Tuscany is famous for its art, culture, splendid monuments as well as for its panoramas but also for its cuisine. There are many taverns where you can eat well but few temples of taste, food artists where the magic of flavors comes from the perfect combination of tradition and innovation and the expertly selected ingredients mix together giving life to a mix of aromas and unforgettable flavours. Dishes that are true works of art created by Chefs who will leave their mark like our great Renaissance artists.
One of these temples of taste is located on the ground floor of the wonderful Grand Hotel Principe di Piemonte: the restaurant The little Prince which represents an excellence of the entire Versilia since the early 2000s. The chef Giuseppe Mancinowho has been directing it for 18 years, won the Michelin star in 2008 and the second in 2014, thus becoming the youngest two-starred restaurant in Italy, as well as the only one in Versilia. Left-handed he was one of the first Italian chefs to bring the concept of hotel catering to the highest levels, as it once was, starting from the specificities of his territory and therefore from a seafood cuisine with Mediterranean flavours, the same as his origins, those of Salerno . Among his unforgettable signature dishes are the “Pizzaiola-style red mullet, Tuscan bread, mozzarella, capers, tomatoes, black olives” and the “Creamed spaghetti with butter, anchovies and smoked tea”. Continuously evolving, to update not only the aesthetics of the dish but also the combination of flavors and textures, the cuisine of The little Prince shows passion for research and respect for the raw material. A constant study that never stops, thanks to which Left-handed aims to achieve perfection, discover new flavor combinations and develop exciting culinary proposals.
The attention of Left-handed for vegetables you can appreciate the “Essenziale green” menu, all products coming from the nearby biodynamic garden, to rediscover ancient flavours, transforming authenticity into taste, olfactory and visual experiences of great impact. Among the dishes, the “Grilled artichoke” and the “Radicchio, almonds and grapefruit” stand out without a doubt.
«The artichoke was a dish on which we worked a lot and we wanted to try something that almost no one dares to do, that is, serve it in combination with a drink designed together with the bar manager Simone Corsini. We therefore studied a cocktail that did not conflict with the main ingredient but was an evolution of it. The base is a spelled beer macerated with dried artichoke leaves which is then sodaed and alcoholized with cynar.” He explains Left-handedwho continues: «Radicchio, on the other hand, is the demonstration of how a vegetable on its own can become in all respects the protagonist of a dish without falling into banality or extreme simplicity».
The experience: “The classics”, offers a journey that is made up of traditional dishes revisited by the chef according to the canons of modernity. Among these the most representative is certainly “Spaghetti creamed with butter, anchovies and smoked tea” which is proposed again also in a small version “to do at home” and given to guests after the experience. After trying the Chef’s version, they will be able to replicate the dish directly in their kitchen following the steps of Mancino’s recipe it is the “Ciccia in Tuscany, Casentino fat and charcoal oil”, a second course of “substance”, without ever being heavy because Tuscany is also a love for meat.
Finally, in the “Experience” menu, the chef’s creativity and skill give life to traditional Tuscan dishes characterized by exotic twists. An example is the “Piccione, schiaccioni beans, wild herbs, goose liver and Garfagnana beer”, a dish that speaks of the territory with beans grown in Versilia and Garfagnana beer, produced in the hinterland of the province of Lucca.
«In my menus the homage to Tuscany and its culinary traditions becomes a starting point for traveling towards new experiences. In every dish we find precise, evocative emotions. This is where the study of surprising combinations begins. Not simple exercises in style, but choices that give substance to the proposed tasting itineraries.”
All with a sea view and accompanied by 1,400 paper labels expertly narrated by the F&B director Dgreedy Macaluso. An experience that brings to life the legendary Sixties/Seventies when Versilia was the glamorous queen of entertainment in Italian summers, a holiday destination for entrepreneurs who made Italy great, international actors and actresses and famous artists.
Another Temple of taste is the Caino restaurant in Montemerano, one of the most beautiful villages in Italy, the kingdom of Valeria Piccini, one of the ten starred female chefs in Italy. It is her love for her land, the Maremma, that inspires her: traditional peasant dishes are revisited in a contemporary key. She ranges between strong flavours, playing on contrasts of aromas, textures and temperatures in an alchemy of scents and colours. Valeria Piccini there puts heart, study, creative flair. Take a seat in the room: a refined space; nine tables, to guarantee tranquility and safety. The chef loves to chat with guests, illustrating her way of conceiving cuisine.
Maremma cuisine is the queen of the table here.
Valeria Piccini she is the daughter of farmers: like her cooking. She herself loves to remember it: «I had the ladies of the town as a point of reference, I asked them for traditional recipes: I followed the advice of my mother, my grandmother and my mother-in-law». Maremma dishes come to life on the menu of the Caino Restaurant: from snail agnolotti in forest broth and pecorino to vignarola risotto with lamb tartare, from tripe to buglione, and then duck and rabbit. Thanks to these and many other masterpieces of taste, the Caino restaurant it is renowned in Italy and around the world and has boasted two Michelin stars for twenty-six consecutive years. Valeria Piccini figure in the top ten of Italian female chefs. It is the recognition of the balance between passion and female intuition that distinguishes her cuisine, a work of research and creative reworking. Valeria knows the ingredients in depth, starting with the most humble ones: the base of simple dishes reworked in a gourmet key.
These are not only places where you come just to eat and have an experience but also to be overwhelmed by creativity. They are art schools where you come to admire every single creation, to smell all the aromas, enjoy unusual combinations and new flavors that these taste artists create every day with so much dedication and love.
