As soon as they started serving a little house homage, an enchanted gaze and a “Wow” expression appeared on my face. A culinary prelude that leaves breathless: “If this is only a start, what are they creating in the kitchens?”. You find yourselves in the old barn of the azienda agricola La Costa, now become the Galbusera Nera restaurant, at the street number 2 of the same name street in La Valletta Brianza, in the Lecco province, and you have just realized that this night will not lack of surprises.
But now we need to step back in time, before embarking on this adventure through camomile, wild and aromatic herbs from the park, tomato, onion, belly pepper, eggplant, cucumber, paprika, lake fish, char, salmon and albino trout, zander fish, forest egg, rye and spelt flour, yogurt, apricot, medlar and cocoa. We are back in 1992: Giordano Crippa, thanks to his huge love for the Brianza district, buys the ancient ruins of the Cascina Scarpata and the annexed territories in a breathtaking location.
It is located on one of the crests of the Parco naturale di Montevecchia e della Valle del Curone. All around is full of forests and brambles, but he, fearless and forward-looking, stops the uncultivated land progress in order to promote the vineyards growth, re-enabling the historical terracing. An investment, this one made by Crippa, that will lead all his family, along the years, to live a rural adventure, passionate and creative. A family bonded by great passions, like the one for the wine, the horses and the slow food, for the local and seasonal sustainable agriculture, for the hospitality and the reception, for knowing how to make and receive.
There is a catchy and fascinating story, which will induce you to seat in that old barn. Two enormous windows gift you an astonishing view: you are in the park. Around you there are only forests, vineyards and olive trees. Everything is perfect, both inside and outside. Sideboards and chests for the making and storage of bread, copper pots and ladles leave a grandmother feeling, the candles light on the stone steps and shelves accompany your look on old wood tables, accurately set with linen, cotton, chinaware, silverware, plate glasses and field flowers.
Let chef Marco – “il Morris” – surprise you and order one of his tasting menus or choose by yourselves from his creations à la carte: in every dish you will taste not only quality ingredients, selected with attention and care, but also a great professionality. A culinary creative mastery (the one which motivates the search for the perfection of senses when combining, assembling and putting together the ingredients) which does not leave emotionless. The result? Unexpected, able to satisfy the aesthete in you.
And finally, an explosion! Those beautiful dishes, those pure art brush strokes that you appreciated with your eyes, are now bursting in your mouth. Between taste and smell is magic. Close your eyes and visualize the park, feel it beating inside you, with his forests and paths, through vineyards and olive trees, wild herbs and smalls fruits. You will glimpse even the Adda, that branch of the Como lake turned to midday and the Lombard Pre-Alps.