Italy trip, Oct 2007 - Flipot

The Slow Food movement was born in Piedmont. It is supposed to be the land of good regional cooking.

We took the chance to visit a very well known restaurant in a small village, the two-Michelin starred Flipot.

Our B&B host has studied under the head chef at the Pinerolo cooking academy, we had high hopes.

Our first impressions:

• The waiter and waitresses don't speak any English. Sadly, my Italian skill is non-existent. They brought out a Japanese training chef but we are not Japanese!!! :)
• The waitresses speak very good French though.
• They gave SP a gentleman's menu and I had the lady's menu with non prices against the dishes!
• The Flipot hotel is very old, but the restaurant is nicely decorated.
• Walter, the head chef, came and greeted us. He walked through the menu with us in English. Lucky us! We decided to try the white truffle.

The bread is quite ordinary looking.

The appetiser is tempura fish with tomato. The fish is not very crunchy and I am not a fan of tomato.

The entree of fish pieces in jelly and tomato pieces, served with lettuce with balsamic. It is a very appetising dish. There is a little too much tomato but the combination was good.

The waitress then came around and showed us the white truffle.

White truffle with sunny-side up! The white truffle smells very good but I can't taste it as well as I could smell it. Maybe it's too early in the season, or maybe because I got motion sickness on the way to the restaurant (the restaurant is in a small village in a valley). SP thinks it's very good, until we were charged €120 for the dish! We were totally ripped off!

SP had the chicken breast with nuts, stuffing and salad (Petto di Galetto in Costaa di pane Aroma tizzato alle Erbe al Burro di Nicciola). The chicken is very tender and tasty. There is no sauce but the chicken was flavoursome. This is how chicken should taste like!

I had the variations of foie gras. (Variazone di Fegato Grasso D'oca). The scalope of foie gras is excellent. The foie gras was fried toast was tasty. It was not too salty or runny. The toast is a little rich(oily?). The foie gras with sesame is nice with strong sesame flavour. The foie gras mousse with apple and beetroot is very refreshing.

The same dish from a different angle.

Our wine.

Roasted quail with risotto (Risotto Mantecato alle Quaglie Arrostite). The quail meat was juicy and very tender. The risotto is less 'cooked' than the ones that SP prepared. There is no doubt which version is more authentic. The sauce is 'meaty' and it goes well with the rice.

Drinking out of the beautiful Spiegelau wine glass

We then went onto tea and coffee as we were too full and sleepy to have dessert. It was already late and it was a long drive home. For some reason, they offered 3 types of sugar to go with your tea/coffee. It's all too technical.

They were a bit late in bringing out the sweets tray. I only squeezed one of the chocolate torte into my stomach and it was soooo good. I considered doggy-bagging them! hahaha.

The food was pretty good, though I think it is a borderline two Michelin stars restaurant. There is no doubt that the ingredients are the best, but the taste doesn't set any special impressions. Maybe this is Piedmontese cooking.

The service is also so-so. Nothing spectacular.

Of course, there is still the fact that they overcharged us on the truffle dish.