This blog announces the arrival of our new baby, the aptly named Tre (Three) located in Parkhurst, so how about we put things in perspective? 
We have four words for you, Osteria Francescana, Massimo Bottura, http://www.osteriafrancescana.it/ Finally after being 2nd for the past 2 years an Italian restaurant and restaurateur is the worlds best. We really are big fans. Yes, he is Italian but what we admire is Chef Massimo Bottura’s tenacity to venture forth in a country where the the culture of the cuisine is entrenched and conservative. Families will dispute recipes and ingredients from region to region, and the divide between Northern and Southern Italian cooking is so wide that you could stampede a herd of Buffalo through it. Beyond the North v South difference Italy is divided into 20 regions and there are significant differences within those regions. We will talk about this again in the future!!
The diversity of the cuisine heralds the amazing traditions that pervade and infuse Italian food and that make it the absolute joy that is is. To hear the Nonne’s dispute recipes and authenticity will leave even the most ardent fan of Italian food speechless. So in the face of this Massimo Bottura made almost life altering decisions. His cooking philosophy has been controversial in Italy and made him famous abroad.
So why do we reference Osteria Francescana? Certainly we were not aware of this restaurant until a few years ago. But the recognition that it has achieved has given us a degree of confidence about the direction in which we are moving our culinary dream. Classico or Olivedale was born out of our tradition and heritage as we felt comfortable cooking with the flavours and recipes that we grew up with. We stayed true to that heritage, indeed there are a few combinations that will make Italians frown, risotto is never served as a side dish but we went down that path like gangbusters!! Botanico is a different baby altogether. The menu was a battle between concepts and authenticity, so we let our ideas be influenced by Italian cuisine but not limited by it. As a result of spending time in The Italian Culinary Institute and doing courses there we realised that Italian cooking was moving on and this gave us more inspiration to be bold. We are not going to disclose anything about the food at Tre just yet but you will find again that there are some new flavour profiles and dishes that we have developed.
From the moment we opened Botanico we found that many of our loyal customers from Olivedale did not enjoy the menu changes, and we acknowledge that the menu is different, but we did not to repeat Classico. Gratefully we have developed a new and growing band of patrons who are looking for the difference which we offer here and embrace it. Our passion to evolve has steamrollered on and Tre is about to open.We hope that you find us Italian enough!!