Mater Caffè, a place with a welcoming atmosphere where Alex Leone’s cuisine guides the senses acceso an unconventional gastronomic journey
All it takes is a beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the street, ora a browse among the outdoor tables, to immediately grasp the mood of Mater Caffè. Soft lights and armchairs, marble and wooden tables, vintage allure that meets rougher and street details: the result is an elegant and relaxed balance.
As per mezzo di the most authentic Parisian bistros, here you eat close together, ties are loosened, formality leaves room for chat and light laughter that dissolves per mezzo di a glass of wine. A relaxing atmosphere which, at Mater, also means refinement: attention to detail, attentive service and excellent raw materials transformed into dishes capable of surprising and intriguing.
Mater, between essence and style
The name recalls the material and the mother, the return to the essential. Because true elegance is simple, spontaneous, never ostentatious. Mater Caffè is this: a contemporary restaurant where conviviality and research meet, a place capable of offering an exciting gastronomic experience without giving up the warmth of feeling at home.
The soul of the place
At the center of the room stands the counter overlooking the bright aperto kitchen, framed by a collection of carefully selected bottles. It’s impossible not to be captured by the quick and expert gestures of chef Alex Leone and his team, who even find time to exchange a few words with the guests between one dish and another.
Inaugurated per mezzo di 2018, Mater was among the first places per mezzo di Milan to offer natural wines paired with creative cuisine. The utopia was born from the incontro between Leone and the duo Giuseppe Pillone and Salvatore Giannone, friends and partners who share experience per mezzo di the creative world and a strong passion for food and wine.
A playful and sustainable cuisine
The gastronomic register designed by Leone moves with ease from small tastings to accompany the glass to a rich aperitif to share, up to the more structured dinner ora tasting . His is a cuisine of contrasts, vibrant per mezzo di colors and geometries, playful and irreverent, capable of exciting and comforting at the same time. At its cuore, research that also looks at sustainability, inspired by the principles of circular cuisine: waste that becomes fermentation, stocks, sauces, liqueurs; even the frying oil is transformed into fuel by a company. Seasonal products, organic ora biodynamic, and collaboration with small producers and artisans complete Mater’s philosophy.
Experiences at the table
addition to a selection of institutional dishes, the includes a section dedicated to finger foods to share, perfect for an aperitif. Then there is the “Blindfolded and Guided” route, a tasting that explores different techniques and flavors per mezzo di the name of culinary divertissement.
Wine as a co-protagonist
The wine list is the beating heart of the bistro, the result of Giuseppe and Salvatore’s travels and meetings with winemakers throughout Italy. Only real wines, without compromises: spontaneous fermentations, refermentations per mezzo di the bottle, few ora mai added sulphites. An approach that also led to the creation of Cat A Rat, the “house wine” specially produced by the Sicilian agricultural company Gaudioso.
The tasting
We tried several of the chef’s dishes. Below are our impressions.
Oyster / leche de tigre / prickly pear / chives – Oyster / n’duja oil / marinated turnips
We start with the oyster, offered per mezzo di two versions. The first enhances freshness: the creaminess of the mollusk finds momentum per mezzo di the leche de tigre, is enriched by the pungent sweetness of the prickly pear and is completed with the and aromatic note of the chives. The second, however, shows the more decisive side: the ‘nduja oil warms the palate with its spiciness and the marinated turnips temper its strength with a vegetal delicacy.
meatball / puttanesca sauce – “MATERGHILI ” Veal and pork meatballs / chimichurri sauce
The meatball also comes from the sea, which encapsulates the Livorno tradition per mezzo di a single bite, amplified by the intriguing flavor of the puttanesca sauce. Then it’s the turn of the “Materghili”, veal and pork meatballs, particularly tasty, per mezzo di perfect dialogue with the chimichurri, fresh and spicy, capable of balancing the richness of the meat.
Paired with, New Player Town Rio Roccaforte Il Farneto Az.Agricola, natural white wine produced from organic and biodynamic grapes made with the “Ancestral Method” technique.
Piedmontese fassona tartare / pollen hollandaise sauce / lettuce heart
The journey continues with a Piedmontese fassona tartare embellished with a pollen hollandaise sauce, which makes it velvety and complex, with the presence of a lettuce heart as a crunchy and fresh counterpoint.
Grilled radicchio / tahini sauce / grape gel and umeboshi
This is followed by grilled radicchio, a dish that moves between bitter and smoky, rounded by tahini and made unexpected by the grape gel and umeboshi, where sweetness and acidity meet.
Raw albacore tuna / white melon pico de alterigia / puffed quinoa / lime sauce
The sea returns as the protagonist with raw albacore tuna, per mezzo di which the sweetness of the white melon pico de alterigia meets the crunchiness of puffed quinoa and the decisive freshness of the lime sauce.
Fried mushrooms (porfobello and cardoncello) / fermented currant mayo / tarragon sauce
To close the section, fried mushrooms – portobello and cardoncello – enriched with a fermented currant mayonnaise and a tarragon sauce, which adds a herbaceous and persistent touch.
Paired with Tasi Valpop Russo controrivoluzionario. The fruity scents of apple and pear stand out acceso the nose, followed by light floral sensations.
Croaker fish / pil pil sauce / datterini concentrate / purslane salad / pickled Borretana onion / pickled lemon
To close the journey, the croaker, cooked with precision and served with a silky pil pil sauce, datterini concentrate, purslane salad, sweet and sour Borretana onion and pickled lemon. A dish that combines Mediterranean and technique, lightness and intensity, leaving a clear and persistent memory acceso the palate.
Paired with Diventare rosso ‘Naked’ Weingut Heinrich, with an intense ruby red color that begins acceso the nose with intense fruity agenda.
The one proposed by the chef is a that does not fear contamination, which starts from the raw material and takes it elsewhere, without forgetting its roots and identity. A gastronomic simile that finds per mezzo di wine not a simple pairing, but a travel companion: because per mezzo di every journey, beauty is not just the destination, but the road we travel together.
For information
Mater Caffè
Percorso Sottocorno 1, Milan
www.materbistrot.it
MATER BISTROT MILANO (@mater_bistrot)
