Cracco

Dishes mentioned

• Insalata russa caramellata

  This is our caramelized Russian salad, and it's arguably our most iconic dish. I start with a traditional Russian salad — carrots, potatoes, and peas cut into 4 mm dice, blanched until al dente, then cooled and dried. The mayonnaise is made with whole eggs, lemon, vinegar, salt, and neutral sunflower seed oil, whipped until firm and homogeneous. I mix the vegetables with capers in salt and chopped tuna in oil, then fill two thin isomalt discs with exactly 25 grams of the salad — any more would be too much. I warm the discs with a torch to seal them, creating an incredible game of textures: crunchy, melting, sweet, salty, with the mayonnaise and vegetables. It's a small welcome that introduces the rest of the menu, a tribute to Russian cuisine by French chef Olivier, reinvented with technique.

• Insalata russa tradizionale

  This is our caramelized Russian salad, and it's arguably our most iconic dish. I start with a traditional Russian salad — carrots, potatoes, and peas cut into 4 mm dice, blanched until al dente, then cooled and dried. The mayonnaise is made with whole eggs, lemon, vinegar, salt, and neutral sunflower seed oil, whipped until firm and homogeneous. I mix the vegetables with capers in salt and chopped tuna in oil, then fill two thin isomalt discs with exactly 25 grams of the salad — any more would be too much. I warm the discs with a torch to seal them, creating an incredible game of textures: crunchy, melting, sweet, salty, with the mayonnaise and vegetables. It's a small welcome that introduces the rest of the menu, a tribute to Russian cuisine by French chef Olivier, reinvented with technique.

Dishes mentioned

• Aperitivo di benvenuto
• Insalata russa caramellata

  As a gift from the kitchen, they brought me the caramelized Russian salad — one of the best dishes I've ever eaten.

• Presetit

  They also brought me the presetit, a leavened bread for sharing, stuffed inside with minced meat to use for dipping in a vegetable broth.

• Tuorlo marinato
• Riso giallo allo zafferano

  I ordered the famous saffron rice from Cracco. He calls it 'riso' because he thinks 'risotto' should be creamier and more compact. That's exactly what I didn't find here — the rice was quite loose, not bound by the cremina of the parmesan and butter mantecatura. It wasn't too greasy on the palate, but if I judge it as rice, it's okay. You can really taste fresh saffron, and in the aftertaste you get the parmesan, so it's still a refined dish. It costs €50.

Dishes mentioned

• Cracco Tonic

  This is a classic Gin Tonic made with their own production gin, which is part of their line of distillates. It's somewhere between a classic London Dry and a slightly more Mediterranean gin, with very interesting nuances of sage and herbs.

• Vermouth di Torino Pio Cesare

  This Vermouth has a Chardonnay base and is infused with 26 different herbs. It's really good.

• Dried Vegetables with Marinated Egg Yolk Butter and Homemade Bread

  We start with dried vegetables, a marinated egg yolk butter, homemade bread made with five-year-old liquid sourdough and type 1 stone ground flour, malted with linseed, sunflower, millet and soy seeds. Their own production oil, Moraiolo and Leccino cultivar, from their Vistamare farm. My goodness, how delicious. I could make lunch with just this. The butter and egg yolk together is crazy stuff.

• Caramelized Russian Salad

  This is a real iconic dish: the caramelized Russian salad. Between two sugar and caper wafers you find mayonnaise, carrots, potatoes and peas. It adds a savory touch with tuna, playing with sweet, soft, crunchy and salty. You eat it strictly with your hands, like a biscuit. The genius is that after two or three bites, Russian salad becomes cloying, so they enclose it in a casket of isomalt that's sweetened but not as sweetened as sugar, adds salty capers for balance, creating a brand new take. Crunchy, salty, creamy. I love it.

• Non-Alcoholic Cocktail with Basil and Chili

  A totally non-alcoholic cocktail, to be sipped at the end of the Russian salad. A distillate of botanicals with the addition of basil syrup, lime and a touch of Pantelleria chili oil. Sour, fresh, it cleans your mouth.

Dishes mentioned

• Croissant
• Pain au Chocolat

  The pain au chocolat is crunchy and soft at the same time, with a nice bite. It's a classic and it's good.

• Fiocco di Neve

  This croissant has white chocolate and Christmas spices like cardamom. It tastes like Christmas, guys. You just want to say Merry Christmas to yourself while eating this. I think there's some cardamom in here.

• Albero di Natale

  This Christmas tree-shaped pastry has pistachio cream and jam inside, with pistachio droplets and cranberries on top. It's not bad to find pistachio and jam together. It's a combination I've never tried but it fits.

Dishes mentioned

• Colazione all'Italiana

  The Italian breakfast includes bread with butter and apricot jam, a cappuccino, and a croissant from the pastry shop — but they forgot to bring us the croissant and later ran out. The bread and butter were normal, nothing special, I was a bit disappointed. The jam was good though. Overall it's a simple breakfast, I don't see much added value.

• Brioche al Culatello

  This savory croissant with culatello is amazing. The presentation is top-level. It crunches when you bite into it, the culatello seems freshly sliced, very high quality. The croissant is very filled, the dough is really soft, and there's some powder on top — I don't know what it is. The flavour is divine, honestly. I really liked it a lot.

• Crostatina con Crema Pasticcera

  They brought us this tartlet with pastry cream as an apology because they ran out of croissants. It looks really beautiful — there are gold leaves, edible petals, lots of fruit: strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and pastry cream underneath. The shortcrust pastry is very fragrant, the cream binds with the fruit without any peak of sweetness, it makes you enjoy every spoonful. Very elegant idea with the gold leaf, even though it doesn't taste like anything. This really elevated the breakfast for me.

• Ferrero Rocher Rivisitato al Pistacchio

  This is like eating a Ferrero Rocher but made much better. Inside there's a pistachio cream, and you could eat ten of them in a row.

• Bavarese al Cioccolato