Bentoteca Milano: The Luxury of Casual
Milan, Saturday, lunchtime. We head to Bentoteca, the relatively new concept developed by Yoji Tokuyoshi. Don’t call it ethnic, Japanese or fusion; actually don’t define it at all.
As soon as you enter what used to be the location hosting his first Michelin starred project Tokuyoshi, you perceive the vibrant energy Yoji and his team managed to create. Everything looks beautiful, elegant, well thought out; yet, there’s no trace, no shadow of that boring, austere and sometimes forcing formality that generally characterize fine dining venues.
The menu is quite slim, short, and well thought-out: from bao to gyoza, pigeon to yakisoba, passing through fried frogs and top notch raw servings. It is indeed hard to choose; so hard that, as soon as we spot the Chef from our counter seat, we communicate our desire of leaving him the free choice, basically omakase.
So the show starts with the Butaman, a piglet-head-shaped bao, stuffed with prawns, pork and mushrooms.
Now, since I am not a food critic, this doesn’t want to be a review. I won’t name any other dish or comment the meal itself. That, indeed, would just be a pretentious ego exercise, which is anyway subjective and quite unnecessary. This is rather a translation of the emotions I felt during the meal.
In fact, the reason why I named this first bite is the playful aspect of it: how seriously do you take yourself? How formal the meal must be?
It takes you immediately inside the game, makes you laugh, you almost don’t want to eat it because of its cuteness. And it might be terribly wrong but I believe the key of this restaurant, is in this first course.
Meaning: for the level of his training, ideas and especially of his outrageously crazy skills, the Chef could easily set up a “Look how great I am” menu.
But he didn’t.
The result? Interesting.
What hit us the most was indeed the enormous quantity of young costumers, a super rare happening for “Fine dining” chefs.
A lot of gluttonous and curious teenage diners, ready to taste great quality and pay a fair bill to a chef who is available, playful and alive, but nonetheless terribly serious in his intentions.
The wall of embarrassment between unripe inexpert guests and the high level kitchen is here destroyed. What a feeling to finally seat in a contemporary dynamic restaurant which is appreciated worldwide as well as in the neighbourhood.
It felt like being home, rules fell down; you eat what you want, drink what you want and you don’t get bothered by the loud table next to you, because is a joyful expression of positive energy and appreciation towards the experience itself.
After all, isn’t being distracted a sign of enjoyment? Should we always be focused on the dish?
