shortage of vegetarian alternatives on request). Among the meats, try the ribs of black pig cooked slowly for 18 hours and finished on the barbecue, glazed with honey and mustard and served with green beans and sweet onion cream and/or the lamb chops also barbecued accompanied by artichoke Roman. Dishes that are only apparently simple, but which play everything on the precision of the cooking and the balance between the savory and sweet parts.
In short, the chef has found the mathematical formula of balance between recognizable flavors and innovative instinct. The desserts also follow this line. Even if reading it on the menu it may sound strange, on the palate it convinces and wins: banana ice cream, with peanuts and chocolate, finished at the table with a pour of cream: fresh and satisfying.
Tasting menu at 42 (three courses), 52 (5 courses) and 82 (8 courses) euros
About 50 a la carte
Vote: 7.5/11
FORMA RESTAURANT
Via Trieste 9 – Civitavecchia (Rome)
Tel. +39 0766 672647
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