The green chefs of Liguria
We have selected two Ligurian restaurants that have chosen to dedicate their cuisine to sustainability, respect for raw materials and environmental protection, both terrestrial and marine.
Petricore Farm Bistrot
Petricore Farm Bistrot is located in the beautiful Piazza della Collegiata di San Biagio, in Finalborgo, one of the most beautiful villages in Italy, a medieval jewel a few steps from the sea that enchants with its atmosphere of the past.
The term petricore refers to that particular olfactory sensation that is perceived when the rain beats on the land for a long time dry. The business was born from the need of two brothers, owners of a farm, to build a place where the raw materials came directly from the earth to the consumer, without the need for too many steps.
«We are very attached to our land, we deal with vegetable cuisine, we follow the seasons. All our products are produced on the farm in Calizzano during the summer, while for the winter we rely on some local farmers, “says chef Massimo Strobino.
At Petricore the cuisine is purely seasonal, each product is mainly of organic cultivation or zero impact. Mainly local vegetables and cheeses are used, sheep or white meat and fish from the Ligurian Sea. All fresh and zero-kilometer products, no additives and chemical herbicides.
“The menu we offer is very limited and varies from week to week and using only products that the land gives us, based on the purchase or spending in the morning, we build the proposal of the day”. Chef Strobino says he prefers two seasons of all, spring and autumn: “In these times of the year there are first fruits restricted in a few days, peas, green beans, broad beans, in short, myriad things that have a short period through which we you can indulge yourself in a thousand ways ».
As far as environmental protection is concerned, here respect for the territory comes first: “We would like to bring the restaurant to be zero-impact, we are trying to eliminate all plastics, we do not use film, we have abolished vacuum cooking, we consume plastic only for the preservation of the dishes “.
As for the wet, Petricore recovers it on the farm to compost it and use it as a fertilizer, in order to try to pollute as little as possible.
“I have recently become passionate about the fermentation technique, which requires only fresh vegetables, salt and water, an ancestral technique that does not require cooking and waste of energy and brings zero impact to the environment, is good for health and brings out exceptional flavors and aromas “.
Da Claudio Restaurant
The Da Claudio Restaurant is located in Bergeggi, also on the Riviera di Ponente and offers a magnificent terrace from which you can watch sunsets that become memorable experiences. Here everything starts from the roots and the link with the territory and the raw materials: «We believe that identification and relationship with our land are fundamental. Liguria is always present in the various preparations if not as a main dish, with a connection with it through flavors and aromas », says Claudio Pasquarelli.
The philosophy of the restaurant revolves around respect for the earth and protection of the environment: “Nature is able to” give us “products of the highest level: the genuineness and goodness of a freshly picked vegetable is an extra smile on your plate. We try to protect nature by committing ourselves to follow the natural cycle. We respect the rhythms and seasons as much as possible, we are surrounded by fruit trees, citrus fruits, aromatic herbs, edible flowers and vegetables that we bring to the table on our plates. Our luck is to be able to cultivate in the open air and with a sea view ».
To protect the environment, chef Pasquarelli also tells us to use only rainwater, previously collected in tanks in order to avoid wasting this precious resource.
An emblem of environmental protection is certainly a dish created a few years ago, an explosion of freshness that welcomes land and sea inside: zucchini from the garden with Sanremo shrimps, a dish that in its simplicity, contains raw materials of great excellence of the Ligurian territory.
