As often happens, the brothers Giovanni and Matteo Faenza traveled very different paths. Giovanni, 32, founded the brewery Ritual Lab in Formello, Italy, not too far from Rome, in 2015. Known for its influential Ritual Pils, Ritual Lab was named the best craft brewery at the Birra dell’Anno competition in 2020, while Giovanni himself picked up the Birraio dell’Anno award as the best Italian brewer in 2021.
While Giovanni was taking up his position at the top of the Italian beer scene, his younger brother was piling up significant culinary experiences abroad. After a period in London, Matteo, 27, moved to Peru to cook with Pedro Miguel Schiaffino at Malabar, considered one of the best restaurants in South America. He then worked in Spain with Quique Dacosta, holder of multiple Michelin stars, followed by experience in Chile with Rodolfo Guzman, whose Boragó is currently ranked #38 on the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Their journeys may have parted at first, but this year the two brothers’ paths came together at a crossroad called Mogano. More than just a restaurant, Mogano is an attempt to demonstrate that great beer can pair with the highest form of haute cuisine. In a country where beer with pizza is viewed as an unassailable combination and where a pork knuckle marinated in beer is considered the limit of “cooking with beer,” the Faenza brothers and Mogano are starting a small but significant culinary revolution: the first fine dining restaurant with beer in all of food-obsessed Italy.
Words,Maurizio Maestrelli