Italian traditional dishes are the protagonists at Røst, the new Milanese gourmet restaurant based on circular and no waste cuisine with the rediscovery of poor meat cuts, forgotten foods and peculiar vegetables. Vudafieri-Saverino Partners designed the restaurant as a cozy place between tradition and modernity.
Experimentation lab for gastronomic scene
In the last years, starting with Expo 2015, Milan has become an experimentation lab of the European gastronomic scene. Fine dining, chef stars, new culinary formats and small entrepreneurs explore innovative relationships between food and consumer experiences. This dynamic contest brings on the scene new proposals for every price segment and every gastronomic culture.
That is the case of Røst, a brand new restaurant based on the concept of circular cuisine, with the rediscovery of traditional Italian dishes, poor meat cuts and forgotten foods. Utmost attention to raw materials and use of ingredients in their entirety characterize the gastronomic proposal of the menu. Two the main focuses: vegetables, selected according to the season; poor cuts, from brain to liver, tongue to thick skirt, cod to mackerel. The restaurant is located in the heart of the Milanese new food district of Porta Venezia neighborhood.
Røst is the story of a journey and a discovery: a journey into taste and into the land where the raw materials are produced.
The team
Røst is a project based on the passion, energy and expertise of three young people: the food entrepreneur Hippolyte Vautrin, the maitre Enrico Murru and the cook Lucia Gaspari. What brings them together is the vision of sustainable cooking.
The restaurant has three cornerstones:
1. Northern Italian cuisine based on traditional and ethical products.
2. Thorough research into territories to find the excellences of land and sea, in a direct relationship with local producers bypassing intermediaries.
3. A list of wines and winemakers. Røst boasts a wine list of over 200 labels and 12 winemakers whose entire production is available. The wines are all artisan and come from organic, biodynamic, natural farming. 60 % Italian, 40 % French and a select few from other countries.
Menu and formulas
The menu does away with order categories (starters, first courses, main courses, side dishes), preferring dishes to be shared freely. Small plates populate the table at random to encourage tasting and conviviality. The menu changes according to the availability of the ingredients, updated day by day. Each menu features a serial number, testifying to the freshness of the selection.
Røst collaborates and supports a network of food and wine artisans, transmitting to the public the purity and commitment of their work. The kitchen respects the work of producers who create sustainable raw materials of exceptional quality. Dishes enhance the qualities of the ingredients without intellectualism.
The interior design
Røst is designed by Vudafieri-Saverino Partners, an architecture studio based in Milan and Shanghai, with great expertise in creating new restaurant concepts. Developed over 65 sqm, the restaurant is conceived as a cozy place, between tradition and modernity. The environment is simple, without frills or artifice. The aim is to focus on the guest’s relationship with food: the atmosphere accompanies the gastronomic experience with discretion and sobriety.
The tones are warm, dominated by “Marsala” red, a colour that harks back to the fundamental relationship with wine and land. The use of material is reduced to just a few basic types (lime, brass, oak) as if they were the ingredients of a recipe on the menu. The space consists of two rooms: the main one, which gravitates around the bar counter, and a smaller one, overlooking the open kitchen. At the entrance, a wall displays the restaurant’s major players: it is the Wall of Fame, 16 ceramic plates, each representing a producer, whose space arrangement draws the ø of Røst.
Photos: Røst
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