As a generally well organised chap, Marco has negotiated discounted rates with a number of local caterers for the wedding. No doubt he’s taking back-handers, but compared the scandalous prices of English wedding catering it still proves excellent value for money.
The four caterers recommended rise in price and corresponding gastronomic complexity, from the fairly basic but sumptuous fare of Renata, up to the Haute Italiano of Tonino. We elected to sample the two middle priced offerings, Luciano on Friday evening and Giuliano on Saturday.
After a fairly hectic first day running around villas and town halls, we arrived at Luciano’s a little early for our 8pm table. The restaurant was small but well appointed, with burgundy wallpaper and lots of dark stained wood furnishings, decor reminding me of the house I spent the second half of my childhood growning up in.
We were greeted warmly by Luciano’s son, Rico. Fortunately his English was excellent, making up for our vocabulary, jointly comprised of “Bonjourno”, “Grazie” (or Gracias if you’re Katrina, and stuck in a Spanish timewarp), “Prego” and “Ciao”. His father, the Luciano who presumably started the restaurant long before Katrina or I were born, hovered on the threshold of the kitchen, guiding the staff in preparation for a busy evening.
We took a glass of local house white and red each, to start sampling the output of the local vineyards. I didn’t take a note of the white, which was rather heavy on the palate, but the Giola Umbrian rosso was excellent, light and fruity and very suitable for a long day and night of boozing. It quickly joined the short-list for the 2009 big day, although we’ll leave the final selection to our arrival for the wedding week when we’ll be able to taste the wines a year along the road of maturity.
Having left our tasting menu for the evening in the capable hands of Rico, while awaiting preparation of our first course we elected to try some of the local olive oil. Pressed and bottled that very morning it poured bright green, and had a rather unsubtle hint of grass about it! With a little salt on on our dipping bread to strengthen the olive taste though it proved an interesting opener to what was going to be a marathon meal.
First ‘proper’ course was swordfish carpaccio and scampi on a bed of what looked like shaved cabbage. Katrina liked it, but I found the dressing to be rather acidic, and not really complementing the light flavours of the raw swordfish. Back to the old school for our second taster course, prawn cocktail served in a locally grown half orange, which did help balance the heavier taste of the cocktail dressing. Both dishes were reasonable, but only earned middling marks in the notebook we were updating throughout the meal so as not to lose track of what we’d tried.
Still on appetisers, next up was what I can only describe as duck sashimi with rockett and parmesan. Some pieces of the raw duck were slightly stringy, but the meat was tender and delicious enough to earn a tick in the book. Next was our first hot course, one for the vegetarians with layered abergine and mozarella in a sweet tomato sauce. Two ticks for this simple yet remarkably tasty baby serving of non-carnivorous heaven on a plate!
Upmarket for the next course, which was a lobster bisque with chunky croutons. Rico explained that the deep flavours of the sauce were achieved by slowly cooking it over a five hour period.
9pm now and the restaurant had filled, with a number of hopeful customers being turned away. Luciano greeted each arriving party warmly, he was clearly a popular local character, and it seemed we were the only tourists eating that evening; a reassuringly excellent sign of quality to see the restaurant jammed with local diners. We weren’t spared his attentions, with each course that arrived he’d pop by to check from the looks on our faces whether we were enjoying the output of his kitchen; we didn’t disappoint him, managing a few garbled “delicioso’s” and “magnifico’s”, the latter being reserved for the aubergine. 
Sixth course was an accidently delivered fresh tagliatelli with smoked freshwater fish caught that morning on their doorstep in Lake Trasimeno. The pasta was the best either of us have ever tasted, melt in the mouth yet still al dente; the smoked fish was full flavoured. With both of us starting to look a little stuffed, we allowed Rico to swap our half finished plates for the intended dish of tagliatelli with truffles in a truffle sauce. They weren’t sparing with this premier ingredient, and the dish proved to be one of our favourites of the meal.
Loosening a belt buckle, we were just able to clear half a plate of some of the tenderist fillet steak, lightly cooked with rosemary and sliced roast potatoes. The steak was perfectly prepared, nicely pink through each slice and cooked with a light splash of red wine. Another two ticks course to round off the secondi section of our feast. We reluctantly turned down the option of a final main and turned to Rico’s dessert recommendations – Katrina being served a freshly made orange sorbet, and myself a white chocolate mousse with chocolate sauce and chopped nuts. In closing to a less ambitious menu the mousse would have been delicious, but the rich flavours were just too much for us as a tenth course in this culinary marathon! The sorbet however proved light and refreshing, and I wasn’t shy in providing assistance in cleaning Kat’s bowl.
Such a full belly on top of such a long day led me to suspect a challenging thirty minute drive home to Cortona, so a quick espresso rounded off this excellent meal with a jolt of caffine to ensure eyes wide open on the windy mountain road home. Rico refused payment for the meal, I suspect confident that we would be choosing his establishment for our wedding. Nonetheless I left a healthy three figure ‘tip’ for the kitchen staff just in case Giuliano’s was to prove superior to our Friday feast.
This concern proved to be unfounded however, as Saturday’s meal was to prove a rather lacklustre affair. Juliano is the proprietor of “Locando del Costende”, literally just around the corner from Luciano’s and set back from the Passignano lakeside. Despite a rather less busy Saturday, we arrived similarly early for our 8pm table, overestimating the drive from the picturesque ancient walled city centre of Perugia. Again we were the first diners of the evening to arrive, and were this time greeted by the resturant’s chef. After a glass of better but not fabulous white (a Poggio Canneto, again made locally in Umbria) Giuliano arrived looking somewhat flustered. He greeted us warmly before dashing out back to berate the chef, and then rushing back into the restaurant to adjust the music and light the candles. We explained our desire to test the best his restaurant could offer, and that we’d leave our menu to him.
Another eight course marathon ensued, however honestly there were no stand-out items on the list. The opening tuna carpaccio with lemon zest was so so, I’m not sure the flavours really worked together. The turbot with artichoke had a nice firm texture, but the octopus with potato puree wasn’t a great option. Katrina apparently doesn’t eat “food with tentacles” and I thought the puddle of potato was watery and not particularly appetising served luke warm. The cherry tomatoes on the side of the plate were actually delicious, and the only item in all the courses offered to earn a single tick in the book. The tomatoes are presumably grown locally, and were standout delicious in both restaurants.
Two pasta courses next, spaghetti with clams in a tomato and garlic base, followed by canelloni with lobster tail. I thought the clams were a little suspiciously undercooked, more than half of the serving had not opened and so were left. Although the lobster was tasty, the dish had clearly been left out for too long post preparation, as it was served personally by a hassled looking chef and had started to cool a little too far.
Sporadically throughout the meal, Giuliano had been rushing in and out of the restaurant, arriving at intervals with armfuls of suspicious looking packages wrapped in tablecloths. The first delivery may have been some missing ingredient, but the second batch was definitely a prepared dish of something hot. Perhaps trouble in the kitchen had him running out for takeaway?! We terminated our rather passé culinary experience early with a final course of raw “water fish” (?), liberally coated in poppy seeds and served with what looked like baked beans – thankfully the traditional variety, rather than one of Heinz’s 57! We’re both fans of sushi and sashimi, but the fish really was quite tasteless. I also found the seeds left a rather annoyingly sandy texture in the mouth.
Desserts seemed prepackaged rather than freshly prepared, Katrina having a mint mousse with biscotti and an After Eight on the side, and myself an actually fairly good créme caramel. Another espresso to ensure a safe drive home and we left, bill paid, at 11pm.
So, all in all the comparison between our two caterers wasn’t even close. Perhaps they were simply having an off day, but Giuliano’s selection of almost exclusively cold dishes really didn’t work together to create an appetising dining experience. I found myself wondering whether Marco had pulled the estate agent trick of having us sample something poor quality to counterpoint the caterer he was trying to ‘sell’, but assumed he’ll have had us try out the excellent Luciano’s on our Saturday night so we’d leave with a good impression of Umbrian cuisine. Perhaps as I say we were just unlucky to pick a day when Giuliano was struggling.
So, unless something causes us to sway in our choice between now and next year, you can all look forward to trying out a few of Luciano’s courses which are sure to include the truffle tagliatelli and orange sorbet. Yum, I’ll be rubbing my tummy as I look forward to next year!!
And so finally the dust settles on another of life’s milestones
With just over two months to go, Katrina and I are getting into the nitty gritty of wedding preparation. We’re giving a little thought to the dancefloor playlist, perhaps you guys can help us with a few suggestion. Drop by the 
At midnight tonight it’ll be exactly 100 days to go until our wedding. I guess that means it’s also about time to give you all a nudge for your balance payments. Fortunately the Euro has move back in our favour a little, so the total anticipated cost of the basic wedding week is down to GBP550 each. Hope you don’t mind, but we’ve taken the liberty of building in a few pounds of contingency to the final cost just in case the rate moves against us again before we make the balancing payment to Marco. Please rest assured though that any unspent money will be refunded in Euros while we’re in Italy to give you a bit of spending money to put towards some of the optional midweek activities we have on the itinerary.
