June 17, 2023
In the beautiful Tuscan Maremma lies the Re Sugo Restaurant: its founder Tommaso Guicciardini talks about it. Le Versegge Resort is a small country resort where you can spend pleasant charming vacations as if you were in a more equipped and qualitative agritourism. A very nice facility with a swimming pool set in the middle of a courtyard with shady, flowery and fragrant gardens. Of course, a place like this could only marry a king. Hence, King Sugo is the residence's restaurant.
We ask Tommaso Guicciardini something about King Sugo's newspaper:
"King Sugo gets up early in the morning and thanks to Jade's hands makes cookies, doughnuts, tarts and bread to make breakfast. No brioche, no canned goods or worse in plastic bags."
So no products from the high street?
"Nothing at all, with a twist on Nutella, which is a food no one can resist."
And so don't tell me you also make yogurt....
"Of course and it is something spectacular, it is the pride of our cafeteria cook Giada who prepares it with care and dedication. For the sweet tooth, we also make great jams with fruit from our garden."
When was King Sugo born?
"In 2005 because of the crazy passion I have for cooking and because I believe that there cannot be a good accommodation if it is not accompanied by a good recipe, a dish that will be remembered."
Everything must follow a logic so...
"Certainly from the first coffee in the morning, to a snack, a light lunch and in the evening, a pleasant and healthy dinner."
The kitchen, in recent years, has changed so much hasn't it?
"Gender equality was a great statement of freedom and progress. Once there were grandmothers who taught "newlyweds" their secrets. Today this is no longer relevant because the roles of society have changed and one returns from work the time it takes to put on the table what happens. You don't learn from mom but from Masterchèf."
You then claim that cooking reality shows are a substitute for learning to cook?
"In part, yes, and with a cuisine that is no longer part of our regional history. In doing so, you lose family cooking values and when you go to the restaurant you all become star cooks..."
A lack of identity would come to add. We go to King Sugo's kitchen. On a pass I see a beautiful crate of tomatoes and wonder how important it is to buy well.
"Today, in Italy, you can find everything and the choice is across the board between large-scale retail products and excellent niche products. For example, Sfera's datterino."
- points me to the box- "These kinds of products are the future of our food, a hydroponic tomato that is not pumped with harmful chemicals."
I eat one to try it out and the taste confirms what was said.
"At Re Sugo's I have done many different cuisines, meat and fish, but now, for the past five years, I want to make it clear that a good and digestible vegetable, a tasty and tender meat, a handmade but simple pasta like a ricotta gnocchi with tomato and basil, is something that can enrich the table."
What Pierangelini stated: that a tomato has the same respectability as a white truffle?
"Exactly, and as a lover of cooking, I would like to see programs on television where you don't learn how to cook but how to eat."
Who works at Re Sugo and how does your kitchen line work?
"Rey Guzman is our Chèf and comes from a purely Italian, no-frills school of cooking. Thanks to him, I was able to transport into the kitchen line dishes from my childhood, dishes of my own intuition and traditional Maremma dishes that we cannot keep off the menu (tortelli among all). Helping in the kitchen are Giada Krismer (already mentioned for breakfasts) and Gianluca Cicero.
Even with wine it is necessary to follow an obligatory path from quality...
"I don't see wine separate from food. In fact, it is said that you don't dry wall. And here we open a long parenthesis on what a good sommelier should or should not do."
To wit. - "It just has to indicate the pairing of a dish with a wine. Entirely subjective undertaking and not dependent on mathematical calculations."
A sign that roles are often dramatized and everything becomes deliberately sacred.
"I am always reminded of Antonio Albanese playing the sommelier. However, it is not easy to recommend a wine, and special things often happen..."
With undecided customers you mean?
"A Russian family with grown children who had ordered tortelli, wild boar and Limousine filet. To drink they ordered a large glass of Carlos I (a 40° Spanish Brandy), which they used in turn without regard to pairing or persistence."
Can all this shock a kitchen orthodox?
"It may shock but everyone at the table has to do what they feel. I often try to convince a couple to drink a bottle of rosé, which, however, is a wine that fails to enter into male psychology. I try to make them understand the quality of a Sirah and that it can go well with a fresh, orange-spiced dish like our wild boar in citrus sauce. If the woman doesn't request it, the rosé is sure to bounce. And that's a shame because it's a wine of many resources."
What are your favorite dishes at Re Sugo?
"There are many and they rotate through the seasons."
In conclusion, one would be inclined to talk about cooking at length. Tommaso Guicciardini is not a professional cook but rather a capable director in moving his team. Re Sugo continues its journey with the optimism one experiences in Maremma. We just have to know why a name like this is needed:
"My son Giulio chose it because we wanted to match the name of the Grand Duke with something as noble as Wild Boar. A Grand Duke was a king, and the King of Maremma cuisine is wild boar sauce. King Sugo therefore!
What about the window to the Maremma then?
"That one is due to an airy design of the restaurant that does not involve walls but large windows. Maremma stands outside and stands on the plate. That's how my restaurant was supposed to be."
"Maremma is out and in the pot" is exactly what comes to mind when one discovers King Sugo. Small country house that will make a nice vacation a good opportunity to discover the Maremma of flavors.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
