ANTONIO BIAFORA BRINGS SILA HOME LERARIO
For over ten years Casa Lerario organizes signature lunches with renowned chefs from all over Italy. In the kitchen of the Samnite farmhouse, usually reign of the patronne Tatiana Bruno Lerario, names of the caliber of have passed by Eduardo Ecstatic, Cristian Torsiello, Luca Abbruzzino, Angelo Sabatelli, Christoph Bob, Salvatore Tassa and Alfio Ghezzi.
Last 18 April was the turn of Antonio Biafora, Calabrian chef whose restaurant Howl in the Sila Park boasts a Michelin star and the Green Star for attention to ethics and sustainability.
Biafra, classe 1985, proposed his "mountain fine dining" for a day in this rural and hilly corner of Sannio, taking ingredients with them, techniques and suggestions from the Sila area.
Antonio Biafora
The opening with Pane, Butter and Oil is anything but introductory.
Alongside an excellent buckwheat and rye bread we find a Jannìa extra virgin olive oil 100% Pennulara, Calabrian cultivar with a marked spiciness, and a whipped butter with herring and dehydrated lemons. To complete the picture, a lard candle, in whose melted “wax” the slipper can be made. A set of three lipid elements elevated to protagonists, capable of constructing a tasting of great gustatory complexity.
Pane, Butter and Oil
Pane, Butter and Oil
The first course, Cauliflower, Fermented Pepper, Peaty Whiskey and Gentian Root, it works as a true manifesto of the chef's kitchen. A dish that demonstrates how plant matter can be treated with complexity and character, among the aromatic notes of pepper, the woody ones of Oban whiskey and the earthy ones of gentian root.
Cauliflower, Fermented Pepper, Peaty Whiskey and Gentian Root
Along the same lines, Rice, Yeast Garum, Cypress and Pepper Cubebe: a concentrate of umami and balsamic notes, which reveal a remarkable sensitivity in pairings.
Riso, Yeast Garum, Cypress and Pepper Cubebe
The lamb, served medium rare and pink inside, it is accompanied by burnt thyme, rose buds and beetroot.
Lamb, Burnt Thyme, Rose buds and beetroot
As a plant-based alternative, Agria potato puff pastry from the Sila plateau, Jerusalem artichoke ragout, white onion foam from Castrovillari and truffle. Calabria again, still a visceral connection with the land and its ingredients.
Agria potato puff pastry, Jerusalem artichoke ragout, white onion foam from Castrovillari and truffle
Chef Biafora's mountain journey ends with As if it were a Bosco, non-sweet dessert with an acidic tendency, which eschews the predictable choice of berries and instead focuses on less obvious ingredients such as porcini mushrooms, pine nuts and lemons.
As if it were a forest
In the glasses, the wines of the project Capaldo Estates, which brings together several wineries belonging to Feudi di San Gregorio di Sorbo Serpico (Avellino). Leaving the Dubl, first classic method from southern Italy (mainly from Greco grapes, 30 months of aging on the yeasts), passing through the Sirch Pinot Grigio Ramato Friuli DOC 2024, to end with the Irpinia Fiano Passito Privilege.
Sirch Pinot Grigio Ramato Friuli DOC 2024
Yet another seasonal cycle of Casa Lerario events concluded with Antonio Biafora's starred menu, who now returns to his daily gastronomic life of lunches and dinners.
Thanks to the journalist Laura Gambacorta for the kind invitation.
Agriturismo Casa Lerario
Contrada Laura, 6 – Melizzano, Benevento
such. 0824/944018
www.casalerario.it
Hyle Ristorante
S.da 107 Silana Crotonese (Location Torre Garga) – San Giovanni in Fiore, Cosenza
such. 0984/970722
www.hyleristorante.it
