Every once in a while you have to step back from your position that the be all and end all of food was developed by penniless housewives whose husbands could only afford to bring back a bovine gall bladder or testicle or some such after a week of hard labor at the mine. Sure, it’s amazing what those women have done over the years with the internal organs and hanging bits. But you have to wonder, “what can big money buy that’s significantly better than mamma’s carefully conceived testicular meat balls?”
You needn’t wait; the end of the spectrum opposite my beloved Cucina Povera was recently represented in the NYT: Cucina dell’Arte: High-End Dining in Italy, which takes us on a culinary tour of a handful of high-end restaurants.
I was happy the author included Combal.Zero, a restaurant I’ve had the great pleasure to have eaten at and enjoyed. David Scabin in still at the helm, still playful, and still playing around with the idea of turning tradition on its collective ear. (I disagree, though, with the statement, “Both Combal.Zero and Cracco put Italian traditions through the paces of Mr. Adrià’s so-called molecular gastronomy…) as David Scabin told me specifically that he had no interest in molecular gastronomy, but then again that was in 2006. Still, the article offers no evidence for the claim.
In any case, what magnified my giddiness was the idea that the restaurant was still open and chef Scabin was still, evidently, on his game. When you write about food in Italy, you have to live with the fact that unless someone writes you and that email manages to get past the spam filters, it may be that you’ll never hear of a restaurant closing, or getting bought up by a corporate entity focused on profit and meatless meatballs. You can’t possibly eat at every restaurant you’ve ever written about every year—and live to tell about it I mean.
So tonight I’ll make a little toast to Mr. Scabin, who never lost the notion that food should be fun, especially high-end food which tends to be served, at least in America, in rather morgue-ish environments with a confusing plethora of stabbing and cutting objects designed to befuddle the user who is made to use them to keep the food from ever touching his fingers, a dubious goal for sure, especially when it pertains to food.
Know what I mean? If not, why not read my review from 2006 (and be aware prices seem to have gone up): Combal.Zero Review
Fun food. Beaucoup Bucks. Can life get better than this?