A Chef’s Journey

Executive chef Francesco Mascheroni at Armani Hotel Milano’s Armani/Ristorante reveals three refined autumnal menus.

In another life, Francesco Mascheroni was a sailor in Piombino, a port that skirts the Isola D’Elba. While cooking for his compatriots, he discovered that the vocation suited and fascinated him. It was here that his passion for cooking led him to culinary school, the Istituto Alberghiero Filippi in Varese and, from there, a career at some of Milan’s top tables like the La cantina di Manuela. Fast-forward a couple of decades, as executive chef at Armani/Ristorante, the contemporary Italian restaurant in Armani Hotel Milano, Mascheroni is both artist and tastemaker, one who is on an evolutionary quest to discover new techniques and flavours.

For Fall/Winter 2022, Chef Francesco has devised three tasting menus: Tradizione in evoluzione, Presente, and La mia cucina vegetale, as recommended in Michelin Guide Italy 2022. With Tradizione in evoluzione, the standout six-course menu comprises fish and meat, prepared in the cooking styles of Italy’s northern and southern regions. For Presente, dishes such as Spaghetti di Gragnano with sea urchins and caviar, as well as rice with pumpkin, porcini mushrooms, and guinea fowl ragout, are exercises in sublimity.

“My cooking combines Italy’s rich culinary heritage with international inspirations,” Chef Francesco says. “I cook what I like to eat and, because my tastes are simple, mine cannot be defined as an intellectual cuisine. I start from traditional recipes, but I elevate them through a minimalist presentation and unpredictable balance of complementary textures and flavours.”

Equally inventive is his La mia cucina vegetale that also features three vegan dishes among delicate items such as dim sum, roast, clarified broth with fermented kimchi, Crisp Vegetable Garden, red quinoa, frozen snow and Citrus, shiso sorbet, and saffron. A superlative cheese selection, comprising a tantalising selection from both Italy and around the globe, caps the menu.

These autumnal menus reflect Chef Francesco’s philosophy, one that has undergone a definitive process of perfection from those early days in Piombino. “As a person, I’ve always been very balanced,” he says. “I’ve never looked for the dramatic effect in my dishes because I want them to satisfy me on a taste level.”