Langosteria St. Moritz has just reopened for its second season. The acclaimed Milanese fine-dining brand will bring the style founded by Enrico Buonocore to the Swiss peaks for winter 2023-24, a few steps from the famous Engadine ski slopes. Once again, it will be possible to live the Langosteria experience surrounded by snow in an enchanting and evocative landscape, with the same attention to detail and hospitality as the other restaurants in the group.
Langosteria St. Moritz: the new season begins
The St. Moritz location represents another piece of the mosaic that characterises the brand's international expansion. After four Milanese locations and a summer outpost in splendid Paraggi Bay in Portofino, the Langosteria concept has arrived in Paris, while future openings are expected in London at OWO in 2024 and at The Raleigh Hotel in Miami in 2026.
Langosteria St. Moritz's collaboration with the Deodato Gallery
Among the new features of Langosteria St. Moritz is a collaboration with the Deodato Gallery: a partnership between hospitality and art destined to leave its mark throughout the winter. The company, which operates in the contemporary art market and specialises in street and pop art (and has a gallery in St. Moritz), will take care of the staging of Langosteria in the Engadine.
The idea? To experience art in a fine-dining context: the works will change periodically, to always tell new stories. Two works were chosen for the vernissage: The Book of Love by David Kracov, and Snow Day by the famous photographer David LaChapelle. Two masterpieces with a fairytale mood in line with the atmosphere of Langosteria St. Moritz.
Langosteria St. Moritz: the gastronomic offering
At the kitchen's helm is chef Antonio D'Ambrosio, under the supervision of Domenico Soranno, Culinary Ambassador of the group. “He is my mentor, I worked with him for a very long time until I became Executive Chef three years ago,” says D'Ambrosio. Born in 1993, he is the youngest of Langosteria's executive chefs. “I have been working for the group for seven years. Before that, I was at Il Gabbiano, a historic restaurant in Civitanova Marche, and before that, I went to Italo Veneziano in Formia, the city where I attended hotel school,” says D'Ambrosio, who is originally from Orta di Atella, a small town between Caserta and Naples. “After graduating and my experiences in central Italy, I arrived in Milan. There I worked at the Langosteria in via Savona, then at the Caffè, then I left for Langosteria Paris, where I did various seasons."
Now we find him in St Moritz. “For each location, Langosteria inserts a different dish that can only be found on the menu of that location. In the case of St. Moritz, it is polenta with seafood and basil, a recipe that was born here,” explains D'Ambrosio. So, alongside raw fish and signature dishes such as the legendary paccheri with sea bass, here is a dish dedicated to the ‘Pearl of the Alps’, Engadine. “It is a polenta taragna made with cheese and basil and, to close the dish, we add chopped squid, scampi, prawns, mussels and clams. Everything is flavoured with a clove of garlic, oil, chilli pepper, sautéed and placed on the polenta”.
How was this dish created? “I developed it together with chef Domenico Soranno, who forms the basis of the Langosteria gastronomic line,” he says. “The recipe was born thinking about a northern ingredient such as polenta, a typical mountain dish, which we revisited in our way, with a fishy twist. Few present it like this." A tasty and comforting dish, perfect for warming up after a cold winter day on the slopes.
The secret of the recipe? “We put a cherry tomato brunoise, to give a little umami, to strengthen the flavour of the fish. We make a mixture with the seafood, to allow you to eat the polenta with a spoon and perceive all the elements in a single bite. We studied this recipe for a long time, after several tests and collective tastings by the team. Everyone finds a weak point and the recipe gets better and better until it reaches perfection,” explains D'Ambrosio. “We have almost 40 dishes on the menu and we sell them all in the same way, but polenta is the classic starter for those arriving on skis and wanting to warm up quickly from the cold temperatures outside”.