With his Trippa in Milan, Diego Rossi has revolutionised the concept of trattoria as regards product and tradition but with the freedom to modernize the recipes. His vitello tonnato siphon is the best example.

The chef of Trippa (Milan, Italy) revealed the work carried out in the restaurant in order to “renew the image of cheap premises and plenty of quantity and poor quality attributed to the classic Italian trattorias. “It’s the most popular type of restaurant in Italy but it has a poor image. We wanted to give it back its value, return to the origin of cooking, back to the grandmothers, always using the best of the season’s ingredients”. The latter, of course, 100% Italian, with the knowledge of their provenance and producer.  

Shining up the format and reclaiming its provenance to modernize. Diego Rossi respects tradition but intends on improving it. This is the primary objective of Trippa, demonstrated with his vitello tonnato. “I don’t particularly like vitello tonnato and I looked for a way to improve it without taking away its traditional taste. He did so by cooking the meat at low temperature and applying the tonnata sauce with a siphon, thereby achieving a higher dish, more structured and with a texture different to the original dish.

Trippa’s second objective: Create dishes where the vegetable rules, with meat or fish as accompaniment. The example is boiled garlic shoots boiled and seasoned with lake sarda cream, a dish which is completed with egg yolks, a dish of ingredients “not commonly seen in Italian cuisines”. And the third objective: Freedom, for example using offal when needed. The example is a tartar of old sheep, seasoned combined in the saucepan with lamb brains, thyme, bay leaf, anchovy water, mint and hot chilli. 

The Veronese chef bid farewell making a call on sustainability, particularly human: “Restaurant staff should only work 8 hours a day. If we spend 18, we don’t have a life”. The auditorium burst into applause.