Fianco

Photo: Erica Gannett

Who the hell is Matt Troost, and why haven’t I heard his name before? More to the point, why hadn’t I eaten his food until a recent meal at Fianco? These were my thoughts as I tore into this guy’s chicken liver pâté, which is something of a revelation not because it’s smoother than gelato but because he serves his housemade strawberry preserves alongside it. A crisp crostini, a slather of liver, a schmear of grainy mustard, a drop of strawberry: It’s every flavor and texture a glutton could ask for.

It’s surprising, to say the least, that a chef with no reputation, in a restaurant on a notoriously generic strip, would be putting out such a dish. Yet with each subsequent plate, Troost proved this was no coincidence. This is a guy who clearly knows how to manipulate flavor. In an inspired salad of toasted farro, roasted beets and pistachios, he hits satisfying crunchy and earthy notes. In the housemade agnolotti, he slips a leaf of pungent tarragon onto each ricotta-stuffed pillow, creating a progression of flavor that starts with the rich cheese, moves to lemon juice and finishes with that anise-scented tarragon.

The most accomplished dish of the night was the pork: Milk-braised for an ungodly amount of time, the juicy meat needed just the slightest nudge to fall apart. But it had been grilled, creating charred, crispy bits to counter the pig’s suppleness and paired with a tangle of arugula, shallots and roasted tomatoes, the perfect antidotes to its richness.

What Troost, whose résumé includes only one place of note and a hotel (the Peninsula) at that, is going to do about Fianco’s dining room, I have no idea. The sparse, brick-walled space feels empty even when it’s full, and where Troost’s food is full of inspiration, the dining room has none. But I think the restaurant has time to work on that. Like the divey gems of Argyle Street or Maxwell Street Market, when people get hip to this food, they’re going to pounce, whether they like the surroundings or not.

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