Marenna'

[Ore]

edit: (Fixed the photos)

Marenna –

My visit to Marenna, the restaurant of the winery Feudi di San Gregorio was a great experience. I enjoyed the meal with a friend and his cousin. My first tip for anyone who makes their way to Marenna is to remember that Feudi is first a winery and second a restaurant. There isn’t a separate entrance to the restaurant but they way in is through the front door to the winery – a plus is that you actually get to see some cool winery things you wouldn’t at any normal restaurant.

(the sliding doors!)(when you walk through, the amphitheatre is on your left and the herb and rose garden on your right)

Once we parked the car (the most confusing part of the night as there isn’t a designated parking area) we were buzzed in through very architecturally designed electronic sliding doors. When I walked up to the buildings entrance, the smell of wine fermenting nearby started my night in a very positive way; that is where we were met by the Maitre d’.

(the winery entrance)

We followed Vito up the stairs to the ‘real’ entrance of the restaurant. There we were greeted by the receptionist and it happened to turn out that our table was right in front of the kitchen!

The menus were very fashionable and trendy; they also seemed to be quite expensive (a restaurant like this normally doesn’t have too high a concern for costs as long as the look and quality are there!!!).

I thought the menu was very well written and the food presented was modern and up to date. The only thing that got to me was the price structure – I don’t like when all the secondis are € 18,00 - I find that very cheesy – but that’s just me!

Unfortunately, this is one of those places that are strict on the rule where if one gets the tasting menu, the whole table gets the tasting menu. I didn’t want the tasting menu because the courses were written in the back page and were taken right from the a la carte pages – and they weren’t my favorite picks!

But, they beat me two to one so I had to get the tasting menu. Some of the things that caught my eye fro the a la carte were the Rabbit Terrine, the Lamb Carpaccio and the Chestnut foam for dessert.

Our bienvenuto (Amuse Bouche) was a wonton wrapper filled with porcini mushroom sitting in a tiny bowl with a porcini sauce and a contrasting sauce of Tallegio cheese. The bowl was garnished with EVOO and a sprinkle of powdered porcini. Unfortunately, no picture of this one. The dish was well balanced and the flavors were bold and very effective in starting my appetite! I used my fingers – I had to break down the formality of the dining room a bit – the people I was dining with were in shock about how formal the dining room felt! I am not one for rules so I popped the little amuse right into my mouth! (the shape of the wonton I think was made just for this purpose!)

The dining room is very nicely designed but a bit dark. The most abundant color is black with highlights of dark burgundy. There are amazing arrangements of cacti throughout the dining room which I thought was very in place.

One of the waiters came by with the bread gueridon (wagon) and sliced the house made bread in front of us. I thought that was a nice touch!

The other two I dined with decided to start with Feudi’s Rubrato, an Aglianico – thankfully, we would switch to my choice later!

Next out was our first course. We started with a celery and potato soup. The bowl came out with a side plate containing a Sfogliatelle of pork shank with lemon and julienne celery. Sfogliatelle is very much like puff pastry but has a distinct shape – to me it resembles a clam shape.

(Celery and Potato Soup)

I liked the texture of the soup more than its flavor. The soup was velvety smooth (maybe a PacoJet was involved as I know they have one!). The flavor was great, don’t get me wrong, but I wasn’t hit with a huge potato celery flavor like is more common in other restaurants in this area (a popular soup dish in Irpinia!). The Sfogliatelle was truly phenomenal, the acidity of the lemon was just enough to clear the richness of the pastry and pork from the mouth – great with the soup too. The thin celery was seasoned perfectly with salt and was very tender and fresh tasting.

Here is what our table (roughly) looked like.

The spacing of these tables was very distant. When sitting across from someone, it is quite hard to speak softly and be able to hear them! On both ends of the table there was a place available to put a tray down and serve the table from the tray. Also, the chairs, specially designed for Marenna, were very comfortable for the long meal!

The first pasta came out.

This was a ravioli (mezza luna) stuffed with ricotta di pecorino. The sauce was an extra vergin olive oil sauce (EVOO) and the dish was garnished with fried parsley and garlic chips. When all our plates were on the table, another server came by with a small copper pot and offered a piccante pepperoni salsa. I asked for mine on the side – not to confuse the taste of the original dish.

I thought the pasta was very nicely cooked. The EVOO sauce was very fresh and aromatic, with a good flavor. The pecorino filling was piquant and nicely acidic – balancing the sauce and the richness of the pasta. The pepperoni (red pepper) sauce was very well seasoned, very interesting, and when eaten with the rest of the plate, added a new, more interesting dimension to the plate. It was like unlocking a hidden door! Oh, that’s interesting, and much better!

The more interesting of the two pastas was the second. This dish is also found throughout Irpinia (and the whole Campania region).

Here was a plate of Paccheri di Gragnano – a type of tube shaped pasta made in the town of Gragnano. The rest of the dish included a ragu of agnello – a lamb ragu. The cheeses were a fior di latte di pecora and a dry pecorino, grated – there was also essence of orange (oil).

This dish was one of my most memorable. The pasta was just undercooked – which I think aided the plate because the pasta then could be used as a container for the sauce. The ragu was amazing, well seasoned, and the lamb flavor was present, but soooo delicate, a true sign of quality products treated well! The addition of the two types of cheese brought a creamy, richness to the plate, and the orange oil refreshened your palate for the next bite. I think, a dish made very well, with great ingredients!

A nice touch at Marenna was the quality of flatware as well. I haven’t seen the sauce spoon in a long time – until I ate at Marenna! Now that I think about it, I really like the sauce spoon!!!

The fish course was next up.

This plate consisted of baccala (salt cod). The piece of baccala has a different name then the rest, because it comes from a special part of the fish – any help??!!??

The dish consisted of the piece of fish covered with aromatic bread crumbs and put under the salamander – small diced potatoes, candied tomato petals, and a alici di Cetara sauce (local anchovies).

(sorry, I took a quick bite before I snapped the photo!)

The plate was nice – the fish was the highlight of this plate – maybe it was made for that purpose. The tenderness of the baccala is not something you find very often. It was perfectly cooked, not rubbery or hard, and still in filet form. The rest of the plate was on the bland side but the quality and technique used to cook the fish for me made up for the rest. By this point we were drinking the Feudi Taurasi Reserve (Piano…) and that was a bit of a challenge for the fish – but not too bad. Overall, I think a bit more time can go into the side components of the dish but the fish was perfect.

Before the main course, a photo of the kitchen.

Here you can see that the kitchen is nice and large. Being the kitchen of a huge winery, like I mentioned about the menus, I think the budget part isn’t really that important (just my opinion) because they have all the best of the best you can get here! From Robot Coupe to Paco Jet, to a huge Cryovac machine, to a very fast blast chiller, they had it all…except the flames…WHAT??? NO FIRE??? Nope, not in this restaurant! All the heat is induction – including the induction wok and salamander! The pastry area has an awesome bread oven too! Somewhere on the property I do think they have a wood burning oven though (I think!).

There are three cooks, the chef being one of them, and two pastry cooks. The kitchen seemed to have a very nice flow – very clean ( I like!) and very quiet!

Ok, on to the Secondi!

This plate, being my favorite, consisted of a contrafiletto (striploin) of veal topped with smoked scamorza cheese (similar to fior di latte but drier), a quenelle of eggplant puree, tomato petals alla pizzaiolo, and a veal sauce with hints of anchovie di Cetara.

As you can see, I almost took a bite before I remembered about my friends at eGullet!! So, this plate basically consists of a veal strip steak with two pieces of smoked cheese, put under the salamander to crisp up, at the top was the very tranquil quenelle of eggplant, on the bottom the tomato petals and then the sauce. All the components of this dish were great alone, or all together on the same fork. The meat was perfectly cooked, the scamorza added a great depth of flavor by introducing the smoked aspect. The eggplant brought in a bit of creaminess being pureed, the tomatoes a bit of acidity, and the sauce the perfect balance of meatiness and salt. A very nice dish – my favorite of the tasting menu.

On to the dolce!

We didn’t stop until after this plate! Here we had two ‘cannoli’ of white chocolate filled with a chocolate mousse, drizzled with a spicy peperoni sauce, plums soaked and cooked down in Aglianico, and the Aglianico liquid as the sauce (plus a leaf of lemon balm!).

I thought this dish was well executed. From a technical standpoint, I find it very difficult to make those cannoli as perfect as the pastry cooks here did, as I would have broken more the 70% of them! The chocolate was super-thin and the mouse was nice and rich – the spicy peperoni sauce was my only problem with the dolce. Alone, as a plate, it was perfect. The spiciness was carried away by the richness of the mousse and thw white chocolate, but along with the Privilegio, the spicyness was taken to a new (too hot) level. The sommelier left our taurasi on the table because he thought the bridging between the wine and the cooked plums would be a good match. It would have been but the spiciness of the peppers was still there and unfortunately, I didn’t see any offering of anything bubbly to help take the heat away! But, it still was a well like dish for its technicality and flavors.

We were then given a plate of cheese by the Sommelier, cut in front of us. Here is a shot of the cheese cart.

The cheeses were all great and the Sommelier did know much about them, even with his young age!

At the entrance to the restaurant is a small bar where you can view the antique Berkel slicer. Their, there is also a cheese locker, as well as a salumi locker.

(cheeses – you can see the many different types of cacciocavalo and provolas, as well as pecorinos)

&

(salumi – you can see the two types of guancia, as well as pancetta among others)

The person in charge of the salumi and formaggio is a Slow Food rep. for the Campania area – a very great guy!

Then came the caffe and grappa – followed by a super quick tour of some of the winery.

(this is the Taurasi room)

This winery had many magnificent art pieces as well as a great amount of technology in the winery itself – one thing I remember was the streaming little river thorugh one of the barrel rooms used to keep the humidity level high – kinda cool!

(sorry for the picture quality – most were done with the flash off, also canceling the auto focus)

I hope you enjoy your visit! Remember, it is a winery before a restaurant!

Ciao,

Ore

Edited November 19, 2004 by Ore (log)

[docsconz]

Super report, Ore. Outstanding. My guess is that the cod was the cod-equivalent of toro-tuna, the belly cut. Unfortunately, I don't remember what it is called. Were any of the dishes cooked sous-vide?

[albiston]

Ore,

Thank you for the very nice report and pictures. I remember having heard that Marenna's team was put together with the help of Rome's Cavalieri Hilton Pergola Chef Heinz Beck. Do you know if that's the case? Some of the dishes, the dessert for one, remind me quite a bit of dishes I've seen in Beck's book.

The baccala' name you are looking for might be mussillo, which is the dorsal center cut. Some people compare it to the tenderloin cut in beef. In Campania it can be bought without any problem from Baccala' sellers.

[Ore]

Alberto,

That is exactly what the baccala was called - thanks!

and...yes, Heinz Beck does do consulting for the restaurant. He was there just the other week and from what I hear, comes by about once a month -

Ore

(DOC, I am going to go with a "no" in the sous vide area - although the veal was extremely soft and tender, I am not really sure how it was cooked - it might have been brined but I think sous vide was out of the question for the 5 plates I enjoyed)

Edited November 19, 2004 by Ore (log)

[docsconz]

(DOC, I am going to go with a "no" in the sous vide area - although the veal was extremely soft and tender, I am not really sure how it was cooked - it might have been brined but I think sous vide was out of the question for the 5 plates I enjoyed)

←

Ore, I'm surprised given your description of the kitchen equipment and raging popularity of this technique that I saw in all the high end Spanish restaurants I've recently visited. It could be that even the baccala might have been cooked by this method. I would think that if they've gone to the trouble of having all that equipment that they would use it. In Spain, I was shocked by some of the dishes that were cooked sous vide that I wouldn't have had a clue about had I not been told so.

[Ore]

The Baccala may have been - but I dont think it was - I think the Paco Jet was used for the soup because of its fine texture - but I cant promise that!

[Ore]

Ciao,

Something new I have just discovered...While reading the Heinz Beck cookbook (cover of a fried Zucchini flower and Saffron Consome), as many pictures as Heinz Beck is in, so is Donatto (the Chef of Marenna, ad well as two other cooks in Marenna's kitchen - also the Maitre'd is in the group photo.

This must have seriously been a La Pergola to Feudi di San Gregorio exchange - Heinz Beck sending his top people.

Wow,

Ore

[MMerrill]

Our last big meal on recent trip to Italy was lunch at Marenna, and what a treat it was! Via phone and internet, I had booked the "cellar tour and Marenna w/3 wines" package for 50 euros a head. We were first given a wonderful tour of the grounds and cellars of this amazing winery by the very charming Francesca Festa. As we had arrived early, she then left us in a comfortable lounge/library to wait until the 1:30 lunch time. At the appointed time we were escorted up to the restaurant, which in daytime is very bright with lots of windows and views over the surrounding countryside. I felt we were seated at the best table - right in front of the large window into the kitchen. We had a 3-course menu that began with a delectable amuse - a nugget of duck crusted with sesame seeds and truffle on a pumpkin puree w/cacciocavallo Podolice (sp?) cheese sauce. With that we were served the basic Fiano di Avellino 2003. Next came ravioli Genovese, stuffed with veal and lightly fried, in a light meat sauce. Wine was Fiano di Avellino Pietracalda 2003 docg. The main course was very tender long-cooked veal on a bed of local vegetables (verza) with an intense aglianico sauce. Wine - Taurasi 2000 docg. For dessert we had a cassata - a mound of cake filled with buffalo ricotta and chocolate with a shear sugared glaze, and ginger sorbetto. And a bonus wine - Privilegio 2001 - and a bonus plate of exquisite house-made chocolates. The meal also included the bread as Ore described it, mineral water and coffee. It's hard to describe how good everything was - balanced, beautifully presented, wonderful.

[Ore]

Francesca is really, really beautiful...and do beat that,,,damn smart too!

The library, like MMerrill says, is very beautiful and comfortable as well. While on our tour, I really liked the idea of the flowing stream of water running throughout the barrel rooms.

Very nice report. The food seems the same as when I was there, the few times. The same, but of course, a bit different. And yes it is good, they are all DIRECT RELATIVES of LA PERGOLA in Rome under Heinz Beck!!

Ciao,

Ore