夏の風物詩「アルベリーニのガーデンパーティ」 : Fogliolina della Porta Fortuna

Chef Kobayashi invited me to the summer tradition at Fogliolina della Porta Fortuna,
"Alberini's Garden Party."
The sun was strong, but the air in Karuizawa was refreshing.
We enjoyed a garden party in the Kobayashi family's backyard.
The all-you-can-drink option was fantastic!

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About a week ago, I received a call about a cancellation!
I was thrilled and couldn't wait to come.

Chef Kobayashi's dishes are absolutely delicious!
Each plate comes with a detailed explanation, but the words used are so complex that my brain struggles to keep up before it's over.
Yet the flavors are beyond words—it’s a deliciousness I can't adequately describe.

Even the champagne for our toast was infused with various spirits to enhance the flavors of the day's dishes...

This time was incredible as well...
I can't explain it well, but it was wonderful.

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It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since my last visit.
Chef Kobayashi has been through a lot, and so have I, which is why it took so long to come back.
I wasn't even sure how to make a reservation anymore, so I asked a senior colleague to help me out.

The Fogliolina della Porta Fortuna that I visited after 10 years felt timeless.
The trees and the building around it hadn’t changed at all.
If anything, the entrance tree might have grown thicker over the decade.

I greeted Chef Kobayashi and stepped inside.
Ah, it’s so nice that nothing has changed. Truly.

The interior looks exactly the same.
The quality of the dishes remains unchanged.
Chef Kobayashi hasn’t changed either.
Neither has his wife.

Even the way he explains things and his speaking style are still the same,
I thought about taking notes, but I couldn't keep up at all (laughs).

But here’s the most important part: the taste hasn’t changed a bit.
His incredible talent continues to create harmonious flavors out of complex ingredients,
and his technical skill and seasoning still produce amazing culinary works.
In fact, they feel even more refined.

It’s beyond a simple “delicious.”

I wonder when I can come back.
And how I can make a reservation...

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【Return Visit】 Four of us visited with the Bottan couple.
Kobayashi-san's dedication to flavor left us in awe... It's incredible how he comes up with such ideas!

"Aperitif"... A spumante infused with the aromas of fennel and juniper berries.

"Light Appetizer"... A fennel and pink pepper soufflé, served with a small fennel and caviar salad.
I don't usually like fennel liquor, but it was delicious when eaten straight!

"First Appetizer"... Escargot simmered with capers and served with onions.

"Second Appetizer - Soup"... A soup made with white asparagus from Bassano and Parmigiano, garnished with frog and wild asparagus. I might have had frog for the first time.
I reminisced about Discovery Channel's "Survivor Game" while eating it...

"Primo Piatto"... Orecchiette with lobster and zucchini wrapped in Tropea red onions.

"Secondo Piatto"... Veal lombata with Romanesco broccoli, served with soufflé made of artichokes and juniper berries.

"Cheese"... Grilled Tomino cheese paired with red beet.

"Dolce"... Bavarois made with three types of milk, accompanied by amanita mushrooms, pistachios, and figs.

"Petit Fours and Chocolate Treats"
The petit fours were baked with figs, apricots, and dates incorporated into the dough.

In the end, Kobayashi-san's child came to bid us farewell, and they were adorable!
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【Return Visit】Three months after my last visit, I returned with the same group of six. The snow-covered Karuizawa is lovely as well...
Once again, "Kobayashi Theater" was incredible... Everyone was blown away.

The cooking was intricate as ever, using caviar and cheese for seasoning and flavoring.
It was undeniably fascinating, something that a mere mortal like me could hardly comprehend.
This time's menu:
"Aperitif"... A sherry liqueur called "Aroma Fenista" made from wild laurel leaves from Sardinia, steeped for about six months, mixed with sparkling wine (Chardonnay 75%) produced in Lombardy.

"Light Appetizer"... A salad of two types of roasted mushrooms, trumpet and chanterelle, with North Italian salt and Tuscan olive oil at the base.
On top is Robiola cheese, aged for 60 days and made from milk from cows, sheep, and goats, also garnished with Lombardy caviar and shallots.
The richness is indescribable.
Mixing it with egg yolk pairs perfectly with hot rice, as Kobayashi-san said, "Well, it's surely delicious!"

"White Wine"... "Costa del Vento 2006," made from local Piedmont grapes Timorasso. A thick and robust wine.
Kobayashi-san noted it pairs well with all dishes—red meats at higher temperatures, chilled with seafood, and somewhere in between with vegetables.
I've never tasted such an excellent white wine.

"First Appetizer"... The meat of veal ribs topped with red Treviso radicchio from Veneto, and brined caper buds, combined with olive oil and vegetable broth, then braised in the oven.
The puree alongside it is made from the roots of chervil, shallots, garlic, and peppercorn, boiled and pureed.

"Red Wine"... Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2006, made from 100% Montepulciano grapes.

"Second Appetizer"... Garlic, shallots, and choji were sautéed, then thinly sliced lamb offal (lung part) was added and lightly grilled.
Next, the seasonal vegetable "dandelion leaves", grown in the dark and white, were mixed in, along with vegetable broth, simmered, blended, and strained into a soup.
It contains duck foie gras, diced dandelion leaves, and anise seeds. Listening to the explanation made my head spin.

"First Bread"... This bread is mixed with roasted artichokes.

"Primo Piatto, Pasta"... Handmade tagliatelle using Italian buckwheat flour, water, and salt, mixed with a stuffing of scampi from the Tyrrhenian Sea, flounder, green peas, and saffron stigmas, lightly sautéed in olive oil.
The sauce is a puree of a cheese called Fontina made from cow's milk.

"Secondo Piatto"... The main dish is pigeon risotto.
The breast of French pigeon was seared at high heat and sliced. The risotto was made with sautéed rice incorporating pigeon offal (heart, gizzard, liver) and thigh meat, cooked with pigeon bone broth.
Thinly sliced black truffle was placed on top for aroma, and the sauce made of garlic, shallots, vegetable broth, and the yolk of the hoot owl egg was pureed.

"Second Bread"... Mixed in is lardone, a cured pork backfat.

"Cheese Dish"... Bitter radicchio from Verona was cut into wedges and roasting with salt and olive oil, combined with 30-day-aged Tomino cheese from Piedmont, a white mold cheese.

"Rum"... Aged for 20 years in barrels, from Dillon, Martinique island in the Caribbean. The flavor and taste are so refined that I feel it is meant to be enjoyed at this moment.

"Dessert, Part 1"... Chocolate baked sweets. The dough is prepared with chocolate, cake flour, eggs, and cane sugar, with chocolate and chopped truffle inside. The soup surrounding it is flavored with rum and passion fruit, which is absorbed into the dessert.

"Dessert, Part 2"... Petit fours and chocolate treats. The petit fours, soaked with the dessert wine from Montenegro called Amaro, contain dried figs, apricots, and small raisins.
The chocolate treat is cocoa chocolate mixed with mascarpone cheese and honey-cooked lemon peels.

It was so extraordinary that I might dream about it.

Of course, I made a reservation for next time, but until then, I wonder if I'll want to eat Italian elsewhere...
Ahh, but Bottan-san is such a food lover.