New York cuisine is an expression of multicultural contemporaneity, capable of taking the best from every phenomenon. Chef Guglielmo Giudice interpreting the Big Apple food tradition in Milan
Rivington – Cucina New York. Restaurant in Milan
Fiorello Henry La Guardia was the 99th mayor of New York City, from 1934 to 1945. He was familiarly called The Little Flower both because of his short stature and in reference to his birth name, of which the nickname was a translation. A 1939 photograph shows him at the Fulton Fish Market-the largest fish market in the United States and the largest in the world after Tokyo-looking at a 300-pound halibut. An exponent of the American left, La Guardia was a Republican New Dealer, in close alliance with Franklin Roosevelt throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
In another photo from the late 1930s they are pictured together smiling – La Guardia standing and Roosevelt in a convertible with his arm resting on the window. Both photos – along with other expressions of New York and American culture – hang on a wall of the recently opened Milan restaurant Rivington – Cucina New York, on the upper floors of the Hyatt Centric Milan Centrale, Via Giovanni Battista Pirelli, 20. The Organic SkyGarden – already known for its panoramic rooftop – is on the top floor. Skyscrapers all around. It feels like Manhattan.
Chef Guglielmo Giudice at Rivington, Milano
The Big Apple is the prototype of the contemporary city. That place where everyone who arrives feels they are really part of the world, at the center of where things happen. Indeed, out of the variety of cultures always come novel solutions that surprise and inspire the world. Even in the kitchen. New York cuisine is an expression of multicultural contemporaneity, capable of taking the best from every phenomenon. Therefore, Chef Guglielmo Giudice, who heads Rivington’s brigade, drew from New York culinary culture to create the menu, which features classic traditional dishes reinterpreted with a modern twist.
Oysters Rockefeller, in Milan
Oysters Rockefeller was created in 1889 at Antoine’s restaurant in New Orleans by Jules Alciatore, son of restaurant founder Antoine Alciatore. Because of a shortage of escargot, he replaced them with locally available oysters. The dish was named after John D. Rockefeller, the richest American of the time. It consists of half-shell oysters seasoned with a green sauce and breadcrumbs, then baked or grilled. Although the original recipe for the sauce is secret, it includes a puree of an array of green vegetables that may include spinach – an ingredient that easily achieves the dish’s signature bright green color. Many contemporary adaptations use diced oysters instead of whole. Oyster Rockefeller proposed by the chef Guglielmo Giudice at Rivington are steamed and served with spinach and creamy pecorino cheese.
Waldorf salad at Rivington Cucina New York, Milano
Another Italian cheese is used to revisit an American dish. Walnuts, fresh apples, celery and grapes dressed with mayonnaise and typically served on a bed of lettuce leaves make up the Waldorf salad – invented on 14 March 1896 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, during a charity ball. In Rivington’s version, the Waldorf salad is enriched with gorgonzola cheese. Other starters on Rivington’s menu include raw dishes from the Raw Bar and steak tartare prepared at the table.
Surf & Turf, the milanese declination
The main courses are inspired by the old New York chophouses. Noteworthy for taste and presentation is the Surf & Turf. A tradition – that of Surf & Turf – originated in the mid 1920s in North American steakhouses, when overseas businessmen, intent on confirming their deals and undecided between meat and fish, preferred to order a dish with both ingredients, driven by the spirit of ostentation.
Surf is a reference to the marine world, while Turf indicates turf, or land. Seafood and red meat are combined. The seafood used can be lobster, langoustine or prawns, which can be steamed, grilled or breaded and fried. When it contains lobster, the tail or a whole lobster can be served. The meat is usually a beefsteak, although other cuts may be used. This would not be the only case where the sea and mountains meet in a dish – the vitello tonnato of 1980s cuisine is a good example. Or the chicken with prawns of Chinese cuisine. Filet mignon marries lobster in the dish designed by Chef Giudice at Rivington Cucina New York.
Rivington Cucina New York: the menu
Alternatively, you can opt for the NY Striploin or a classic Dover Sole à la meunière, or the Vanderbilt burger, an homage and synthesis of the most famous cheeseburgers. Desserts are interpretations of mid-century classics, such as the iconic New York-style cheesecake. Specially designed cocktails accompany the dishes.
Rivington Cucina New York: interior design project by Jeffrey Tascarella
Rivington was conceived in collaboration with Jeffrey Tascarella, a New York hotel entrepreneur, who recently served as chief operating officer of Make It Nice, the acclaimed group behind Eleven Madison Park, the three-Michelin-starred New York institution, and as managing partner of NoMad, the award-winning group of hotels, restaurants and bars with locations in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and London and the Italian restaurant Scarpetta. Tascarella, along with consulting partner Chris Lowder worked hand in hand with Chef Giudice, first in Milan and then in Manhattan, to bring New York cuisine to Rivington.
«Rivington derives from Rivington Street. The neighborhood became famous as an art and music scene, in particular as the birthplace of American punk and new-wave music», recounts Andrea Pallavicini, General Manager at the Hyatt Centric Milan Centrale. In turn, the street was named after James Rivington, a journalist who, under the guise of writing one of the most infamous Loyalist newspapers in the American colonies, secretly ran a spy ring that supplied information to George Washington. In the early 20th century, in this «Lower East Side street many Italian immigrants started their new lives», but also Jewish immigrants, and thus the birthplace of many second-generation Italian Americans and Jews.
Hyatt Centric Milan Centrale
Hyatt Centric Milan Centrale offers 141 rooms and suites, the Rivington Restaurant – Cucina New York, the ORGANICS SkyGarden on the 13th floor and Intermezzo, a lobby bar. The entrance to Rivington is located in Via G.B. Pirelli 20.
