Zucca Magic
Elegant, Sophisticated, Delicious and Now Outdoors
The Italian word Zucca has several translations. One of them is pumpkin. So, it makes sense that Zucca, now in its fourth year at the Hotel St. Michel, offers a signature dish of pumpkin-stuffed ravioli sauteed with butter and sage. It is an exceptional dish, perfectly balancing the al dente pasta with the rich flavors of pumpkin, sage and butter.
Zucca also means squash, and members of the squash family, such as zucchini. And, not to be pigeon-holed by his fantastic ravioli, Chef Manuel Garcia also prepares another signature dish, Fiori di Zucca Ripieni di Caprino. This is the flower of the zucchini, stuffed with goat cheese, gently fried and sprinkled with truffle honey. As prepared by Zucca, it is light and delicious.
and gently fried
For all his wizardry in the kitchen, Garcia (who has been at the helm of Zucca for three years) is neither Italian nor originally schooled as an Italian chef. From Venezuela, he trained in French cooking before learning to master Italian cuisine during his dozen years at Miami Beach’s fabled Casa Tua restaurant.
“There are almost no French restaurants here, but plenty of Italian restaurants,” says Garcia, whose arsenal of dishes come from regions across Italy. He says the Zucca menu follows northern Italian cuisine in the winter and moves to southern Italian cooking in the summer. Right now it’s winter, so there is a definite tilt toward seafood, wild mushrooms, potatoes and risotto, and greens like artichokes, asparagus and broccoli rabe.
Zucca serves a flavorful selection of veal, beef and lamb. The veal carpaccio floating in a tuna/caper emulsion, the slow roasted pork with herbs (porchetta alla romana) and the tasty lamb meatballs – the only tomato sauce dish on the menu– will all make you want to abandon any thought of becoming a vegetarian.
What Garcia does with seafood, however, is quite special. He prepares dishes with cuttlefish, lobster, mussels, octopus, salmon, clams, sea bass and prawns. His very fresh Chilean sea bass with a saffron and parsnip sauce is amazingly light and fluffy, with a perfect suggestion of crust, served on a contrasting bed of salty black lentils. You will never taste it prepared better anywhere. His prawns wrapped in phyllo pastry with an avocado emulsion, served on a bed of organic black rice, is another out-of-the-ordinary seafood dish; a complex nutty shrimp flavor with a crispy edge. Needless to say, simple classic dishes – like the linguine with clams – are executed flawlessly.
Other standouts on the menu include burrata cheese on a bed of peeled, marinated heirloom tomatoes, fresh and creamy, with thin slices of crunchy crostini; and potato gnocchi filled with asiago cheese, sautéed with asparagus and “pioppini” forest mushrooms. Both are delightful.
What makes the food at Zucca even better is the service and ambiance. Maitre D’ Lorenzo Cassano is the consummate host, making customers feel cherished. Hailing from Milan, Cassano has been at Zucca for more than two years, having previously been at the helm of upscale Italian gastro stars like Casa Tua, Cavalli Miami Restaurant, and Cecconi’s Miami at Soho Beach House. Among other things, Cassano knows his way around the Zucca wine cellar, and his recommendations are spot-on. “My mother used to cook every day for us, and the dishes here? I couldn’t find better in Italy,” he says. “The authenticity is really unique… And the customers are here not just for a restaurant with Italian food. They come for the Italian experience.”
That experience has been enhanced by a new outdoor terrace. While Zucca’s interior remains the sophisticated, elegant Milan-modern space it has been for years, there is a now al fresco dining on Alcazar Avenue. It is probably the best sidewalk transformation in the city – a wooden platform surrounded by short wooden walls and framed by industrial scaffolds with a metal roof, festooned with greenery and twinkling lights. When you add the background of the vine-covered, old world façade of the Hotel St. Michel behind it, the experience is one of a somewhere-in-Europe café; you feel transported elsewhere, a welcome escape from our Covid-quarantined world.
Zucca
The Hotel St. Michel
162 Alcazar Avenue
786.580.3731
www.zuccamiami.com
Photos by Michael Campina