Between the languishing Avenida del Paral·lel and the overpopulated Blai street lives this micro-restaurant that, perhaps to attract the attention of the distracted passerby, resorts to bright pink on its facade. Inside, the register of light woods, slate as a menu, and a vertical wine cellar on the wall welcome us softly, generating a feeling of instant comfort and warmth.
Another striking element of ZA ZA is its logo, an animal half fish and half pig, which reminds us of the potential of improbable associations offered by the sacrosanct sea and mountain. With its barely three tables, the place has sought to open up to Poeta Cabanyes street with a window that frames the pleasant bar where a few more diners can fit.
The apparent informality of its staging hides a calculated search for what is essential for Davide Carreri and Carlotta Rossi: the elevation of humble produce, vegetable exaltation, and a firm commitment to natural wines.
Davide, the chef, trained in the kitchens of luxury hotels on Lake Garda, Tuscany, and Lake Como. In this last stage, and as a member of Raffaelle Lenzi and Andrea Berton's brigade at Berton al Lago, he contributed to obtaining the first Michelin star for the restaurant in 2017. After the Italian journey, Carreri exchanged the transalpine postcard landscapes for the slopes of the Carmel neighborhood, to work under Fabio Gambirasi at the Agreste restaurant.
From his time at Agreste, respect for the product and sensitivity as a form of expression of talent are recognized in every dish at ZA ZA. Also noteworthy is the love for vegetables, especially for those varieties that we do not usually find on menus, such as borage, turnip greens, or agretti with which Carreri works when seasonality advises it.
Beyond the virtues of the plant kingdom, Carreri uses tongue (veal, stewed and served with basil cream and caramelized lemon peel), tripe (with smoked eel), and chicken (cooked alla cacciatora and turned into a mousse) to successfully elevate a product a priori considered minor.
Carlotta takes care of the liquid chapter at ZA ZA and without her help, it would be difficult to recognize the vast majority of references hidden in their cellar. Free wines, with minimal intervention, without sulfites, and that evolve in the glass with the unpredictable undulation of something alive. The introduction of this kind of wines in the menus of our city has worked like a slow drip that seemed to come from the margins, but whose stain is expanding towards a central lane of consumers looking for new stimuli beyond the well-known Riojas and Verdejos.
"Natural" is an adjective often used by both Davide and Carlotta to define the essence of their project, a broad and complex concept with which they often seek to transmit another great intangible such as "freshness."
But beyond naturalness, in every ZA ZA dish there is depth. Depth of flavor, color, and commitment to a particular way of understanding (good) cuisine.