Driiiin. «Hallo Antonio, how are you? Is the service ok? How about the prices? Did you include some new dishes in the menu?». The person calling is Mauro Colagreco and on this side of the telephone there’s the Italian co-chef at Mirazur in Mentone, the fourth restaurant in the world (and first in France) according to the latest 50Best.
The long distance call from the Argentinian patron-chef is more and more frequent as the number of parallel restaurant increases. Some already open: in China (Unico in Shanghai and Le Siècle in Nanchang), in Paris (Brasserie Grandcoeur) and in the mother country (Carne Hamburgesas in Buenos Aires and in La Plata). Some soon to be opened: a restaurant inside the airport of Nice (ready in 2018) and one in the Casino in Mentone.
This absence is painless, as there’s a team, looking over the flagship restaurant on the French-Ligurian border, where most components speak Italian. Key people: the co-chef answering the phone, Neapolitan Antonio Buono, the silent alter ego of Colagreco; Milanese saucier Davide Garavaglia and pastry chef Roberta Gesualdo. Plus a whole series of chef de partie and dining room commis that makes the “Italy” sign that can be seen from the large windows relais&chateaux seem even closer.
At Mirazur Italian is spoken in the dining room too: in the photo by Matteo Carassale, Sara Piantoni from Bordighera (instagram/restaurantmirazur)
Despite directing operations
in absentia, people only know the
nomen omen of
Buono («I always preferred to put words into action», he warns us too). We try to hunt him down: «I worked close to home for a while, in Cava de’ Tirreni, at
Pappacarbone. Then I spent a long time at
Santi Santamaria’s
Can Fabes when
Xavier Pellicer was the chef [he then moved to
Abac and is now at
Céleri in Barcelona]. We were making
Santi’s traditional cuisine as well as a few modern dishes».
He first arrived at
Mirazur in 2012: «The time had come for some experience in France. I dined here with journalist
Enzo Caldarelli. I immediately found
Colagreco’s style striking: vegetables, fruit, proteins. I asked him to work here». Five years later, he looks at the co-chef stripes. Every morning he crosses the border and goes to the market in Ventimiglia, a precious source of peas, leeks and shallots that he adds to the vegetables from the property’s kitchen garden. And every day he organises the brigade and supervises each cooking procedure, strictly classic: «Here we only cook the
ancienne way, no vacuum cooking».
Two new openings coming up for Mauro Colagreco: at the airport in Nice and inside the Casino in Mentone
With him there’s friend and colleague
Davide Garavaglia from Corbetta, previously working with
Davide Oldani and
Pierre Gagnaire (
Sketch in London) and now in charge of all the sauces at
Mirazur at only 28: he’s the one who takes care of the
sauce au caviar for the
Crapaudine Beetroot, currently the most famous dish in the menu.
«In the past few years», continues Buono, «our cooking has changed a lot in terms of technique and flavour. Every time the chef returns from his travels, he makes us discover unseen products, new flavours. He has an excellent, well-trained palate». This is why, for instance, one can notice an increasingly stronger Asian touch in the menu. «We’ve learnt a lot from the four-handed dinners organised last year to celebrate the restaurant’s tenth anniversary. For instance, from Rene Redzepi’s brigade we understood what a terrific organisation in the kitchen is like».
It’s no bed of roses, though: «The pressure is always very high, much more than in Italy, and much higher recently. Everyone arrives with the highest expectations. And of course not everyone will like you: those who love classic French restaurants often don’t appreciate our cooking. But we know that it’s a bit like in Naples: if you like thin pizza, it’s not likely you’ll fancy pizza gruossa».
Mirazur
Avenue Aristide Briand, 30
Mentone, France
+33.(0)4.92418686
Closed on Monday and Tuesday; never in August.
Only tasting menus: Decouverte (3 courses, 65 euros), Inspiration (110 euros), Carte Blanche (160 euros), Signature (210).
See also
Colagreco: my 10 years of freedom by Carlo Passera
Mirazur on the Guida di Identità Golose by Tokyo Cervigni
