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exploring taste—santa margherita gruppo vinicolo people—antonia klugmann

hile driving to L’Argine in Vencò on a garden I didn't expect the long and enthusiastic monologue
December morning, I am forced to look I found myself listening to and jotting down. A speech that
at the road and at the GPS, which tells goes from the particular, to personal experience, to the uni-
W me where to go, meaning that I don't geta versal; how to take care of the soil and how it inspires and
chance to fully observe the landscape, hills and to the vines reflects emotions. “To begin with, it takes time. When you
all around me. Antonia Klugmann is unloading the car and study it, you realize that much of what is being done in the
carrying some boxes of fruits and vegetables to the kitchen, lands nowadays is wrong. Objectively wrong”. It is immedi-
while I pull into the driveway. A few meters away from me is ately clear from the first sentences that one of Antonia Klug-
the restaurant’s garden. All around are woods, fields and hills, mann’s qualities is precision, without exceeding in rigidity,
not a building in sight save the old barn, which L’Argine was nor falling into obsessiveness. Precision has many ways of
built next to. Further still, rows of trees, the border, Slovenia. manifesting itself, it is in the care of the ingredients, of nature,
It is a Tuesday, and there is no afternoon service. The atmo- of the clients. She goes on, “The relationship with the land can
sphere is relaxed in the kitchen and in the restaurant, with only be a creative one. Depending on how a plant gets pruned,
15 place settings is so small that it feels like a lounge. Antonia soiled, watered, the taste changes accordingly”. She elaborates
briefs her 3 assistants on the itinerary, goes out to the garden excitedly; “The black cauliflower has been a revolution to me,
to gather something and comes back. She sits down and the if you let it flower it produces buds that are very similar to
first thing she says is “You should see how gorgeous it is here broccoli florets. But you cannot buy black cauliflower buds.
in spring”, pointing outside of the glassed walls and explaining For example, if you go to buy a sclopit bud now, they will tell
that the garden becomes richer and more colorful and that the you it’s not the right season, but having sown early this year
fruit trees will be at their peak. “Fruit is my passion”. to get the sclopit to come up in the spring, we now have small
The Michelin Guide has given L’Argine in Vencò 1 star this buds we can use in our dishes”. Shortly after, we go and have
year, for the following reason “A selected choice to guarantee a taste from the kitchen – a raw sea cicada with mushrooms,
the freshness of the products that undergo little transforma- cauliflower and truffle. And most importantly sclopit’s buds.
tion, used in original combinations, with a wise use of aro- This dish is on the menu, in a meal called “Territory: life
matic herbs”. Antonia Klugmann, from Trieste, decided to in movement”, along with others that now make their ap-
work in this field when she was 22 and studying law in Mi- pearance on the table: broccoli, marrow and bergamot,
lan. At 26 she opened her first restaurant, the Antico Foledor lamb, rose, karkadè and puntarelle. Another facet of Anto-
Conte Lovaria in Udine and in 2014 L’Argine, once again nia Klugmann’s precision is her intellectual independence.
alongside her partner Romano De Feo. L’Argine is a glassed When I ask her about her culinary bond with Friuli, she says
parallelepiped complex leaning on an old barn, an odd ele- “Local products are not necessarily good quality. I’m puzzled
ment yet fitting perfectly within the surrounding landscape, by the bad use of local products. In Milan, if you want to buy
perhaps thanks to these woods and these vines that transmit local you can end up with extremely polluted products. To
edgy and spatial shapes. be fresh, products need to be grown in greenhouses, or in
When I ask Antonia to tell me about her relationship with the the suburbs and they are certainly worse quality than those

Antonia briefs her 3 assistants on the itinerary, goes out to the garden to gather something
and comes back. She sits down and the first thing she says is “You should see how gorgeous it is here
in spring”, pointing outside of the glassed walls and explaining that the garden becomes richer
and more colorful and that the fruit trees will be at their peak.

Wild boar Cappelletti in plum broth

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