Alla Carta asks Barnaba Fornasetti for recommendations

Alla Carta contributes food-related posts to Pamono. This week, Barnaba Fornasetti gives us some tips on where to eat and buy food in Milan around his gallery.

FORNASETTI GALLERY, MILAN

Barnaba Fornasetti

Fornasetti is not only a store (located in Milan in Corso Matteotti, 1/A); it's a multi-generational story about one family's passion for design. Piero Fornasetti was a painter, a sculptor and an interior decorator. During his lifetime, he created more than 11,000 objects and a great variety of decorations. Today, his son Barnaba Fornasetti carries on the family tradition and devotion to design. Standing at the helm of the company and its creative heart, he manages Fornasetti’s store and atelier. We asked him some questions about his relationship with food and his favorite places to eat and shop for food in his hometown Milan. We discovered that Barnaba is vegetarian, and he gave us some very good suggestions about where we could buy organic food in Milan and find a menu “without meat”.

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AC: What do you like about food?

BF: Naturalness.

AC: Which are your favorites food places in Milan?

BF: Unfortunately the Fornasetti Store area is not that interesting from this point of view… I am vegetarian and I look for organic food, so I cannot buy anything anywhere. I am really demanding regarding nutrition. Moreover I do not visit snack bars, so I will omit them in my list below:

Supermarkets:

- Naturasì, via Melzo 15 (Porta Venezia district); Because it’s the most furnished supermarket of organic food.

- Centro Botanico, piazza San Marco 1 (Brera district); Because it’s in downtown and if you want you can also eat something fast at lunch. In this moment the chef is Titta, my favorite one.

Restaurants:

- Latteria San Marco, via San Marco 24 (Brera district); It’s the last true domestic Italian traditional “trattoria” in Milan where you can find a lot of friends. It’s very casual and simple but at the same time it’s exclusive for its kind of clientele. For my it’s a bit like home.

- Refettorio; It’s an interesting experiment. The decor is very basic and the food is good.

- Carminio (Brera district); It’s the only restaurant in downtown at “Km 0” if possible.

Bakery:

- Princi, Largo La Foppa 2 (Moscova district); It’s one of the best bread-maker in downtown.

Pastry shop:

- La Dolce Vita, via Orti 12 (Porta Romana district); It’s a small pastry shop where pastries are home-made and with an excellent quality.

AC: Your secret recipe?

BF: One of my favorite dishes is "Artichokes with Parmesan." It's very simple to cook. The quality of ingredients is the secret.

- Cut the stalk and tenterhooks parts off the artichokes

- Cut artichokes in thinly slices

- Drop them into water with lemon (a good way to prevent blackening)

- Drain

- Flavor the artichokes with oil and salt (if you like, also add some herbs)

- Grate thin flakes of Parmesan as you prefer

Artichoke

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Interview by Valentina Barzaghi

Illustrations by Silvia Gherra

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    Alla Carta Magazine

    Alla Carta approaches food as an incentive to take a bite of diverse cultural phenomena. We are intrigued by the meal's convivial capacity, and have found food to be an essential element for sharing thoughts, opinions and creative ideas.