Mountain Cuisine: A Tribute to the Heights for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympics

On the threshold of the XXV Winter Olympic Games, a new project curated by Identità Golose is coming to life, bringing high-altitude gastronomy and its most prestigious practitioners to Identità Golose Milano. Titled "La Cucina di Montagna" (Mountain Cuisine), the event will feature five "four-hand" collaborative dinners from January 26th to 30th, showcasing ten world-class chefs. Though they hail from diverse landscapes, they share a common language rooted in territory, climate, and raw materials. It is a thread that will connect the Alps and the Apennines to more distant mountain ranges, following the path of a gastronomy born from altitude that preserves its essential spirit: the ability to extract intense, captivating flavors from often scarce ingredients. Through the collaboration of these chefs, a truth shared by all high-altitude kitchens will emerge: the mountain speaks many languages, yet in each one, it preserves the same profound depth.

Below you find the presentation of the five dinners: book in advance, to not miss the opportunity to reserve your table.

Mountain Cuisine: Riccardo Gaspari | SanBrite, Cortina D’Ampezzo and Alessandro Negrini | Il Luogo Aimo e Nadia, Milano

For the first appointment of La Cucina di Montagna, we will propose the fusion of two excellences of fine dining cuisine that interpret the symbolic territories of the Olympics: Milan and Cortina. Representing Cortina will indeed be, from SanBrite, Riccardo Gaspari, creator, with his partner Ludovica Rubbini, of the evolution of the family's agricultural activity into a true excellence of taste, awarded with a red and a green star by Michelin. From Il Luogo, temple of Milanese haute cuisine founded by Aimo and Nadia Moroni, there will instead be Alessandro Negrini, who besides guiding the gastronomic proposal of the Aimo e Nadia group together with Fabio Pisani, is also deeply linked to his mountains, those of Valtellina. The menu, of four courses plus an entrée, will be offered at the price of 110 euros per person, wines included.

La Cucina di Montagna: Michele Talarico | Tèa del Kosmo, Livigno e Julian Stieger | Rote Wand Chef’s Table, Lech, Austria

The second appointment of La Cucina di Montagna will bring to Milan Julian Stieger, chef of the two Michelin-starred Austrian Rote Wand Chef's Table, in Lech. His is a cuisine that blends local Alpine ingredients with the technical rigor learned in prominent restaurants such as Geranium and Eleven Madison Park. In an intimate context, the chef serves minimalist and complex creations directly at the counter, celebrating Austrian tradition through a modern aesthetic. With him will be Michele Talarico, a student of Norbert Niederkofler, a Pugliese chef raised with respect for the mountain and in love with the Alps, where he found his home. His Kosmo in Livigno is a place of taste that satisfies not only skiers in winter, but also "summer" tourists who do not give up quality cuisine, both traditional and, in the Téa of Kosmo, more creative.

The menu, of four courses plus an entrée, will be offered at the price of 110 euros per person, wines included. Single booking time h20:00.

Mountain Cuisine: Paolo Griffa | Paolo Griffa al Caffè Nazionale, Aosta and Andrea Selvaggini | Savage, Oslo

The third appointment of La Cucina di Montagna makes us reach as far as Norway, in Oslo, where the talented Andrea Selvaggini from Tarquinia has found a professional home. He is 30 years old and for more than 3 springs has been at the helm of the restaurant Savage, one Michelin star, where he presents in his dishes the fruits of a lively and somewhat meticulous nature, especially in the research of raw materials, so much so that he calls by first and last name all the Norwegian farms he has visited. With him Paolo Griffa, who since 2022 has been leading an authentically multifaceted project in the heart of Aosta, in which cafeteria, pastry shop, and gastronomic restaurant coexist without forcing. In the menu of the latter, the Aosta Valley territory is the protagonist: only freshwater fish, wild herbs, recovered ingredients telling little-known traditions.

The menu, of four courses plus an entrée, will be offered at the price of 110 euros per person, wines included. Single booking time h20:00

Mountain Cuisine: Stefano Masanti | Il Cantinone, Madesimo and Michael Mayr | Quellenhof Gourmetstube 1897, San Martino in Passiria

La Cucina di Montagna continues with another exciting gastronomic dialogue: with us there will be Stefano Masanti, a chef of great experience who since 1989 has been carrying forward an establishment, Il Cantinone di Madesimo, opened in 1975 by his grandfather, and by him gradually transformed into a refined and contemporary restaurant, which knows how to preserve the traditions of Valchiavenna with a touch of creativity. At his side, from San Martino in Passiria in the province of Bolzano, Michael Mayr, who since 2016 has been the chef of the restaurant Gourmetstube 1897, the fine dining proposal of the Quellenhof Luxury Resort Passeier. His idea of enhancing authentic flavors and the maximum quality of the products of his area starts from the meticulous research of small local producers.

The menu, of four courses plus an entrée, will be offered at the price of 110 euros per person, wines included. Single booking time h20:00.

Mountain Cuisine: Alessandro Gilmozzi | El Molin, Cavalese and David Žefran | Milka, Kranjiska Gora, Slovenia

The event La Cucina di Montagna in our hub will conclude with another meeting of great gastronomic prestige. From Slovenia, David Žefran will arrive in Milan, a young chef who after having worked for a long time in Northern Europe (in particular at Frantzén in Stockholm) in 2021 opened a fine dining table in a 1970s inn — immersed in the greenery among streams, waterfalls, and mountains — which still bears the name of the lady who ran it then, but which in the meantime has collected in just two years as many Michelin stars. With him, one of the masters of mountain cuisine in Italy: Alessandro Gilmozzi, a cook for whom foraging has always been a lifestyle, even before it became an international trend. A chef of heart, who has set a school, with his contemporary, sustainable, and elegant Dolomite cuisine, made of wild herbs, constant research, local raw materials.

The menu, of four courses plus an entrée, will be offered at the price of 110 euros per person, wines included. Single booking time h20:00.