The food and wine of Italy's best-known island are celebrated at a downtown Bangkok restaurant

While maintaining his aim of offering “creative Italian cuisine”, chef Marco Cammarata is nevertheless taking his restaurant Belguardo into new dimensions, especially during the month of November.
For the entire month, he’s offering a special menu featuring Sicilian cuisine and wines. Although Cammarata himself isn’t Sicilian but hails from Turin, “a good chef knows Sicilian food”, he smiles. He is, after all, a good chef.
Fresh seafood, garden vegetables and fresh fruits all go into producing distinctive Sicilian cuisine, such as Cammarata’s fresh anchovies marinated in sea salt lemon juice and served with an eggplant caponata and orange salad (Bt450).
Another traditional dish on the menu is the cannelloni filled with beef and spinach (Bt450). Cammarata also adds a touch of mint for freshness, a dab of Marsala for taste and a sprinkling of almond flakes on top of the pasta for goodness. The shaved peccorino cheese from Sicily provides the finishing touch.
One of Cammarata’s favourite dishes is his veal Piccata Marsala (Bt700).
“Some people overcook the veal escalopes,” he warns. “You have learn to recognise by the aroma when the meat is finished, and it’s finished in seconds.”
The juice from the meat combines well with the Marsala that he adds to the oil and butter, and the baby carrot terrine is especially flavourful.
The secret, Cammarata says, is the carrot juice he adds to the terrine.
For a “real” Sicilian dessert, you should try Cammarata’s cannoli alla siciliana (Bt200). These crispy pastry tubes are filled with ricotta cheese, preserved fruit and chocolate chips, plus pistachios and almonds. The dish is served with a pistachio sauce, the chef’s own vanilla sauce and homemade cinnamon ice cream.
Cammarata is pairing his dishes with award-winning Sicilian wines, the single and territorial varietals by Cusumano, as well as Cusumano’s grappa di Noa.
These wines are available by the bottle or by the glass in Belguardo’s Wine Lounge on the mezzanine.
Although the Sicilian menu is available only this month, Cammarata has also finessed the restaurant’s regular a la carte menu. Favourites such as his risotto with seafood and tomato essence (Bt450) are still on the menu, but he’s now offering more of his award-winning risotti, such as his risotto of porcini mushrooms finished with Prosecco (Bt480).
He’s also added other dishes, such as his slow-roasted venison on potatoes layered with Guanciale and Asiago cheeses and juniper berries (Bt700).
In addition, tomorrow, Belguardo is offering its very first wine dinner in conjunction with Sardinian winemakers Argiolas. Presenting the wines at the dinner will be Valentina Argiolas, the granddaughter of the founder and a well-known chef in her own right.
Cammarata has prepared a five-course menu (Bt2,500) featuring tuna, lobster, lamb and other delicacies, with each dish paired with wines that Argiolas has brought with her.
Good food, good wine, and if you join, good company.

Laurie Rosenthal
The Nation