Chef on the rise with lacustrine fish

Ca' Mia is not just a restaurant, it is a tasting experience to be enjoyed. We find it at Via Cascinette 1 in Alserio, a pleasant town in the province of Como surrounded by nature and surrounded by three lakes Alserio, Como and Pusiano. Here we were delighted by lake fish and game from the area cooked with herbs such as rue, sorrel, and bear garlic; cheeses such as Valtellina Matusc, a delicacy that comes from the Orobic goat. Ca' Mia represents a return to the origins, a celebration of an essentiality of the cuisine of the soul. In this context, the value of family is manifested through the gestures of a composed and empathetic dining room and of the kitchen as a refuge and place where family traditions merge with research. Delicate flavors, delicious wines and cozy ambience make the Brianza restaurant a must-try destination. One tip is to reach the location from the provincial road and not from the narrow streets of the old village. Chef Simone Tanzi, son of owner Antonio, tells us his story and some of his precious secrets in the kitchen.
Young chef but with important eperiences to his credit. Can you tell us about yourself? 
After finishing hotel school, after a few internships, I worked in the kitchen of one of the world's leading chefs George Blanc. There I learned the meaning of the word speed. Back in Italy I stayed at Antonia Klugman's Argine a Vencò and at Materia with Davide Caranchini. Having completed these forging experiences, I returned to Brianza, my homeland, where I offer innovative cuisine.
Why did you give the restaurant the dialect name Ca' Mia?
We live in a town where the inhabitants are rather closed to opening horizons to new cuisines. We have tried to create a place where we feel welcomed and listened to as in a real home and where we eat well while bringing something special into the lives of the diners who sit at our table. The family management of a restaurant with shared values helps create a unique dining experience that conveys a sense of warmth and welcome. Fortunately, ingenuity and creativity are not replicable by artificial intelligence. In an age when technology accelerates the pace of daily life, human connection becomes even more valuable. 
How do you differentiate yourselves from the local concurrence?
We do not cook fish from the sea but only from the lake. Silurus, which must be strictly small, comes from local fishermen, trout, char, pikeperch, tench, perch and missoltino have always been lake dwellers but known, treated and ennobled still by few. Lake garum, fillets cured in miso or oils made from the bones are just some of the preparations aimed at using all the elements of the fish itself. 
What are your secrets?
I experiment with vegetables in desserts and fruits in savory dishes. Example sweet with Endive, potatoes with buckwheat. It is important to surprise the customer and change the menu every season, but above all to create relationships in the area with some local producers who are interesting, professional and maybe little known. I aim for a network of excellence that allows you to offer a gastronomic journey from Italy to France and then fly to Asia. The vast world of fermentations, especially lactofermentations and koji itself, are techniques present in almost every menu to search for a precise sensation or, as in the case of oxidized boar salami garum, to recover and enhance certain raw materials. One of my favorite ingredients is pickles, the acidic part of the ingredient, the flavor changes, gives a commensurate cleanliness to each bite, and always remains one step away from excess. 
Iconic dishes?
Pâté En Croûte and Koji (rice koji with a terrine of chicken, pork, and chicken livers), linguine butter sour and missoltino, layered carpaccio sturgeon, foie gras and champagne sauce, and zabaglione, mushrooms and white chocolate (cold marsala eggnog, white chocolate ice cream, dried and syrupy mushrooms, and toffee sauce).
The wines? You have among your staff a young and knowledgeable sommelier Gianluca Redaelli.
The wine must be recognizable make you perceive every organoleptic characteristic. We have about a hundred labels: 70 percent Italy, 20 percent France and 10 percent the rest of the world. What we drink must be in complete synergy with what we eat.
Dream in the drawer?
Opening an osteria in Mariano Comense where grandpa's grocery store used to be; we already have the walls, it's about investing in a new business. An osteria with old barrels, a simple place where we can be comfortable conversing in friendship and savoring dishes like saffron risotto and cutlet, cossouela, tripe, pajata, lampredotto. Deluxu.it Copyright