Helmed by one of Italy’s best chefs, Le Calandre is worth the detour to this modern Italian restaurant located in Rubano, on the outskirts of Padua. This was possibly the most fun 3-star Michelin experience I’ve had because the staff were incredibly fun and witty, very much in line with their boss, and the food was good, modern and yet, not too precious. Given the chance I would definitely come back here again.
We made the one hour drive to Le Calandre from Verona. We figured that we would be unlikely to return to this part of Italy for some time and wanted to make the most of our trip. Admittedly, Max (Massimiliano) Alajmo is less well known than restaurant-of-the-moment Osteria Francescana’s Massimo Bottura, but I think it’s unfair to make comparisons as I’m sure their cuisine and styles are different.
Modern Italian but Close to Tradition
I’d describe Le Calandre’s food as modern Italian but some items, such as the risotto are very close to their traditional roots while being close to Venice, means a focus on seafood. My personal preference has always been for dishes that are modern interpretations of traditional dishes but that the food should still be recognizable. I think Le Calandre fits nicely into this category. I subsequently found out that Aimo Moroni, the chef-founder of my favourite restaurant in Milan, Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia, had influenced Max Alajmo and it does appear they do share the same sort of sensitivities in their light approach and focus on the ingredients.
And I think it keeps the experience grounded. We came for an enjoyable experience and this restaurant certainly supplied us with a lot more fun than we would ever expect. This naturally is due to the interactions the diners have with the servers and we chose to kid around a bit. What was nice is that their sommelier, Ruben, who was also our server was incredibly witty with his retorts. We noted that despite the rather austere and pristine appearance of the restaurant initially, there was a great sense of humour that seemed to run through the entire team. The black & white photos in the bathroom clearly demonstrated this.
Max Alajmo is certainly creative and artistic and probably very precise – we see this in the glassware that he has designed for the restaurant. The dining tables sink in the middle to a dent that fits a ball of yarn. Max sees the ball of yarn as symbolic of the shared experience of cuisine. Ruben describes his boss as a “romantic”. In Le Calandre’s award winning cookbook (which is a great coffee table book), Max says he wants his “cuisine to be positive” and this is probably the most apt description of our lunch.
Our Meal:
We had the five-course meal priced at EUR200 per person and happily left the selection of dishes to Ruben. This gave us an introduction to the restaurant and its better known dishes. One of the nice touches after the long drive to the restaurant was that on the table as we sat were two savoury pastries and a folded linen pocket containing amazing crisp bread. Then came fresh from the oven loaves of bread. So immediately, there’s something to nibble on.
The amuse bouche in itself was tasty with impressive ingredients – particularly the raw langoustine in saffron cream.
For our first course, we were a bit perplexed originally by the clear cellophane sheet that became our placemat. It turned out that this would be the plate for our appetisers, four bite sized items arranged neatly on the cellophane. Of the four my favourite was the springy, glass-like pasta cooked in mushroom broth served with mushrooms and raw lobster in a light almond sauce. Next to the noodle pictured below is the raw Piemontese beef in a curry sauce with a black rice cracker.
Our second appetiser is one of the restaurant’s signatures. It comes served on another sheet of cellophane with the words “first taste” written on it. Ruben explained that this was meant to evoke the warmth of feeling from a child’s first meal. Alas, we collectively decided our food memories were not as extensive as Max Alajmo’s. In anycase, this was an excellent starter with a layer of chopped squid and squid ink topped with potato cream and drizzled with olive oil served in a clear glass cup and looking like a cappuccino.
Much of the crockery is designed by Max. I was impressed by the pasta plate, which comes with the dent that makes in easier to twirl the noodles on the fork. And it did work! The spaghetti was served in a skate (fish) milk sauce, mixed with bortaga, black olives and raw mantis prawns. Excellent! The pasta is made by Cavalieri, a brand known for its traditional, artisanal production methods and which Ruben tells us the best pasta maker in the world.
The next dish had two and a half parts. It centers on the saffron risotto that Le Calandre is highly known for. The story goes that when Max first took over the restaurant’s kitchen, his first interpretation of the saffron risotto included a dusting of liquorice powder (pictured earlier). Subsequently, a revisit of the dish added juniper broth. We ate the original first then had the upgrade. While the original was good, the additional of the juniper picked up the taste even more. It was very interesting. And then for a group photo op, they brought out the pan for us to pick up all the nicely crisp bottom bits of the risotto.
Our main course was a nice delicately pan fried line-caught turbot and accompanied with a “white carrot” (parsnip) sauce and a sprinkling of bortaga. It was accompanied with lightly battered fried artichoke (like tempura). Delicious way of cooking the artichoke.
Onto dessert. I thought the first item may have been our petits fours. It was skewers of different fruit based items but obviously more complex. The grape was particularly interesting. It had been marinated in bergamot and there was a carbonated fizziness on the first bite. There was fig with vanilla, pineapple with aniseed and a pan forte. Our second dessert was tiramisu but enhanced – very creamy and extra crispy.
So this was our tour of Le Calandre’s cuisine. Our dishes were from a mix of its classic and new menus an this worked out well for our initial visit. I would love to go back and try the other new menus, particularly the “Max” menu. The Alajmo group has opened/oversees a few more restaurants including Michelin 1-star Quadri in Venice and Cafe Stern in Paris and associated bistros. Max Alajmo is obviously getting busier and we were lucky to have encountered him in the kitchen in Le Calandre during our visit.
Reservations to all the group’s restaurants including Le Calandre is available on their website. Le Calandre itself is only open Tuesday to Saturday for dinner and Wednesday to Saturday for lunch.