LUME opened its doors in Milan (Italy) in June 2016 and, with its executive chef Luigi Taglienti, it was awarded a Michelin star in November that year. In May 2017, the restaurant was voted the Best New European Restaurant at the Opinionated About Dining (OAD) Awards in Paris. The restaurant’s owner Emanuela Verlicchi Marazzi, LUME’s architect Monica Melotti and managing director Marco Bruzzi alongside highly-talented executive chef Luigi Taglienti have designed a holistic dining experience. The menus offer a combination of classic and contemporary cooking, in harmony with the intricate yet visionary design scheme of the restaurant. Within the elaborate lace-like box structure in the centre of the restaurant sits the kitchen, in which an energetic culinary instinct governs. Luigi’s creations are both modern and outwardlooking but, simultaneously, deeply-rooted in the heritage of Italian cuisine, something which he believes should never be forgotten. One of LUME’s two tasting menus includes dishes linked to Milanese gastronomic culture – Taglienti style “Ossobuco”; braised veal muzzle in spumante wine, mustard salad, cucumber and black truffle and veal in “Milanese” style, salt-baked Jerusalem artichokes with seafood salad and black truffle and tiramisu. LUIGI’S PHILOSOPHY: As well as celebrating the history of the Italian cuisine – driven by the chef’s intrinsic understanding of (and near obsession with) the history of his native country’s cooking – Luigi is also devoted to his own past and experiences. The current creativity in Luigi’s kitchen and his revolutionary style of cooking is guided by his instinct as much as by his own personal and professional background both in Italy and abroad. In addition to his time spent working with both Ezio Santin and Carlo Cracco, for example, Luigi also spent time cooking in the kitchen of French Chef Christian Willer, at the world-famous longstanding restaurant La Palme d’Or in Cannes. One particular dish that exemplifies the way in which Luigi’s experience informs his cooking today features on the new a la carte menu: bresse chicken with seaweed, stuffed morel mushrooms, chervil spider crab and albufera sauce. In this dish, the bresse chicken takes heed from Luigi’s experience in Cannes. The crab is a product of his childhood in Liguria and, representative of Italian cuisine in general, morchella mushroom is stuffed with chicken liver paté. Finally, a light version of an Albufera sauce, a classic French sauce of simple ingredients but enriched with truffle, forms a channel which links all the ingredients back together. The crucial role that the albufera sauce plays in the dish embodies a vital component of Luigi’s deeply-rooted philosophy. Throughout his menus, the sauces act as protagonists, connecting all the ingredients and enhancing them, but also as a vehicle for expression of both technique and sophistication. With every sauce, Luigi brings forward the traditional sensations found in the classic recipes and adds to them with a contemporary mark, invigorating them with acidic tones or by using complex means of flavor extraction through the use of low-temperatures. DESIGN: The restaurant was christened LUME after the warm white hues that dominate the setting. Just as modernity represents several interrelated histories, at the core of LUME’s philosophy is the recognition that memories are actualized to make up the present. The whiteness reflects the light and brightens up the room. It celebrates and enhances the past; the traditions; the histories and the experiences that are the DNA behind the restaurant’s creativity – both in terms of the food and the space. BACKGROUND TO THE W37 COMPLEX: LUME is situated within the W37 complex – a former porcelain factory from Richard Ginori that was purchased by MB America in 2014. Thanks to an extensive restoration and regeneration project led by Marco Bruzzi and Monica Melotti’s MB America, the building was then converted into a commercial and residential complex, comprised of apartments, offices and event spaces as well as LUME. The building’s structure and design has been inspired by the architect’s passion both for authentically Italian concepts but also from her experiences around the world. Having recognized Luigi as a rising culinary star in 2013, Emanuela Verlicchi Marazzi conceived the idea of LUME. The entrepreneur and President of the Filippo Marazzi Foundation has always invested in initiatives supporting young talent. Together, Emanuela Verlicchi Marazzi, Monica Melotti and Marco Bruzzi imagined a holistic vision for W37. From the renovation and requalification of the building; to the business and operations; to the brand development, at the centre of everything is a commitment to ensuring that a balance of both historical
Via Giacomo Watt, 37, 20143 Milano MI
