Beauty and perfection do not make themselves manifest and I love cooking as a pure form of art. To cook is not my ambition but it Is a way to express myself.
Gualtiero Marchesi
Having worked and lived here since 1993, L’Albereta has long been the centre of Gualtiero Marchesi’s world. Gualtiero Marchesi is the man that has led Italian cuisine down a new path, the cook that, in pursuing his three essential principles of simplicity, quality and beauty, has become both artist and philosopher, developing his expertise to the point that he is now known to all and universally regarded as the Maestro par excellence. Indeed it is possible to identify, in his creations, his desire to explore the true nature of things and his efforts to discover the truth of being in terms of aesthetics and ethics. And by experiencing his dishes it becomes evident how the beautiful-pure is also the true-good.
Just like a true artist, in his restaurant in Erbusco he devotes himself untiringly to concocting new and incomparable culinary creations, where the raw materials find their essence through respect for the rule of subtraction, through a minimalism that, rather than affected, is an essential condition for the unveiling of the truth. And form becomes substance in his dishes. This search for the essential, very much the common thread to his approach, inevitably makes his cooking healthy, a goal he reaches not simply by pursuing a dietary end but rather taking purely gastronomic considerations as his starting point.
Assisted by Chef Gianluca Branca, at L’Albereta’s restaurant Marchesi manages a team of eighteen cooks and perfects his creations seeking new ideas through the application of ‘alta cucina’ culinary techniques to traditional dishes, simplifying, restricting and lightening. Aside from his love for the essential, he is also driven by his quest for fresh flavours and the concept of a dish as being a work of art, an amalgam of harmonious forms and colours.
Indeed, art is so central to both the Maestro’s professional and private life that his genius is also evinced in his special culinary creations - brought together under the appellation of “art food” – inspired by some of the great classics of the art world: from the ‘dripping di pesce’ that evokes Pollock’s drop technique and the Andy Warhol-inspired “serial” pasta, to the mozzarella on a white plate in homage to Malevich and the duck liver and truffle reminiscent of Fontana’s “Tagli”.
Yet despite such experimentation, in which Marchesi manages to combine beauty, harmony and poetry with flavour, his classics remain unparalleled: ‘The mixed platter’, ‘Scrambled eggs with caviar and chives’, ‘Rice gold and saffron, ‘Open ravioli’, ‘Penne, asparagus and truffle’, ‘Gualtiero Marchesi’s veal fillet Rossini’, ‘Pressed Duck’, ‘Chicken Kiev’, and the ‘Three flavours for a dessert’.
L’Albereta is, therefore, the great master’s laboratory of ideas, his catering school. As such, it is no coincidence that the Maestro’s former pupils include some of the best up-and-coming chefs of the moment, such as Carlo Cracco, Davide Oldani, Paolo Lo Priore and Pietro Lehman.
The renown of Gualtiero Marchesi and his restaurant at L’Albereta transcends national borders and his creations are now an integral part of the history of great Italian cuisine.
Since January 2004 Gualtiero Marchesi has also been rector of ALMA, the International School of Italian Cuisine, headquartered in the magnificent Palazzo Ducale in Colorno, near Parma. The Maestro has developed an international training centre at this institution, with the aim of defining the essence of Italian Cuisine, symbolic across the world of a style comprising elegance, lightness and simplicity.
Guests can experiment and enjoy this experience at L’Albereta – a distinctive feature of a holiday they will never forget.
