The story
Perched on the Lungarno in Florence, Saporium is a Michelin-starred destination where vegetables and sustainability take the lead. As creator Francesco Zini observed, it's “an exceptional Michelin-starred restaurant… offering a creative and memorable tasting menu that impressed even first-timers.” The kitchen’s vegetable-forward philosophy yields dishes such as Topinambur, Piselli, Chips Topinambur and a delicate Risotto Aglio Orsino e Gemme di Abete Balsamico.
Beyond the garden, pasta like Tagliatella al Pomodoro Verde and Pappardella al Cibreo showcase modern Tuscan craft. A grilled apricot with bitter almond gelato and La Rosa di Caterina close on an elegant note. With its intimate, romantic setting in a historic building, Saporium proves that a plant-focused tasting menu can wow skeptics and connoisseurs alike.
Synthesised by AI from every creator’s review. First reviewed 2026.
Most-loved dishes
AI summary of what 7 dish mentions say about the food
At Saporium, the "La rosa di Caterina" earns unanimous praise as a delicate, artful standout. Reviewers describe the overall vibe as warm, refined, and quietly memorable.
“This is the iconic dessert of the restaurant, dedicated to Caterina de' Medici. It's a reinterpretation of the classic Florentine zuccotto: a base of sponge cake, ricotta, chocolate drops, red fruit insert, and alkermes liqueur from Santa Maria Novella. The chef used to make this with his grandfather, who would dilute the alkermes with milk for him as a child. It's a masterful interpretation — you feel the essence of the zuccotto but also the chef's childhood. The alkermes is real, you can taste it. It's very good.”
What creators say
1 creator has covered Saporium. Most active: Francesco Zini
An exceptional Michelin-starred restaurant in Florence with a focus on vegetables and sustainability, offering a creative and memorable tasting menu that impressed even first-timers.
Dishes mentioned
Topinambur, Piselli, Chips Topinambur
This is a risotto-like dish with Jerusalem artichoke and peas, bound with butter. Next to it there's a roasted potato gnocco with mussels and a spring onion emulsion. Then a small tartlet with marinated sea bass and red berries. Finally, a shot glass with chicken liver parfait, a praline base and a wine gel on top. It's a very rich and citric start, almost decadent.
La Stagione Che Non C'è
This is a salad that represents the season that doesn't exist. Underneath there's fruit collected from April 2024 to today — cherries, strawberries, persimmons, figs — all preserved through fermentation lab techniques: under syrup, under vinegar, preserved. The main herbs are from our garden and wild ones from the estate. It's dressed with three chlorophylls: spring onion, nettle and mint. You have to eat it in sections, each part tells a moment of the year. It's a very interesting concept, working with vegetables with respect using preservation methods. It could almost be a dessert.
Risotto Aglio Orsino e Gemme di Abete Balsamico
This is a risotto with wild garlic, which I love, paired with balsamic fir buds — the tender shoots of the fir tree when it grows in spring. The rice is toasted dry and cooked in water. The fir buds are really interesting, they amplify the herbaceous note of the wild garlic and clean the palate with this balsamic part. The rice is cooked to perfection, you feel the grain but it doesn't disturb under the teeth. The mantecatura is great, the texture of the oil makes it richer under the palate but still very clean.
Tagliatella al Pomodoro Verde
This is a tagliatella in bianco with green tomatoes, one of my favorite ingredients. The pasta is cooked in butter where we toast fennel, then we bind it with green tomato water, mantecare lightly, add fillets of tomato preserved in brine and fresh flowers that taste like anise. It looks like a dry pasta with nothing on it, but when you put it in your mouth the flavor is incredible. You smell the sweetness of the butter, it's fat and acid but very decisive. The texture of the tagliatella is almost crunchy, you feel it under your teeth. Simple ingredients — fennel, tomato, butter, pasta — but combined in a stunning way.
Pappardella al Cibreo
This is a pappardella in bianco with cibreo, a traditional poor dish made with chicken offal — crests, gizzards, spleens, livers — in a heavy onion soffritto. The chef interprets it as a ragù. The sauce has a gelatinous consistency, a concentration of cartilage and tomato. The collagen stays on your lips, it's incredible. The pasta has the same crystalline, almost plasticky texture as the previous tagliatella, it crumbles under your teeth. This is the first time I've eaten cibreo and I'm happy it was this one, because it will be hard to find one of this level. It's goloso, sweet at times. This is the perfect manifestation of taking classic Italian tradition and projecting it into the future.
