The new summer menu of L’Arabesque Café celebrates vegetable gardens, sea and citrus fruits with a cuisine that follows seasonality. The iconic floating île also returns among the protagonists, one of the great classics of French pastry making that is increasingly rare to find today.
Summer also has the power to change the way a table is described. The flavors become simpler, the preparations lighter, the vegetable gardens and orchards enter the dish with a naturalness that follows the rhythm of the season. It is from this idea of cooking, made of memory, ingredients at their perfect moment and a research that favors simplicity only in appearance, that the new summer menu of L’Arabesque Café is born, the Milanese lounge created by Chichi Meroni where gastronomy, art and design coexist in a timeless balance.
More than a simple seasonal menu, the new gastronomic journey is a journey through the sea, vegetable garden, citrus fruits and aromatic herbs. Respect for seasonality remains the underlying theme of a cuisine inspired by the book Once upon a time at the tablein which each dish tries to evoke familiar aromas and memories through genuine ingredients and refined combinations.
We start with fresh and bright preparations such as sea bass marinated with fennel and oranges, couscous tabbouleh with chickpea hummus, beetroot and babaganoush, beef tataki with seasonal fruit and vegetables and smoked char accompanied by freshwater fish roe and yogurt sauce. In the first courses, delicacy becomes the protagonist with the borage velouté, sour cream and pecan nuts, the green pasta ravioli filled with robiola, basil, apples and turmeric, the homemade tumminia tagliolini with butter and salted lemon confit and the goat cheese risotto with vanilla, amaranth, wild herbs and the scent of cucumber.
The second courses also follow the same philosophy, alternating sea and land with the confit salmon served with dill foam, fennel and finger lime, the octopus tentacle with potatoes, cherry tomatoes and Taggiasca olives, the Prussian beef loin with carrot puree and turnip pickles and the egg cooked at 65 degrees with Parmesan cream and asparagus. For those who want an even lighter break, the salads interpret the season through fruit, crunchy vegetables, avocado, citrus fruits and first fruits.
Closing the journey are the Rêveries, a collection of desserts that transform the end of the meal into an exercise in imagination. Among these the Gardens of SorrentoTanzania chocolate ganache with caramelized orange, strawberry mousse, fiordilatte ice cream with citrus sauce and a surprise of green apple sorbet.
The true symbol of the new menu, however, is the return of a great classic of French pastry making: the floating île. A cloud of meringue placed on a vanilla custard, as essential as it is complex in its creation.
