Italian chef Mauro Panebianco had been serving good but conservative Italian food at Cantinetta Antinori for 20 years, and now he went free and opened a restaurant under his own name. The word «essenza» has a double meaning — it is both «base, essence, innate qualities», but also «squeeze, essence», which precisely defines the concept: in dishes, the chef seeks to express himself, revealing the essence of the products.
The interior is as neutral as possible and seems to have been left over from the previous restaurant altogether, but this is just typical of chef’s restaurants in Europe, where nothing should distract from the plate. And on it, the chef experiments with delicacies from all over the world, weaving them into the canvas of Italian recipes: the author’s tuna ceviche with beans and avocado is a combination of Peruvian techniques and Italian dressing (2,600 rubles), the risotto with saffron flowers and quail (2,100 rubles) has echoes of Moroccan spices, languid cheeks are served with porto sauce, coffee and morels (2,300 rubles), and the sweetness of the red Sicilian shrimp carpaccio is accentuated by strachatella and ripe raspberries (3,500 rubles).
