New Chef at La Dogana di Capalbio

There is a new chef at the La Terrazza restaurant, the main restaurant of La Dogana di Capalbio. Since the beginning of summer, Giordano Corsini (in the photo) has been in charge of kitchen operations, having grown professionally within the Gruppo Enoteca La Torre at the Rome restaurant at Villa Laetitia (two Michelin stars) and with a career developed especially in fish cuisine and alongside professionals such as Gianfranco Pascucci. His resume also includes Magnolia when it was still located in Cesenatico. In January 2025 he returned to Enoteca La Torre as executive chef of the Rinascente restaurant in Piazza Fiume, Rome, where he contributed to kitchen reorganization and the introduction of the all-day formula, from 12 to 22:30.

At La Dogana his arrival came mid-season, which suggested a pragmatic approach: relatively simple dishes, yet capable of enhancing raw materials and proper preparation, leveraging recipes already tested. A foundation from which to launch a more ambitious project in 2027, when the chef will be able to follow the season from the start while continuing to serve as executive at Piazza Fiume. The double role is made possible primarily by the team built in Rome, now sufficiently autonomous to allow him to dedicate himself to La Dogana during the summer.

One of the venue’s distinctive features is the presence of two kitchens and two chefs working side by side. In addition to La Terrazza restaurant, there is Il Doganino, the fusion venue where the protagonist is the flamboyant Japanese-Brazilian chef Ricardo Takamitsu. The result is a collaboration based on a shared vision: not just serving good food, but creating a comprehensive experience for guests made of taste, wellbeing and entertainment. The two chefs discuss dishes, exchange advice and have already experimented with four-hands dinners, a formula set to be repeated and developed in the next season. The grill, one of the innovations introduced this year, also becomes a dialogue ground between the two gastronomic offerings.

Among the dishes that have achieved greatest success is the fusillone alla luciana, born from the idea of transforming a traditional preparation like moscardino alla luciana into the base for pasta dressing, accompanied by ragù of mantis shrimp, roasted cherry tomatoes and confit and marjoram.

For the coming year the new chef’s goal is to further raise the bar on taste, without excess complexity. The intention is to experiment more and work on details, introducing techniques such as fish marinating and aging to enhance aromas and organoleptic characteristics. It will be a contemporary and Mediterranean cuisine, legible and accessible, avoiding virtuosity for its own sake. In parallel, the afternoon aperitif offering will be further developed, considered one of the main growth opportunities.

Climate is also profoundly influencing menu construction. The heat and high humidity of last summer have transformed lunch into a quicker and lighter moment, almost a lunch break. Among the most appreciated dishes is the pink shrimp tartare with watermelon gazpacho, cucumber and ginger, built entirely around concepts of freshness and lightness. The same philosophy runs through much of the menu through aromatic herbs, flavored oils and citrus, used to make preparations more suited to high temperatures. Frying remains an essential presence, but constitutes almost an exception within a menu designed for summer.

Another development front concerns direct beach service. Currently the offering is entrusted primarily to the other kitchen and is built around fresh, light and easily transportable dishes, also because the impossibility of using glass and ceramics imposes precise technical limits. The goal for the future is to create a menu more shared between the two gastronomic souls, bringing also to the beach some elements of the restaurant’s Mediterranean cuisine. Aperitif and beach menu thus become the two main directions of development for the next season, in response to clientele increasingly asking to experience the club’s gastronomic offering in different moments and spaces.