Let me introduce you to the world of the well-heeled and well-filled-out as I take you on a vicarious gourmand tour around restaurant La Pergola. It doesn’t take a serious foodie or connoisseur to appreciate good food and wine: it takes a bon vivant.
The Rome Cavalieri’s Restaurant La Pergola is perched on the top floor, with 360 degree views over the eternal city. 
Chef Heinz Beck has the run of the kitchen and sits comfortably on 3 deserved Michelin stars. The dining room plays host to tasteful imperial period furniture and the adjoining Cigar lounge displays various Orientalist paintings with the dominant theme of vice reminding you of the gluttonous feast and fine wines that were consumed, and the impending Cuban cigars. It is not only the fashionable or the gastronomes that visit – it takes all kinds – but the one thing in common between all guests was an overriding appreciation of the good life, la dolce vita. The salient point, however, is quality, uncompromised quality. The service, the quality of ingredients, the fine wines, the clientele; haute living doesn’t come much better than this.
I must admit that 3 Michelin stars made me cautiously skeptical. Any accolade can be abused and one often comes across the pretentious and flamboyant flitting around these places. Handing me a water menu with 29 choices, I wondered…
I opted for the Chateldon from France with more than 1.500mg per liter of dissolved solids. A wise choice as it was to be my smooth, slightly sparkling companion throughout the evening. The water menu is an appetizer for the extensive wine list. The cellar has over 53,000 bottles and there is a separate wine list for both Italy and the world (including one wine from India). The numerous Puligny-Montrachets on offer, amongst other household winery names justifies a trip to La Pergola for the wine alone. It is the fine details, dear reader, that make an establishment so special and extraordinary.
Now, for the food…
Firstly, a selection of warm breads is offered. It would be a mistake to indulge from the outset yet one does. Olive oil from Tuscany is gently poured. Out of all of the olive oils I have tried in my life, I consider those from Tuscany superior; this one was one of the best I’ve ever had (Villa Magra Grand Cru). I was given two salts on the side, a la Roman tradition. The first is a pure, crunchy and fortified natural salt from Sicily and the second is a salt from Norway that is mixed with cayenne pepper. The second, ‘Viking Salt’, a fir wood-smoked salt enhanced with spices and black pepper, is like caviar for the poor. 
The latter put me in the much envied position of consuming one of the world’s simplest and most delicious elements: salt. A sophisticated and addictive salt, I had more throughout the evening. (Yes, I am waxing lyrical about….salt. The quality is superlative, as was the attention to detail by the staff.)
The entrée: “Tonno tonnato”: Tuna sashimi, tuna jelly and tuna powder. The tuna was a raw red and succulent which was evidence of its freshness. The two supplements were interesting. The powder reminded me of baby powder but as a mélange, the powder becomes a savoury paste when added to the flavoursome jelly, acting as a sauce to the sashimi. Accompanied by a smooth Ca Marcanda Vista Mare, 2011, tasting of apple and oak, it was a gentle and sapid induction to the meal.
My second course was the émincé of lobster on apricot puree with basil puff. Lobster can be difficult to dress in order for it to taste other than, well, lobster. It’s all about the balance, as Chef Heinz Beck told me. A fortified cloud of overpoweringly fresh, foamy basil with the puree of apricots struck the balance of strong and pungent basil with smooth and subtly sweet apricot, dolloped of course, on top of a delicate emince of lobster.
I took a walk before my next course and walked into the chef’s sphere of influence. The kitchen is alive with dancing gestures as the chefs gesticulate to one another and ask executive chef Heinz Beck to try the sauce – “more salt!” he declares in Italian. 
I ask what a Michelin star means to him. “It is the highest accolade of excellence; like a doctorate for a doctor.” I ask if he considers cooking an art. He says it is not. It is a skill, and one needs to create equilibrium between forte ingredients and the mellow ones. His understudy, Emiliano Pascucci has been training with him for 16 years. It is apparent that every dish is skillfully and laboriously prepared, such as the 36 hour marinating of my next course and that skill is something one perfects with practice. Chef Heinz Beck doesn’t compromise on quality and it is pleasant to see his innate love of intricacy that goes into every dish. Despite cooking not being an art, according to him, his description of my next course ‘The Sea’, as ‘the erosion of coastline rocks into sediment and eventually sand’, shows profound artistic ingenuity in creating a dish and its presentation. I hastily return to my seat, dancing visions of the sea reflected in Heinz Beck’s eyes.
Almost a consommé, the scampi broth and seafood in the ‘sea’ was one of the heartier meals I’ve enjoyed when dining out. The smell and taste transported me to the Riviera once again…
I declared to my friend that course number 4 took me to Italian heaven. Fagottelli “La Pergola” doesn’t sound the most appetizing but was, in my opinion, the piece de resistance. The waiter states by rote that this is the best ravioli type fagottelli you’ll find in Rome. He’s not lying. Pepper adds spice to each tender bite and the pasta shell softly dissolves for a smooth, luscious and rich sauce within. Bacon bits add a kick of salt to the strong and spicy aftertaste – like the kick from chili chocolate. This was al dente in its truest sense. Pared with Zaccagnini Trebbiano d’Abruzzo S. Clemente 2011, a sweet and fruity wine, it brings you to the gate of food heaven, or hell if you are on a diet.
Following this was the King Prawns in tempura on puree of fried squids. Tempura often overwhelms with oiliness but the puree of fried squids was a delicious counterpart to the slightly golden fried prawns and both elements complimented each other.
Wiedmann Gewurztraminer 2011, accompanied the Cod with celery sauce and curry crust. The lime was a sublime presence to the soft celery sticks which lay on a bed of softly broken potatoes, couching the delicate and meaty cod. The subtle flavours of sweet lime and stringent celery, accompanying the cod was exquisite. The only French influence in the dish was the buttery bottom which dressed the potatoes.
My main course was the Fillet of veal with mushrooms, summer truffle and potatoes. Strips of truffle inside tender veal adorned with rosemary powder – a subtly sweet twist – were divine and my thoughts were obviously re-echoed with a display of fireworks outside the terrace. 
The mushrooms were plump and juicy and potatoes pellets of power with their subtly oily taste. The Azelia Barolo Margheria 2004 played second fiddle and provided a robust choice at 14.5%, although a smoother option perhaps would have been better suited for the magnum opus.
A large trolley of cheeses made its way to my table. An incredible selection of pecorino is offered as well as some rarer choices. I opted for an aged mozzarella with a cheddary texture and taste and a magnificent blue cheese, ‘Carublu’. Carublu’s rind was dusted with cocoa and whilst it gives the digester a foul breath, the taste is sweet, mellow, emboldened and smooth and leaves you with a strong smell up the nose, similar to the strength of chlorine. Combine this with the Zeni Moscato Rosa 2011 and you are in for a treat. Usually I am not overly fond of dessert wines but I couldn’t bear to part with this one. The Moscato tasted like a combination of grape juice and the cough syrup you used to drink as a child – so very good and, we like to think, exceptionally good for you.
This is followed by a magic tower. Within each drawer are different petit fours and the pate de fruit is to die for. Dessert was the Iced sphere of pomegranate on gianduia cream and cannelloni filled with salty pine-seed Chantilly. The delicious fruit sphere was countered by a rich and creamy base which had pomegranate seeds mixed in; the sphere melted into what became a fruity chocolate soup-like delight. A fantastic send-off to the cigar room, accompanied of course, by the addictive Moscato.
9 courses down and a stomach full of fine wine, I reflect. The prices for this hedonistic experience are moderate (compared to London meal prices, excellent value) and the quality simply superb. One dines out because of the quality of food (and service) not because of the overwhelmingly rich items on the menu. This journey leaves one full of mouth-wateringly delicious food yet without feeling heavily overwhelmed; it’s a pleasant feeling of being completely satisfied by all the senses and happy to drink in the feeling of gastronomic utopia.
La Pergola Restaurant
Rome Cavalieri,
Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts,
Via Alberto Cadlolo 101,
00136 Rome, Italy
Tel: 39 06 3509 1
http://www.romecavalieri.com/lapergola.php
Photo credits: Janez Puksic
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