Julie Andrieu’s good Italian addresses
In Florence
The Ortone : quality cuisine, reasonable price. Next to the market.
“I really like L’Ortone, next to the market. It is not necessarily in the busiest tourist center, but often it is the guarantee of quality cuisine, not too expensive. It’s not very cheap, but compared to the quality, it’s a really reasonable price. There, I like pici, which are these large, somewhat thick spaghetti typical of Siena, which you find almost everywhere in Italy. I like to taste the Florentine bistecca, it is the T-bone or the prime rib according to the chefs, cooked on the embers. They also have coccoli, these are small balls of fried bread that are served as an aperitif and that are dipped in very sticky cheese called stracchino. »
Antico fattore : the institution. Traditional cuisine.
“It’s really the institution where many painters went. Today, obviously, there are quite a few tourists, but the cuisine is very traditional. It’s a rustic, quite peasant cuisine from Tuscany, ennobled through the restaurant but it remains very peasant roots. There are many soups including this wonderful soup in Tuscany called ribollita (“reboiled” in French), a soup made from beans, savoy cabbages and bread. We use a lot of bread in the kitchen there. This soup is very good when made well.
There are a lot of pastas, including game, wild boar, mushrooms and chestnuts. Tuscan cuisine is quite forest cuisine.
In Milan
Ratana : very intelligent bistronomy, respectful of traditions and products.
“We went to Ratana: he is a fairly contemporary chef, Cesare Battisti, quite well known in Italy, who modernizes the cuisine while being respectful of traditions and products. I ate an exceptional Milanese risotto there. There are also some very interesting desserts. It’s truly intelligent bistronomy, very mastered. »
Locanda Perbellini : chef’s cuisine, very close to the roots.
“It’s chef’s cuisine, always very close to the roots. I ate an anthology millefeuille there. We imagine that mille-feuille is exclusively French, but in fact, we find it everywhere in Italy. A very beautiful coteletta, the Milanese chop, literally. This is what we call Milanese escalope, over there, they call it coteletta because there is always a bone attached to this famous escalope. There, she is very good. »
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In Rome
Salvatore di Matteo : very good pizzas.
“From Rome, we really start to have legitimacy in terms of pizza. Because it’s still a Southern dish. Pizza is Naples. In Rome, we also have a thinner version of pizza. To find some, there is an interesting restaurant, Salvatore di Matteo. »
Marzapane : signature restaurant, quite creative.
“A quite creative restaurant, an author’s restaurant, next to Piazza del Popolo. Quite charming little restaurant with quite modern decor that I really liked. There are lots of vegetables. It’s creative without being completely lost in the creation. It’s nice. »
Osteria La Quercia : traditional dishes, in a refined decor.
“Traditional dishes, but in a decor that is a little more modern, more refined than the basic trattorias. Very good pasta, very good cacio e pepe, it’s a bit of a Roman specialty. »
Trattoria Vecchia Roma : cellar restaurant, in the basement. Traditional, not very expensive. Buccatini alla matriciana, flambéed in a wheel of pecorino.
“It’s a basement restaurant, in a cellar, which is very welcoming. The pizzas are very good. There is also a lot of traditional pasta, it’s not very expensive. We notably have the buccatini all’amatriciana, a typically Roman dish, which they flambé in a wheel of pecorino. It’s really very good. It’s quite touristy but it’s worth it. »
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In Venice
Antiche Carampane : the typical quality trattoria. San Polo district.
“In Venice, there is a restaurant that I particularly like, Antiche Carampane. It’s really the typical quality trattoria, which doesn’t shy away from it. The only problem with this place is that you have to book well in advance because it gets a bit crowded. It’s family friendly, very well maintained, in a not too touristy area, there is a nice little terrace. In the San Polo district, not very far from the Rialto, but still a little sheltered from tourist routes. It’s neither expensive nor cheap, a little above the standard because it’s still very good cuisine. »
Alle Testiere : seasonal, market cuisine next to the Rialto.
“Another, slightly more creative cuisine, proposed by two boys. There is one who is a sommelier, the other who is a chef: Alle Testiere, which means ‘heads of the bed’. It’s a small bistro decorated with old headboards on the wall. They have been there for over 20 years, the kitchen is as big as a pocket handkerchief. They cook seasonal cuisine, cuisine from the Rialto market with fresh produce. It’s a good address. »
Venetika : traditional cuisine, very generous. Cannaregio district.
“There is another one that I really like, Venetika, a little more out of the way, in the very pretty district of Cannaregio. It’s quite traditional cuisine, very generous, everything is well done. The decor inside is pleasant, which is not always the case in Venice, where we always eat on the terrace, even in January. When we don’t want to eat in the cold, we often find ourselves in interiors that are not very warm.
Here, we are welcomed by restaurateurs, it is truly embodied. This is not a restaurant that is there to make money. There are a lot of tourist traps in Venice so it’s very easy to eat badly. »
Many other addresses can be discovered on Julie Andrieu’s Instagram account @julieandrieu.officiel
