Review: Sanbrite
Address: Località Alverà, 32043 Cortina d'Ampezzo BL, Italy
Michelin Stars: 1 and 1 Green Star
Overall Experience: 9/10
SanBrite restaurant in Cortina d'Ampezzo, with Chef Riccardo Gaspari's culinary mastery, is a hidden gem that should be on every food lover's bucket list. We visited SanBrite with the expectation to try some of the most interesting culinary experiences in the world, and we nailed it.
The SanBrite is a one Michelin star restaurant, located in the Dolomites Alps, 10 minutes from the city center of Cortina d’Ampezzo. As conscious travelers we always research and support sustainable experiences and this restaurant is one of the best in the world for sustainable gastronomy. The SanBrite is specialized in regenerative cuisine, intended as taking care of the territory, respect the exchange between human and nature and accept the cyclic repeating of seasons and their products. The Michelin guide awarded the restaurant in 2021, on top of the Michelin star awarded in 2020, with one Green Star, a new award dedicated to those restaurants that are particularly focused on sustainability.
The intimate, refined dining room with a warm ambiance makes for an unforgettable dining experience. Chef Gaspari's culinary philosophy is focused on locally sourced, seasonal ingredients that are transformed into stunning dishes. Each course is a delicate balance of flavor, texture, and artistry, perfectly paired with an impressive wine list that will complement every dish. The focus of the restaurant is to share traditions, but mostly the way of life of this land, this ecosystem, the mountains, and the woods.
The experience is a storytelling of the ingredients that surround the farmhouse, meat, and milk in particular. The chef Riccardo Gaspari comes from a family of breeders and cheesemakers. Along with meat and milk, the products come from their garden and the surrounding woods. Everything is cultivated locally and most of the products are exclusive to that landscape.
On their website, the chef states: “Here's the secret: the tradition of milk milked in the morning, the taste of a pine, the smell of a goat. The secret to my recipes is that ingredients are created first, and then the dish is composed. This bond holds the different aspects of my life together and allows me to pass on this story. Cooking means transforming the smell of the woods into an experience for the palate and the soul. It means expressing my feelings through my dishes, guiding people through my hands, and carrying them into my world. What I care for. Being in contact with the matter that I will use in my recipes. Witnessing its creation, touching it, raising it, giving it the importance it deserves. My luck. Eating means feeling the mountains. The mountains, my mountains, which I love because of their rough inspiring taste. In its evocative silence. My innovation. My wife. It's just thanks to her that I decided to make cooking my job. My roots. Being my guest means giving me the opportunity to build my heritage. The story my daughters will tell. The things that I ate. That my father ate. That my grandfather ate. The things you are going to eat.”
We chose the full experience with the complete degustation menu called “Sentieri”.
Entering the portion of the farmhouse dedicated to the restaurant, we immediately felt like entering an old “cantina”, with prosciutti and salami hanging from the ceiling, all housemade production of the SanBrite, and a lot of herbs and woods in the furniture and decorations. The dining room is pretty small, with just a few tables, the atmosphere was a little excessively quiet, almost not making you feel fully comfortable to have a conversation at your table. This I would say is the only negative note of the whole experience, when we visited the general atmosphere didn’t reflect the spirit of the brand, and the whole dinner felt a little stiff and not relaxed. The prestige of a place should never take away from the customer’s experience.
The menu “Sentieri” is almost underpriced for the quality and abundance of the 12 dishes served, including dessert and pre-dessert. The whole menu aims to take you on a journey in the mountain’s woods, into the flavors and smells of Alpine nature.
The journey begins with the Herbarium, a raw taste of berries, leaves and small fruits that will characterize the following dishes: barberry, wild juniper, stone pine, cranberry, pine bud. Intense and irreplicable flavors that immediately transport you in a enchanted tale. After the conceptual degustation we quickly get into the substance with an outstanding fresh whipped butter, production of the father of chef Gaspari, served on a stone and accompanied by homemade bread. All followed by the locally made salumi (shoulder, pancetta, and speck).
Entering into the core of the journey we start with Salmerino, salsa yuzu e champagne, a cold water fish native to the Alpine lakes, acidic notes alternate a remarkable sapidity, exploring a less known aspect of the mountain. Immediately follow by the cavolfiore, or cauliflower, this dish puts the focus on the reduction of environmental impact and waste. The dish is perfect, extremely complex and with multi-layers of consistency.
The signature dish is without any doubt the Spaghetto al pino mugo, which is translated as mountain pine spaghetti. This masterpiece is capable to translate into a pasta dish the aroma and essence of the Dolomites. With a pungent and wild flavor, you can taste the woods in each bite, without getting overwhelmed by it, a perfect execution of natural flavors and balance.
Game and researched meat cuts complete the dishes that conclude the savory part of this intense path through the woods flavors. Before the dessert, you can make your own Ricotta at the table and enjoy it with homemade local jams. The Sottobosco is a perfect pre-dessert, a bold dive into the most direct flavors of the nature, pine, pollen, moss with vanilla ice cream. Intense, cleans and dries the palate for the final dish: the dessert.
SanBrite is a must-visit for anyone looking for a gourmet experience in Cortina d'Ampezzo, and Chef Gaspari's creative culinary talent makes this restaurant a true standout.
