Andrea Ribaldone and Berlucchi ’61 Nature 2012
The chefs.
Contemporary or traditional, but always perfectionists.
Champions of culinary “Made in Italy”, stubbornly enamored of their profession.
We asked chefs to tell us about how they cook.
Eye-witness accounts of their own recipes and a flute of Berlucchi’s latest arrival, its ’61 Nature 2012
The narrative was the inspiration for A CHEF, A WINE, a portrait-on-the-move of two fascinating personalities.
Come along with us and let’s discover them together!
Our journey into the world of VIP cuisine leads us this time to meet Andrea Ribaldone.
Born in Milan in 1971, Andrea Ribaldone nevertheless has Piedmont’s culture in his veins, which led him to move in the 1990s to the area of Alessandria, where Maestro Riccardo Aiachini put him at the helm of the La Fermata restaurant, where he won his first Michelin star, in 2003.
After winning laurels for his ongoing participation in the “La prova del Cuoco” TV show, young Ribaldone proved himself a veritable volcano of projects, research, and consultancies, the latter including Eataly Tokyo and JSH Hotels&Resorts. In 2014, he opened I Due Buoi in Alessandria, which as awarded a Michelin star in 2016. Further star-studded establishments followed, at Osteria Arborina in the Langhe and at Due Camini in Borgo Egnazia, in Puglia.
In 2015, it was the turn of Expo Milano, where he helmed the Identità Expo restaurant, an exploit he repeated in the same city in 2018 with his permanent direction of Identità Golose Milano, which Ribaldone describes as a “Home for chefs,” where exchanges of ideas and a continuous stream of diverse chefs has brought this historic Milan venue—once the Feltrinelli Foundation—new life as a true salon of culinary culture.
The wine Chef Ribaldone selected to heighten his dish is Franciacorta Berlucchi ’61 Nature 2012, an extraordinary vintage-dated nature whose zero-dosage style and Chardonnay-Pinot Noir cuvée is the uncompromising expression of its Franciacorta terroir. He pairs it with a mullet raviolo in a potato and black garlic crème and a seasonal vegetable broth, a dish rich in contrasts that is the perfect complement to the complexity of Berlucchi ’61 Nature. In sum, a heavenly marriage of earthly flavours that merits a toast, naturally.