Gourmet: fashion & food in Florence

I caught the “Pitti fever” too and Thursday I spent the afternoon in Florence. Shop windows dressed with the winter fashion must-haves, the streets swarming with fashion addicts and experts. It was fun to simply walk around. But I had a specific purpose for going to Florence: to see the exhibition on Karl Lagerfeld, a fashion designer whose style I love and a very cultivated man. The White Room reopened its doors to the fashion world after many years especially for this occasion.

The exhibition (running until October 23, 2016) is amazing: it starts from the grand staircase, Scalone del Moro, and winds its way through the Palatine Gallery, the White Room and two rooms of the Appartamenti degli Arazzi wing. Lagerfeld’s photographs – I’m not exactly impartial here! – are as beautiful as the setting: sophisticated and yet so contemporary, the result being a sublime contrast with Palazzo Pitti’s neo-classical rooms.

After the exhibition, Beppe joined me for dinner at Bottega del Buon Caffè, a one-Michelin-starred restaurant under the wings of chef Antonello Sardi. What a taste experience! An elegant mise en place, but a genuine menu based on the use of productscoming straight from the Borgo Santo Pietro farm in the Tuscan countryside belonging to same owner. I had a terrific creme brulée of foie gras with sorbet of red onion, raviolifilled with beef tongue with green sauce and tomato sauce (the gourmet version of the traditional bollito) and Fiesolepigeon with fresh salad, the perfect balance of fresh and bold flavours. The cheesecake: a “sin” I couldn’t say no to!