Giuseppe Verdi spent the last twenty-seven years of his life at the Grand Hotel et de Milan. Suite 105, first floor. He composed there, he lived there, and on January 27, 1901, he died there. The Hotel named its restaurant Don Carlos after his opera. This,April 29th, that room becomes something more.
Gennaro Esposito, two Michelin stars, trained under Alain Ducasse in Paris, now at the helm of Don Carlos, sits down with Massimo Spigaroli, seventeen consecutive years with a Michelin star at Antica Corte Pallavicina, a 14th-century castle on the banks of the Po river where Spigaroli's ancestor once made Culatello for Verdi himself. Two chefs. Two territories. One dinner in four acts, organized by Teritoria, the community of independent European restaurateurs and hoteliers chaired by Alain Ducasse.
Esposito and Spigaroli Stage a Dinner in Four Acts
The menu unfolds like an opera. It opens with white asparagus, morel mushroom, and camomilla. The second act presents Il Risotto alla Giuseppe Verdi, a dish that carries the weight of its name without apology. The third act brings suckling pig stuffed with veal, alongside a tarte tatin of fennel and its reduction. The curtain falls on cherry. A wine pairing accompanies every act.
Don Carlos itself sets the tone. Pine-green walls hung with paintings from the Teatro alla Scala museum. The arias of Verdi playing softly in the background. An English club atmosphere so deliberately considered that you feel you have stepped into another century. Esposito and Spigaroli cook in a room where the Maestro himself once dined. The connection is real, rooted, and earned.
This is the second chapter of Le Terre di Verdi. The first unfolded on March 26th at Antica Corte Pallavicina in Polesine Parmense, where Spigaroli is custodian of the oldest active aging cellars in the world, dating back to 1320. This April 29th, the journey completes itself in Milan.
