Chef’s Sustainable Mountain
Gian Michele Galliano
Di Newseventicomo Relazioni Pubbliche Consulting
“In my kitchen, you can breathe the forest. Through my dishes, I cook a territory: the mountains. A place where I was born and raised and which taught me how to listen and how to observe,” says chef Gian Michele Galliano, owner of Euthalia Ristorante in Vicoforte, Cuneo.
The heart of his philosophy is “kaiseki” cuisine, of Japanese derivation. In fact, after a trip to Japan, the Piedmontese chef decided to bring the style of this cuisine to his restaurant. It is a tasting menu served with many dishes in small portions; the chef has thus eliminated the menu by proposing a single tasting menu that can be divided into different courses.
This cooking philosophy avoids waste: everything that is cooked is served. In addition, the chef can work on the freshness of the product: he uses at least 95% of raw materials produced in the restaurant or within a few kilometres. He works a lot with vegetables and since he doesn’t have to follow a menu, he almost always cooks products taken from the garden or bought in the morning at the farmers’ market or from the small producers or gatherers he works with. She therefore has the possibility of choosing the best that is available at the time, respecting Mother Nature’s time.
Alongside his commitment to his land, bringing the territory and its producers to the table, Chef Galliano has also been working, especially in recent months, on the concept of “embracing nature completely”, also involving the art of the table. The chef has personally designed some of the restaurant’s furnishings, such as the tables made of solid chestnut (the wood most commonly found in the forests of the Cuneo area) treated with wax in its natural colour and presented without a tablecloth.
Linen napkins embroidered with the restaurant’s logo accompany dishes made of stone and black marble from Ormea. Skilled local stonemasons have carved unique, rustic dishes in unusual shapes. Natural” dishes and accessories with unusual shapes made of stone, wood, roots, peels, ceramics and local marble. Restaurant guests can thus enjoy a true multi-sensory experience through mountain atmospheres and an important and complete taste path aimed at introducing the cuisine of the area, which reflects the products and traditions of the Western Alps.
