Milan Olympic in taste too, dedicated menus and cocktails arrive
From gourmet dishes inspired by the mountains to pizza and mixed drinks: here are some tips for eating and drinking in the name of the Five Circles
Milan economic and creative engine of the country; Cortina pause, breath, verticality. As the analyses on the induced activities also tell (here the Sole 24 Ore Dossier), the Milan Cortina 2026 project also lives on this virtuous tension: a connection between territories, economies, languages and cultures that goes far beyond sport. Even at the table. On the occasion of the Winter Olympic Games starting on 6 February,the Milanese restaurant industry intercepts this dialogue by transforming menus, dishes and cocktails into narrative tools. Not mere thematic tributes, but true declarations of identity, capable of uniting urban contemporaneity with the gastronomic memory of the mountains. Because the great event also comes from here: from the way in which a city chooses to tell its story through taste. Here is a selection of places to experience the Olympics at the table or at the counter.
Two Cities, One Taste (Alpine)
La Cupola, the city lounge surmounted by a majestic nine-metre-high window inside the Park Hyatt hotel in the Duomo, becomes the place where chef Guido Paternollo builds an ideal bridge between Milan and Cortina. Until 28 February, two off-the-menu dishes tell the story of the encounter between territories: the Casunzei di barbabietola with ossobuco sauce, Trentingrana and salted lemon, where a recipe symbolic of the Dolomites meets one of the cornerstones of Milanese cuisine, and the Amor Polenta with Chantilly cream, a dessert that combines Lombard tradition and mountain culture in an idea of authentic and contemporary comfort. Mio Lab, the hotel's cocktail bar, also speaks of territory through mixology. Here Alessandro Iacobucci Vitoni signs "MI-CO", a cocktail that fuses the soul of the classic "MI-TO Milan-Turin" with Alpine suggestions, transforming the glass into a symbol of cultural connection.
At the Sophia's Restaurant at the Enterprise Hotel, a dedicated menu, renewed every fortnight, explores Alpine tradition: from Valtellina bresaola with casera cheese and porcini mushrooms, to tortello pizzoccherino, to beef bites with Bitto cream and soft polenta, closing with an apple strudel that tastes of home and winter.
The Rubacuori at Château Monfort, on the other hand, proposes a more articulated itinerary (until 23 February), where the game and the great classics of mountain cuisine, such as venison, canederli and polenta, dialogue with a Milan-Cortina dessert conceived as a symbolic synthesis of the two worlds.
Even the Ristorante Mezzo of the Hotel Indigo Milan until 23 February brings to the table mocetta, sciatt, canederli and venison goulash, using identity-related raw materials such as Rovetta red maize and Slow Food Presidium cheeses, to close with an evocative Milan-Cortina apple pie.
