Finding a place for my birthday dinner is always challenging.
First of all, that’s Debeli’s job and he’s never informed about where we travel until day of the actual travel. Second: booking the reservations on such a short notice can be tricky, but it always goes easily if you have several options. And there was none this time. Mind you, the restaurants are always Michelin stared and there’s only one in Genova, so this time I did the reservations. To be sure about my decision I told him where were going upon our arrival in Genova, but he just used that information only to call the restaurant and tell them I’m having a birthday that day. So what they did? They put flowers on our table 🙂
And what a table that was. Set probably in the most beautifully frescoed restaurant room ever.
The restaurant is actually situated within walls of the 12th century Branca Doria palace whose wall frescoes were done by Bernardo Strozzi in 1600.
Total opposite of picturesque wall paintings were the white cloth covered table with only one gold palm leaf detail. Very decent. And beautiful.
But the birthday celebration stared way before we arrived at the restaurant.
It started around the corner of our airbnb at the local pasticceria famous for selling almond cookies and its 5 o’clock aperitif.
Pasticceria e liquoreria Marescotti di Cavo has a long and important history for habitants of Genova. Founded in 1780 under the name of Cioccolateria Cassottana in changed its name to Marescotti at the beginning of 20th century. Located in the 13th century Loggia Gattilusio whose family members were local traders. After a building restoration the Marescotti family came to an idea to blend a classic Savoy court pastry shop with the Genoese one offering at the same time great selection of aromatic wines and vermouths of their own production. As the demand by the clients grew bigger they started the collaboration with the Cavo pastry shop but when Irma Marescotti, one of the key members, died in 1979 the family decided to close the shop.
The entire interior setting of the shop with Charles X furniture, brass and marble details, crystal display cases and vases was resting in peace for three decade until Alessandro Cavo of the fifth generation pastry chefs decided to bring the childhood pastry shop back to life. It was his ancestors that invented the famous amaretti di Voltaggio and they were friends with Marescottis so the collaboration between two families was inevitable.
The Pasticceria e liquoreria Marescotti di Cavo reopened again in spring of 2008 and it’s been a very busy place ever since.
It’s a place where locals come to have one of dozen daily espressos and place where two tourists stop for a famous 5 pm aperitif made of chartreuse (liqueur), vodka, dry and red vermouth. Not bad. Especially when followed by the little snack.
And more snacks followed afterwards as well.
As it was still to early for our reservation we stopped by Muguno, overcrowded local hip bar. There was not a single place to sit down inside, but we didn’t mind to have our aperitif outside.
We warned our waiter to go easy on the snacks with aperitifs as we were just heading out to dinner (I think we were the only one booking dinner at 8pm which is way too early for Italians :)), so he made us a snack plate for just one person. It was enough for two, btw. ‘’You’re in Italy’’, he said, so we didn’t argued.
When the time for our birthday dinner came closer, we spread our legs to the nearby restaurant, Il Cook al Cavo, awarded by one Michelin star. The head chef Ivano Ricchebono is creating both traditional and historical dishes as well as some very original and quite creative that we had the chance to try.
The restaurant offers one tasting menu and few dishes a la carte that we mixed all together in our original menu.
Entertainment for the mouth came in form of small bites and it was very delicious snacks. I mean you can’t go wrong with foie gras, right? Coated in hazelnuts.
Macaroons made of puffed rice and filled with chestnut cream and small balls of grouper fish with yuzu gel, shellfish powder and tapioca chips was next.
Appetizers were ox tongue with Belon’s oyster and home made ketchup for Debeli while I went for the most picturesque dish on the menu.

Marinated anchovies on canvas were a true piece of art. Like a canvas painting, except it was edible.
The dish is a fantastic combination of marinated salty anchovies and diverse types of sauces that looks like drops of lemongrass tempera, burnt peppers, star anise and cuttlefish ink. Topped with crunchy meringue and pine nut crumble it was the most creative dish of the dinner.
Tagliolini with black cuttlefish, artichokes, thistle, red bait fish and garlic foam for Debeli.
Carnaroli rice risotto in a typical Genoese fish sauce called buridda made of fish stock, green peas, squid, tomatoes and white vine with yuzu jelly tapioca chips on top of risotto for me. Both main dishes were very delicious.
Before dessert we shared a red mullet, sea bass, grouper and squid fish soup with shrimps that was quite yummi.
To finish the dinner came my birthday dessert made of basil, white chocolate and grapefruit and some sweet snacks made of cinnamon, orange and fruit.

In general, the dishes were not so inventive and imaginative as we would expect for a Michelin star restaurant, but that’s way the one star probably. On the other hand the fantastic interior setting deserves a status on its own, so we would definitely recommend a visit if you ever stay in Genova, even just for a night.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ROĐENDANSKA VEČERA
Pronalazak lokacije za moju rođendansku večeru uvijek je izazov. Kao prvo, to je Debelov posao, a destinaciju na koju putujemo sazna u zadnji čas. Kao drugo, rezervirati mjesta u tako kratkom roku zna biti neizvjesno, ali svakako lakše ako postoji nekoliko opcija od kojih su uglavnom sve Mišelin restorani. Ovaj put to nije bio slučaj jer u Đenovi postoji samo jedna takav, pa da se ne bi našli u cajtnotu, rezervaciju sam napravila ja. Debelog sam na vrijeme obavijestila o svom izboru da se izjasni ako mu ne odgovara, no on je to iskoristio samo da nazove restoran i natukne da mi je rođendan tu večer. I što su u restoranu napravili?
Postavili cvijeće na naš stol 🙂
A kakav je stol to bio? Vjerojatno smješten u najljepše freskama ukrašenom restoranu. Sigurno jedinom koji smo posjetili.
Restoran je zapravo smješten unutar zidina Branca Doria palače iz 12. stoljeća čije je zidove oslikao Bernardo Strozzi u 17. stoljeću.
Nasuprot pituresknim zidnim slikarijama postavljeni su stolovi s dugim bijelim stolnjacima i samo jednom pozlaćenom zlatnom figurom palminog lista. Ništa više.
Ali da vas ne uvučem previše u priču u restoranu, rođendanska večera je zapravo počela dvije postaje dalje ili ranije i to u lokalnoj slastičarni smještenom dva koraka od našeg airbnb, a koja prodaje famozne kolačiće od badema i poslužuje još famozniji koktel u pet. To se nije smjelo propustiti.
Slastičarna i prodavaonica likera Marescotti di Cavo ima dugu i važnu povijest za stanovnike Đenove.
Osnovana 1780 pod imenom Čokolaterija Cassottana početkom 20. stoljeća ime je promijenila u Marescotti.
Smještena u 13stoljetnoj Lođi Gattilusio gdje je nekoć živjela obitelj trgovaca. Nakon restauracije zgrade obitelj Marescotti dosjetila se da bi mogli udružiti klasičnu slastičarnicu savojskog tipa s onom đenoveškog, te nuditi aromatična vida i vermute iz vlastite proizvodnje. Kako je potražnja postaja sve veća, započeli su suradnju s Cavo slastičarnom sve dok 1979. Irma Marescotti, jedna od ključnih figura u obitelji, nije umrla. Obitelj je zatvorila trgovinu, a bogati namještaj interijera ostao je čekati novog vlasnika. Tri desetljeća kasnije, Alessandro Cavo iz pete generacije slastičara odlučio je vratiti u život slastičarnu iz djetinjstva. Upravo su njegovi preci izumili slavne Voltađio amarete, a suradnja s još jednom slastičarskom gradskom familijom bila je neizbježna.
Slastičarna se ponovno otvorila u proljeće 2008. i jako je prometno mjesto. Poslužuju kavu lokalcima i aperitiv u pet turistima.
Uz aperitiv koji se spravlja od chartreuse likera, votke, suhog i crvenog vemuta dolazi i malo grickalica. Za pod zub.
A za pod zub se našlo i nakon prvog aperitiva. Jer uslijedio je drugi.
Za večeru je bilo još rano, ostati na istom mjestu dosadno, pa smo se uputili do Mugugna, lokalno it mjesta koje je bilo krcato kako smo došli. A nismo došli kasno. Možda cc pola 7. Sjeli smo na praznu terasu i naručili dva aperitiva s napomenom konobaru da smo na putu za večeru, pa nek složi grickalice za jednu osobu. Lik je donio krcat pladanj suhomesnatih proizvoda i ostalih dodataka, a mi smo ga u čudu pogledali. ”U Italiji ste”, pojasnio nam je. Nema malo kad je u pitanju hrana 🙂
Kad se vrijeme večer približilo protegnuli smo noge do obližnjeg restorana, Il Cook al Cavo, ovjenčanog jednom Mišelinovom zvjezdicom. Glavni kuhar Ivano Ricchebono stvara tradicionalna jela s natruhom inventivnog i kreativnog.
Restoran u ponudi ima jedan probni meni i nekoliko jela alla carte što smo mi odlučili izmiješati i napraviti vlastiti slijed.
Male zazubice došle su u obliku foie gras kuglica uvaljanih u sjeckane lješnjake. Brutalno fino.
Makruni od puf riže punjeni kremom od kestena i male riblje kuglice s yuzu gelom, prahom od školjki i tapioka čipsom nije bio ništa manje loš.
Debeli je za predjelo uzeo kravlji jezik s belon kamenicom i domaćim kečapom dok sam se ja odlučila za najslikovitije i kreativnije jelo na meniju.
Marinirani inćuni na platnu bili su stvarno kao slika na platnu. Samo što su bili jestivi.
Jelo je fantastična kombinacija slanih inćuna i raznoraznih umaka od limunove trave, pečenog papra, anisa i sipinog crnila. Posuti hrskavim meringom i kumbleom od pinjola definitivno je bilo najkreativnije jelo večeri.
Tagliolini sa sipinim crnilom, artičokama, čičkom, ribom i pjenicom od češnjka za Debelog te rižoto od carnaroli riže s tipičnim đenoveškim riblim umakom spravljenim od ribljeg temeljca, graška, sipe, rajčica i bijelog vina s juzu gelom i tapioka čipsom na vrhu.
Prije deserta podijelili smo juhu od trlje, brancina, škarpine sa škampima koja je bilo vrlo vrlo fina.
Večeru smo završili desertom od bosiljka, limuna i grejpfruta te malim slatkim kolačićima od cimeta, naranče i voća.
Generalno i sve u svemu, jela u Il Cook al Cavo nisu bilo inventivna i maštovita kao u nekim drugim jedna zvjezdica mišelinovim restoranima, ali interijer zaslužuje vlastitu ocjenu definitivno, tako da bi ze obzira preporučili mjesto za večeru ako se ikad nađete, barem na jedan dan, u Đenovi.