At Sadler restaurant, located in the Casa Baglioni hotel in Milan, Giacomo Lovato carries on his mentor’s legacy with precise cuisine that skillfully blends intensity and lightness. A dinner featuring yellowtail, pasta “snails,” and mallard, paired with unconventional selections by sommelier Pamela Pettinari. With a Nebbiolo-based surprise.
In early October, we were in Milan for the annual presentation of our Essential Guide to Italian Wines 2027. A friend asked us if we’d like to have dinner at the famous Sadler restaurant, located inside the Hotel Casa Baglioni. What do you think I said?
Claudio Sadler and Giacomo Lovato
Claudio Sadler needs no introduction. He is one of the leading figures in Italian haute cuisine over the past forty years, one of the masters who have contributed to its revival. Restaurant that bears his name—now awarded a Michelin star—continues his legacy thanks to the personal interpretation of young executive chef Giacomo Lovato, under the supervision of the master, who recently turned seventy.
The Hall at Casa Baglioni
The beautiful room is located on the ground floor of the hotel and has about 30 seats. Wood and fabrics are used to great effect, and the lighting—finally—isn’t as dim as a catacomb, as is unfortunately the case in other restaurants. We were also lucky. They gave us the last available table. Evidently, they’re very busy, as the waitstaff later confirmed.
Of course, we only gave the menu and wine list a quick glance. When I try out a restaurant, I always give the chef and sommelier free rein, to whom I entrust the selection of wines by the glass.
A culinary journey through seafood and game
So, for appetizers, we were served yellowtail sashimi with shiso leaves, green apple, cucumber, buttermilk, and verbena, and a lightly smoked venison carpaccio with finger lime, a lovage emulsion, sweet-and-sour marinated white turnip, and nasturtium.
For our first courses, we sampled some fabulous “Felicetti” snails cooked in a squid and sea buckthorn broth. With porchetta-style sea snails, dill oil, and katsuobushi. This dish reminded me so much of the seafood cuisine from my hometown of Fano. If they’d brought me half a kilo of them, I would have devoured every last one! And then there were the fresh tagliolini made with 40 egg yolks, cooked in onion broth, with lime and Asetra caviar.
For the main course, we were served a mallard glazed with oabika, served with its own broth, a kalamansi and pink pepper sauce, a pumpkin and kumquat mille-feuille, Bavarian cream, and wild broccoli. Reading the description, it sounds like an incredibly complicated dish. When you taste it, however, the lightness and intensity of the flavors blend so well that you finish it in the blink of an eye.
Desserts and the Review of the Cuisine
Finally, two desserts that I would describe as very classic, but which, upon tasting, revealed excellent freshness and a pleasant ability to cleanse the palate. Deconstructed crème caramel with saffron caramel, passion fruit, and peanut cream; mascarpone, tonka bean, chocolate, and coffee.
Chef Lovato is truly talented. He meticulously monitors cooking times and sauces, and creates dishes that are not only beautiful but, above all, delicious—with some that are exceptionally good.
Wines Selected by Pamela Pettinari
The wine-by-glass tasting experience offered by Pamela Pettinari, a young and exceptionally talented sommelier. Wines of various origins and styles, which paired exceptionally well with the dishes at our dinner.
- Champagne Premier Cru Extra Brut Cuvée Origine R Cossy
- Nosiola from Trentino 2024 Fanti
- German Regional Wine: Rhine Scheurebe, 100% 2023, Weingut Brüder Dr. Becker
- Rheingau Riesling Feinherb 2023, Weingut Kloster Eberbach
- Ronchi Varesini SommoClivo 2016 Torre San Quirico, Azzate (VA). A wine made from 100% Nebbiolo grapes—a variety I hadn’t tried before—from a region I’m just beginning to explore from a winemaking perspective. It’s just hit the market, even though it’s a 2016 vintage. In short, the wine of the evening!
- Alsace Vigne en Rose Demi-sec 2022 Vignoble du Rêveur
We concluded with a sweet wine from southern France, from the Bergerac region in the Dordogne:
- Monbazillac 2023 Château Bellevue Lalonie Daj
Service and a cocktail on the rooftop
The service was warm, friendly, and thoroughly professional. Chef Lovato was very personable; at the end of dinner. He came to our table to chat with us and ask how our evening had gone.
Also, remember that, before or after dinner, you can head up to the hotel’s rooftop. I enjoyed an amazing Martini cocktail there, made with Chinese gin. It was my first time trying one!
