photo by Luca Managlia
If there is a chef in Italy capable of exercising gravitational attraction towards the stars (Michelin, of course) and capable of skilfully alternating the toque and the ‘hat’ of a restaurant entrepreneur, it is the Tuscan Enrico Bartolinialias mister 13 stars. It is all too easy, therefore, to predict that his latest consultancy – Utini Palace in the village of Nocetojust over 13 thousand souls 15 minutes’ drive from Parma – can transform in November into the next Macaron of the already vast carnet that the chef can boast of.
In the case of the restaurant a stone’s throw from the cradle of gastronomy and epicenter of the Italian Food Valley, with the opening of Palazzo Utini Noceto is preparing to become a destination for gourmets and food enthusiasts good life. Beyond the kitchen, entrusted to the executive chef Roberto Monopoli – born in 1984, originally from Puglia, already starred at the time of Villa Gray in Forte dei Marmi but trained at the courts of Valeria Piccini, Claudio Sadler, Alain Ducasse and Christophe Martin, as well as sous chef of Giuseppe Mancino at Piccolo Principe in Viareggio – the real added value of the structure lies both in the building itself and in what the owner wanted to furnish its walls with.
Born from the redevelopment of what in the past was also the town hall of Noceto, the Palazzo Utini restaurant is in fact located inside the building of the same name owned by the Utini family, a family that developed its own business in the world of cured meats (the owner, Alessandro Utini is the current president of the Parma ham protection consortium with an agricultural company that has supported the historic ham factory in recent years. In the Seventies and Eighties those spaces hosted the Michelin star Roman eagle – frequented by people of the caliber of Mina, despite the name recalling suggestions dating back to the twenty years – and the structure was “reborn” precisely from the desire of the Utini family to bring back to life a historic place in the area, with a glorious past and always devoted to gastronomic culture of excellence.
It is for this reason that the Utini family – together with Alessandro there is his wife Maria Cristina and their children Filippo and Maria Chiara – wanted at their side Enrico Bartolini, whom they met in 2016 on the occasion of the presentation ceremony of the Michelin guide at the Teatro Regio of Parma: “In the following months we presented our ambitious project to him – he says Alessandro Utini – and he immediately seemed enthusiastic: thanks to mutual respect we decided to combine our respective skills to create something special in the panorama of Italian cuisine and hotel industry. The idea of opening Palazzo Utini was born about ten years ago when my family and I decided to renovate the building that once housed L’Aquila Romana, a very famous restaurant in Noceto which made the history of Italian cuisine in the seventies and Eighties and frequented not only by foodies in the area, but also by several famous people”.
If the building itself houses around fifteen suites and rooms, two restaurants and a cocktail bar (entrusted to the barlady Alice, a guarantee), as we said, even before the kitchen it is the walls that enchant guests: the interior designer Stefano Guidotti and his studio took care of the entire renovation project with the idea of preserving the connection with the territory, but also of creating an elegant and contemporary space, a place where design and cuisine come together in a perfect union.
The rooms are embellished with seventeenth-century paintings by authors ranging from Guido Reni to Carracci, also coming from the family’s private collection, which are complemented by pieces of contemporary design such as the Groppi lights. The choice of materials is the common thread that inspired the entire concept: materials with cutting-edge technical characteristics but at the same time capable of communicating the charm of the past. Lacquers, plasters, fabrics, leathers, finishes and colours: each element speaks the same language and leads back to the idea of sophisticated elegance.
For the cuisine Enrico Bartolini relies on Roberto Monopoli, who developed tasting itineraries in the name of vegetables and which wink at local raw materials. “Today the trend – confirms Mister 13 stars – is to outline menus that include few dishes but of a high standard, therefore less quantity in favor of quality. This does not mean little possibility of choice, indeed there will be more options that will change by virtue of the seasonality of the ingredients and the availability of the raw materials, strictly local and very fresh”.
The menu includes two tasting menus: one with 9 courses, which offers the guest a general overview of the proposal, and one with 7 courses prepared by the chef with new dishes that often change based on the availability and seasonality of the raw materials.
Among the creative and elegant recipes that focus on the vegetable part and enhance local products, there is no shortage of those that focus on local fish – such as the pink oyster from the Po deltatrout and smoked eel – or modern interpretations of traditional dishes such as Parmesan gnocchimade without eggs and potatoes, served in a hot soup of peas, horseradish and marjoram, or the piadina filled with horse tartare, typical of Noceto.
The management of the restaurant is entrusted to Alessandra Veronesi, who has served in other restaurants of the Bartolini group, including the three-starred Mudec in Milan. His is the definition of the important cellar (about 4500 bottles) and the wine list: 450 labels to tell the most important areas of Italian wine, divided by regions, between small producers and big names, but also with a good presence of France (both in whites and reds, especially from Burgundy) and from Germany (with Riesling verticals).
Particular attention was paid to sparkling wines – the province of Parma has always been recognized for its significant consumption of bubbles – both Italian (Alta Langa, Oltrepò Pavese and Franciacorta) and from beyond the Alps with an important selection of Champagnes from the most accredited areas ( Côte de Blancs, Montagne de Reims, Marne, Aube).
Utini Palace
Via Antonio Gramsci, 6
Noceto (PR)
tel. 0521 1521001
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