Maison Ruggieri Polignano a Mare

"A la carte €250. Large menu €350. Martino Ruggieri His career is also dazzling than his kitchen. Yannick Alléno's right-hand man from the moment he arrived at Ledoyen ten years ago, Martino Ruggieri decided in 2022 to fly on his own wings. He launched Maison Ruggieri, where he conquered one, then two stars, all in two years! And then last year, the fighter plane separated from its Parisian partners, unscrewed its still intact Michelin plate and joined Apulia, its native region. In Polignano a Mare, he meets the owner of the Grotta Palazzese, a hotel with a breathtaking view of the Adriatic, but also a chic restaurant carved into the cave and a more gastronomic table overlooking the Casanova. The two men like each other, they hit each other. Martino supervises the kitchens, the level goes up. The chef and his new partner then embarked on a more daring project: the opening of an avant-garde table. On May 10, Maison Ruggieri resurrected. Even more impactful than in Paris, which is no small thing to say, the meal opens with an overpowering vegetable extraction, dominated by the artichoke, a tribute to the bitter facing the sea... Then, the menu is tailor-made: we choose from the "poems", white or vegetable for starters, delicate, bitter or strong for dishes... We will mention just a few magical plates: burrata with mushroom petals and almond oil (pure happiness), red mullet and raw squid with spices, langoustine flanked by sabayon and peas (a splendor), savory crème brûlée with tomato caramel and pike eggs, foie gras bathed in black rice water, taglionis in a nori seaweed taco (a madness), sweetbreads cooked in brewer's yeast with marine mayonnaise... Martino Ruggieri could well succeed in registering Polignano on the world map of gastronomy. "