Florentine chefs must be doing quite well: if you’re a cynic, with hundreds of thousands of tourists coming to the Tuscan capital every year, chefs don’t have to worry: a tourist will still come to your restaurant and order something anyway. However, the Florentines themselves also have to eat somewhere, plus we should not forget about the discerning tourists who travel in search of new gastronomic experiences (and the maximum three-star rating of the Michelin guide means “the restaurant deserves a separate tourist trip”). That is why high-quality and creative cuisine has always existed in Florence, one of the wealthiest cities in Italy.
The flagship of Florentine alta cucina is the Enoteca Pinchiorri restaurant, which in the last decade has held three Michelin stars. But a few years ago in the city center there appeared Ora d’Aria restaurant, to which Michelin awarded the first star in 2011.
On a weekday evening on the day of our visit, all seats in the main dining room of Ora d’Aria were occupied, although I managed to reserve a table just a day in advance. The main attraction for guests (who have not yet started serving their order) is the glass partition separating the dining room and the kitchen: you can try to see how your food is being prepared. Although Michelin rates Stabile’s work one star (“a very good restaurant in its category”), in our experience, some of its dishes pull two (“the restaurant deserves to deviate from the original route”) or even three stars (see above).
Late fall is the traditional white truffle season in Italy. There was a truffle menu at Ora d’Aria as well. Dishes from different menus can be combined, so I took a truffle dish as an appetizer: poached egg with potato foam on sangiovese sauce (40 euros). It was served with the truffle already sprinkled on top – rather than rubbed on the plate directly on the table. It looked like a real white truffle, but I did not manage to catch the famous powerful aroma – which is exactly what distinguishes a white truffle from a black one. But even without it, the dish was very good and even better in combination with Avvoltore 2010 Tuscan from Morisfarms in which Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah (€67) were combined. It was just the kind of wine I’d never heard of, although I’d been to Massa Marittima, where it’s made, five times.
The most striking dish of the evening was my main course – pigeon in two manners on a bed of caramelized apple (45 euros, the most expensive dish on the menu). I’ll say more: pigeon from Marco Stabile is one of the best in my life. The best was only at The Oak Room in London, which has not existed for a long time. However, Marco Pierre White cooked the pigeon breast with foie gras escalope, wrapped them in a cabbage leaf. The combination of pigeon and foie gras in the hands of a skilled chef is a win-win, but Stabile made it harder for himself by foregoing the help of liver – and he pulled it off perfectly: in both form and content!