WHAT MAKES CASA BOVINA A RESTAURANT LIKE NO OTHER
Trying to explain Casa Bovina to someone who hasn’t been there is like describing a sunset to a colorblind person. No matter how articulate you are, words cannot fully express what the experience of eating here is like.
Which is exactly what I’m about to attempt. Wish me luck.
If there were ever an event that would sum up Casa Bovina’s excellence, it would be the “Avant Larde” dinner the restaurant hosted on April 23, 2022, which put the beautiful mangalitsa hog on full display. These fatty pigs hail mostly from Austria and Hungary, and their legendary status caught the eye of Tony Incontro.
Incontro heads up the charcuterie/salumi program for Certified Piedmontese, which owns and operates Casa Bovina. He is also the founder of Incontro Cured and has aspirations of spreading products from the majestic mangalitsa all over the country.
So when Peter Toth, the Director of the Mangalitsa Breeders of Hungary, came into town to visit the Certified Piedmontese campus, a pork party was going to ensue. But the scale this dinner was something only Casa Bovina could pull off.
The menu was a complete celebration of the mangalitsa, as it was featured in every course from the amuse bouche to pasta to dessert. Snout to trotter, all portions of the animal were highlighted.
This is where Casa Bovina’s brilliance starts to kick in. The mangalitsa is a lard-heavy animal, and while fat can create great flavor, a seven-course (it ended up being more like 10) could get heavy in a hurry.
But with Tony’s diverse menu and the execution of extremely talented chefs Zach Midgett and Todd Abboud, the restaurant deftly lightened up the courses with fresh vegetables, creative sauces, and inventive presentations that had the diners heavily anticipating the arrival of each course.
Some of the greatest highlights came in the early courses, which allowed Incontro Cured to showcase its beautiful salumi, some have which has been aged for 7 years (!). This amount of curing infused the thin slices of meat with a more concentrated, intense porky flavor. Variously spiced slices of salami all showcased individual personalities, but the highlight of this portion of the meal was the Incontro Cured Jamon. Ham, sliced so thinly it was almost translucent, was draped over a ceramic candle holder, which slowly rendered the fat. I’ve never tasted anything quite like it.
I would’ve been fine if the meal consisted solely of salumi. But we were only getting started.
Where the Incontro Cured products showcased Tony’s technicality and precision in his craft, the ensuing courses highlighted the originality and sheer creativity of the chefs. Given a playground of pork, Midgett, Abboud, and the rest of the Casa Bovina team honored the breed in ways previously unimagined.
A filet of Lardo-Wrapped Coppa (pictured in the header photo) was transformed so brilliantly that it appeared at first glance to be a medallion of filet mignon. The mangalitsa shank was ground into a sausage and paired with a pork glaze and a sweet topping in the Apricot Crepinette. The fattiness of the Crispy Pork Belly was amplified by the creamy, cheesy robiola espuma, but a nettle risotto helped mellow out the dish.
Great as every plate was, the one I can’t get out of my mind was the Agnolotti dal Plin. Agnolotti are tender pasta purses stuffed with filling—in this case, braised shank and jamon. The pasta was cooked to al dente perfection, with just the right level of toothsomeness. And upon each bite, a flow of porky goodness erupted forth.
Casa Bovina could’ve served the agnolotti dry and I would’ve inhaled them like a Roomba, but that’s not the restaurant’s style. No, they cranked things up a notch with sauteed cabbage and a salty, savory pork jus that was delicious enough to drink from a straw.
Several times throughout this course I set my spoon down and just basked in the tremendous flavor, acknowledging I didn’t know if/when I’d ever get to experience it again.
Such is the effect Casa Bovina has on a person. While I’m describing a select, one-of-a-kind meal, this is the general excellence you can expect at this restaurant. The technical proficiency, creativity, and whimsy explodes forth in every dish.
Which leads up to dessert.
For the most part, pork and dessert are not friends. They don’t hang out much. Candied bacon can at times be a successful accompaniment, but for the most part, you’re not going to find pig anywhere on a restaurant’s dessert menu.
But Casa Bovina isn’t the typical restaurant. It’s will to push the boundaries on dessert in a way most aren’t bold enough to even imagine.
If anyone can execute these daring ideas, it’s pastry chef Mary Pedersen. I’m convinced she’s a dessert wizard, and she only further solidified this belief with her Mi Cuit (half-baked in French), a molten cake with intense chocolate flavor.
Pedersen created a mangalitsa mousse that still wrecks my brain. It (like many of this chef’s creations) is impossible to explain without experiencing—it was somehow porky, yet sweet enough to balance with the sugar of the cake, peach puree, and honeycomb.
That dessert was exclamation point on an incredible meal. Crafting a tasting menu is never easy; doing so around a single protein (in this case, fatty pork) is an incredible challenge. Tasting menus require light courses, such as fish, carpaccios, and salads, to break up the heaviness of pastas, proteins, and desserts.
Yet Casa Bovina pulled off this mangalitsa mastery with aplomb, paying homage to the animal in every dish.
The service, too, deserves mention, as does the ambience. The Private Dining Room is secluded and intimate, and it contains a wine cellar with seemingly endless options. If you’re not sure what to pair with each course, Casa Bovina’s veteran sommeliers are happy to provide expert suggestions.
Much as I’ve come to respect and honor Casa Bovina’s care and creativity, this select meal hammered home just how closely the restaurant pays to every detail. From the service to the wine pairings to the presentation of the plates, everything was prepared and executed to a T.
And ultimately, that’s what makes Casa Bovina an unforgettable restaurant.
Every diner is treated like a VIP. Every plate is examined before being released to a table. Every recipe and presentation is tested until it achieves perfection.
There’s nothing quite like Casa Bovina, and you don’t need a special dinner to experience that.