Contemporary Alchemists – focusing on raw materials and daring with combinations, the one-Michelin-starred restaurant L’Alchimia proposes a cuisine that still remaining concrete. In conversation with Executive Chef Giuseppe Postorino
L’Alchimia – one Michelin star restaurant in viale Premuda, Milano
Alchemists sought the philosopher’s stone, transmuted metals into gold, and formulated elixirs of long life. Their goal was the acquisition of a deeper understanding of the universe. They used symbols, images and cryptic terminologies to describe their processes and goals. Contemporary alchemists, the brigade of l’Alchimia restaurant pursues similar goals in the culinary field. Opened in 2018, L’Alchimia Restaurant – titled with a Michelin star and led by Executive Chef Giuseppe Postorino – experiments with quality raw materials to create novel results. A cuisine that dares, yet remains concrete, aiming for taste.
L’Alchimia: Giuseppe Postorino, Executive Chef, and Alberto Tasinato, Patron
Seasonality is basis of the menu at L’Alchimia is the result of a contamination of ideas between Executive Chef Giuseppe Postorino and Alberto Tasinato, the Patron. «We are finishing a dish now: borage parmigiana and burrata cream. He loves borage, I love parmigiana and eggplants. To combine the two, we blend them to fill a button of fresh pasta – but the process behind it is the one of a real parmigiana. This is kind of the way we operate».
Alberto Tasinato loves to wander around shops and markets in the morning, always finding new raw materials to propose to the chef. The menu changes very often at L’Alchimia. «Once he has fallen in love with a product and bought it, then I must cook it. We experimented with ‘biancostato’: it’s notoriously used for ‘bollito’ (boiled meat). it’s ‘last cut’ meat. We found it from a supplier who imports it from the U.S., raised Wagyu-like, in the wild, with controlled feed, few cows per square meter. We’ve done a top-notch biancostato: it’s grilled first for a short while, to give it asmoky smell, and the final cooking happens in the clay pot. Then we smash the pot in the dining hall, open it up, take the bone off, and serve it with vegetables».
L’Alchimia restaurant: combining raw materials for culinary experimentation
«During the last five years we have made many combinations, to have two proteins paired, creating one dish. Fois gras with fish, yellowtail with patanegra; with Alberto we were able to find a prosciutto from the Nebrodi mountains, and we paired it with yellowtail. We get fish from 20 kg and up, which have a meat-to-fat ratio with more muscle than fat. Finally, we completed the dish with peanut, roasted and blended».
«I spend the first part of the morning calling suppliers, mostly between Monday and Tuesday, on Wednesday for fish. Our main ones are one in Genoa. The possibility of varying the menu also allows us to grab large quantities of raw materials, serving between forty and fifty clients every evening. Alberto would change the menu every day if he could. I’m the one who says to ‘take it easy’not to get crazy in the kitchen».
Rabbit tenderloin Wellington at L’Alchimia restaurant
If cuisine has to surprise, rabbit tenderloin Wellington style succeeds in it. «Our goal was to have a tederloin in Wellington style in our menu, and this is something I was telling Alberto since the first time we met. However, the preparation was long, it necessarily had to be prepared for a two-persons order, and moreover it was not a popular dish in Italy. Then, we were in Sardinia, and I told Alberto ‘let’s do the rabbit in Wellington style’. It was something that no one had ever done before, and he was reluctant. But I was convinced I could do it. I started working on it and experimenting for about a month. The difficulty was how to seal the rabbit, keeping its juices in the inside. I then tried to use scarola (endive) as the wrap for the rabbit and it worked. It managed to keep the rabbit’s juice in the inside without the need to add any additional watery ingredients, such as mushrooms».
L’Alchimia restaurant: moon landing as the inspiration for a dessert
Among the desserts, one is a representation of a moon landing. «Since I was a child, I was fond of the moon landing. In 2017 I decided to go to Florida to the space center. I booked a ten days trip for the launch of a satellite. I arrived on Monday, and the missile was supposed to depart on Wednesday. Then, for the following days, I had a series of activities planned. But the missile wasn’t launched on that day. I decided to cancel all the other programs, and decided to stay there, spending additional money. We kept waking up every day at four in the morning to get to the launch spot. Every day, we had to undergo about three hours of controls, knowing that – if anything went wrong – we had to come back the day after. You’re there, feeling like you’re in a movie. You feel that sense of panic».
Finally, about the risotto. What’s the secret for a good risotto? «There are people who start off with oil, others with butter, onion, or even with water. I came to say: a good risotto starts with nothing. Just rice, water, no fats. I believe that one needs to focus on the key raw material. For a saffron risotto, you have to enhance the saffron. For a mushroom risotto, you need to prepare a mushroom broth. Celery, carrots and onions are useless».
Giuseppe Postorino: life and carreer
Born in Monza in 1985 from Calabrian origins, Giuseppe Postorno graduated at the Ballerini hotel school in Seregno. Alberico Penati was one of his masters. Giuseppe’s career path started with an international experience at the Rocco Forte Hotel in Brussels. Later, he returned to Italy to work in the kitchens of Maestro Gualtiero Marchesi at Relais & Chateaux L’Albereta.
Giuseppe Postorino and the master Gualtiero Marchesi at L’Albereta
In the kitchen with Gualtiero Marchesi, at L’Albereta. «When the master passed by the kitchen, he would give me lessons that stayed with me. Once, while I was struggling with an asparagus, armed with a knife, he looks at me, asks me what my name is, and says: breaking an asparagus is like tuning an instrument. He takes the vegetable and breaks it in two with his hands. It is actual music. Every instrument is an object in itself, each asparagus will break in a different spot».
«The way he said things was impressive: his tone of voice, the calm, the wisdom – in front of me. I was a nobody. He also argued that a chef has to mature a culture in different fields in order to best relate to his customers – people who have traveled the world and will want to know why you cook but will also want to be able to tell about what is happening today among art, nature, philosophy, mathematics, science. He used to say: ‘Read. Not just cookbooks, but about everything. Study, get passionate about art, music, and convey it all in your dishes. When you go out in the dining room, you have to know everything».
Giuseppe Postorino stayed seven years at Hotel Magna Pars
At the Magna Pars, L’Hotel à Parfum run by Ambra Martone, Giuseppe Postorino assumed the role of first of Sous Chef and then Executive Chef of the restaurant Da Noi In. Postorino landed in 2019 at L’Alchimia restaurant, where he was awarded the Michelin Star in 2020, reconfirmed for 2021 as well, in addition to a series of awards and recognitions from exponents of food and wine critics.
«With Ambra and Giorgia Martone, we worked a lot on fragrances, and also on the inclusion, inside the kitchen, of tools usually used for fragrances. We covered dishes with glass cones, used for perfumes as funnels, but upside down».
Giuseppe Postorino – Executive Chef of L’Alchimia Restaurant & Lounge in Milano
Born in Monza in 1985 from Calabrian origins, he became passionate about cooking thanks to the scents of his home region. He graduated at the Ballerini hotel school in Seregno. From there, because of his relationship with his mentor Alberico Penati, Giuseppe’s career path started with an international experience at the Rocco Forte Hotel in Brussels. Later, he returned to Italy to work in the kitchens of Maestro Gualtiero Marchesi at Relais & Chateaux L’Albereta, and then stayed seven years at Hotel Magna Pars in the role first of Sous Chef and then Executive Chef of the restaurant Da Noi In. Giuseppe landed in 2019 at L’Alchimia restaurant, where he was awarded the Michelin Star in 2020, reconfirmed for 2021 as well, in addition to a series of awards and recognitions from exponents of food and wine critics.
L’Alchimia
L’Alchimia was inaugurated in 2018 in Milano. Located in Viale Premuda 34, it was awarded the Michelin star in 2020. Today, the restaurant offers its guests an à la carte and a tasting menu, based on the careful processing of raw material.
Alberto Tasinato, Giuseppe Postorino, Valerio Trentani, Ilario Perrot respectively patron, chef, sommelier director.
Matteo Mammoli
