10
The new kid on the block among Ham
burg’s top chefs, Matteo Ferrantino is a
wiry Apulian who speaks English with
liberal dashes of Italian and Portuguese,
as well as the odd German word, and
whose energy would, in kilowatt terms,
be enough to keep the lights of a small
town on. Two years ago, he devoted this
dynamism to Bianc, a new restaurant
in Hamburg’s redeveloped docklands,
HafenCity, in which he offers his contem
porary take on Mediterranean cuisine –
and for which he has already garnered
his first Michelin star.
FREIFRAU: Walking into your restaur
ant looks and feels like walking into
an exclusive spa – and has
a beautiful smell of fresh wood…
MATTEO FERRANTINO: What you
can smell is the pine ceiling panels
and the olivewood parquet flooring.
Both are part of the atmosphere
we are trying to create here –
that of a Mediterranean piazza.
FF: Do you feel homesick then?
MF: No, but my cooking here is very
much inspired by the Mediterra
nean cuisine of my childhood, and
Die Keramik und das Porzellan
sind ein Kunstwerk für sich. / The
restaurant’s porcelain and ceramics
are works of art in their own right.
PORTRAIT
M AT T EO F ER R A N TIN O
