Tucked away in the tiny, quite alleyway of soi phrom si 2, just a few minutes walk from the saen seap canal where the riverboats shuttle passengers to their offices and homes each day, sits a large sprawling brick house illuminated by soft outdoor  lighting and surrounded by lush greens—feeling more like an Italian countryside home than a Bangkok suburb. It’s Casa Lenzi (meaning Lenzi’s house), the latest restaurant of the acclaimed chef Francesco Lenzi.

 

After more than a decade running some of the city’s most well-known Italian restaurants, the chef is refocusing his efforts on a place that reminds him of home, recreating what he calls his primordial memories of the flavors he had in Italy during his formative years. 

 

 

The restaurant is a fine-dining establishment, yes, but the ambiance here is clearly meant to lean on the friendly side instead of the extravagant. The space is airy, dressed in a warm brown palette juxtaposed with crisp white table cloths and color-popping art on the walls. The open kitchen sits in the middle, viewable to most diners—a design decision made directly by Lenzi and his father. For chef Lenzi, the luxury of the establishment lies in the food, not bombastic decor. It’s about pure ingredients that uphold many of the time-honored traditions he’s come to know, rather than redefining what already works for the sake of trends. This can be seen in everything from the imported produce to the cookware used in the kitchen. 

 

“For me, the new way of fine dining is to be traditional, with the key is to use high quality products, and maybe some creativity,” says chef Lenzi during a recent sit down at the restaurant. “I’m very attached to the old school way of cooking. At this restaurant, I use a lot of soapstone pots. It is a mineral stone from Lombardy in Italy, and now there are only two producers in Italy that make this kind of pot. I want to be the one to keep the tradition, while using some help from modern-day innovations.” 

 

 

Soapstone cookware, sometimes called “mountain pots,” have a long history in Italy, known for remarkably even cooking, heat retention, and a naturally toxin-free surface. 

 

It’s a detail that many kitchens would gloss over. Why go to such great lengths to get a little bit of extra performance out of a cooking vessel? But as you learn more about the philosophy behind Casa Lenzi, it becomes clear that the restaurant has made the little details their top priority. 

 

Nearly all the ingredients are sourced from Italy or Spain, all fresh and organic. But even that isn’t good enough, according to Lenzi, they also need to be the best: Award-winning Parmigiano Reggiano Dop 993 Cavola, arguably the best Parmigiano in the world; Carabineros shipped within 48 hours from straight from Spain, among many others. Even the oil and vinegar that comes with your bread is a combination of premium extra virgin olive oil from Puglia and balsamic vinegar from Modena, which creates a smooth, less acidic flavor. God is truly in the details here.

 

 

However, even though Lenzi aspires to reproduce the bygone days, it doesn’t mean he is stuck in the past. The kitchen team here finds their progressive side in the realm of cooking techniques. They are not afraid to experiment, say the chef, nor create more risky avant-garde fusion dishes, as long as it follows the ethos of finding new ways to maintain those much-revered traditions in some manner. The tastes should be authentic, but not behind the times. 

 

On a recent visit to sample the menu, the meal starts with a cocktail di gamberi (tiger prawns cooked in soapstone, baby cos salad and cocktail sauce, B720). It’s an ideal introduction to the restaurant’s philosophy. The classic salad is cooked from scratch table side using a 260⁰C soapstone pot, in which prawns, extra virgin olive oil and white wine are combined and gradually cooked. Everything, from the cooking to blending of the sauce, is done in front of customers for a bit of dinner theater. 

 

 

Next starter up is the vitello tonnato (roasted veal loin with tuna sauce espuma and pickled vegetables, B620), a classic appetizer originating in Piedmont centuries ago. The tuna sauce is made with boiled eggs, capers, anchovies, and tuna marinated in oil, blended together and made into a light foam that’s topped on the veal loin to add a bit of twist, while keeping the taste traditional.

 

When talking about traditional Italian cuisine, one of the most contentious topics is of course pasta. Arguably the nation’s most famous food, it is also often widely modified (to the dismay of many Italian chefs) in ways to deviate from the Italian method. Not so here, says Lenzi, who believes the significance of pasta in Italian culture must be respected with authenticity. 

 

“For me, there’s only one way to do pasta, and that is the real way—there are techniques to respect,” he says. “So, we use those techniques here: all our pasta dishes are finished inside the pan, especially when we talk about seafood. Many of the seafood pastas need to be cooked for at least five minutes in the pan with the sauce, and we need to add the ingredients at the perfect time.”

 

 

An example of this in play can be seen in the concept of “creaminess” in Italian pastas. While much of the world mimics the creamy textures of Italian pasta by dumping cream straight into the pan, that is forbidden in traditional cooking. 

 

“To keep the flavor authentic, it depends mostly on the ingredients, including the quality of the pasta we use. When we follow the traditional technique, the pasta will become “creamy”, but what we mean by creamy has nothing to do with whipping cream. Plus, creamy is not liquid, so if you have the sauce that is liquid, then something is wrong. If the quality of the pasta or the way it is cooked is not right, this kind of creaminess cannot be achieved.” 

 

Among the best examples of what Casa Lenzi intends to deliver is spaghetti vongole bottarga (spaghetti in white wine sauce, Galician clams and shaved dried Bottarga, B980). The dish is commonly found at many restaurants, Italian or otherwise, but Casa Lenzi elevates this classic in two ways. First is the use of Galician clams, which the chef became obsessed with on a recent trip to the region. The second is how they are prepared in the pan. The result is a spaghetti dish that is not showered in sauce, yet full of flavors.

 

 

“What really makes this different is timing—if you don’t respect the time, you will ruin the recipe,” says Lenzi. “When you open up a clam, the water that comes out is the most important ingredient. Instead of discarding it like most, we keep it and add it back to the pan in the last 30 seconds of cooking. With 10 seconds to go, we add the clams back into the pan, which have already been cooked about 70-percent. If you do this right you get the full flavors of the sea. Do it wrong and you lose all of the flavor.”

 

Another highlight here is the spaghetti carabinero, ricci di mare e pomodorini (spaghetti with carabinero red prawn and sea urchin in cherry tomato sauce, B1,800)—gloriously umami-packed and bursting with flavors of the sea.  After the pasta is cooked, sea urchin go into a hot, but carefully temperature controlled, pan and are thoroughly mixed to obtain that aforementioned creamy-without-cream texture. The dish is dominated by a beautiful reddish color, which is derived from the carabineros (also known as cardinal prawns). Finally cherry tomatoes are used to add some bright and sweet notes that enhance the sea flavors. If you are a seafood lover, this is the dish to try. 

 

 

It wouldn’t be a proper Italian meal without a secondi (the dedicated meat or seafood course). A stunning option at Casa Lenzi is the bistecca fritta (breaded and fried Queensland 270-days grain-fed black Angus beef T-bone steak served with roasted potatoes and truffle mayo, B3,650/kg). The dish is all about getting the temperature and the timing right. Cooked medium rare, it’s wonderfully bouncy and juicy without being wet, chewy but light, and offers a one-off sensation and taste that is difficult to replicate without the thoughtful methods of preparation.

 

Wood fired food is another hallmark of Casa Lenzi, which uses wood to power both the grill and the oven when cooking most of the meats and seafood. A great example of this is the costoletta di maiale iberico (a 240g grilled Iberian pork chop, roasted vegetables and pork gravy, B900). The dish uses high quality Iberico pork imported straight from Spain, which is rested in the dry aging cabinet for just a few days to add “not too much, not too little” of those tangy dry-aged notes according to Lenzi. The preparation is key here, says the chef, and not so much how the dish is seasoned. Preparation of the ingredients is what makes the flavors shine, and shows itself even in the gravy. The whole dish is a massive umami bomb. 

 

 

The theme of Casa Lenzi is obvious on the plate. This isn’t a restaurant where you will find over-seasoned, intensely tangy foods. The flavors here walk that brilliant and hard to come by tightrope: delicate yet bold. The team says the ingredients are the star of that show and the intangible qualities of the techniques involved. This is not a restaurant for one-time excitement before moving on. This is a venue that is meant to be a longtime, consistent staple on the Italian food scene here. Everything done here is done with an intention to be consistent and eventually, slowly, refined. 

 

“Sometimes, what looks simple, it’s not,” says Lenzi “Because to make it really good, you need to have good ingredients. It’s about the quality, and for me, quality is health. I serve high quality food, and even high-quality water for myself, for my family, and for my customers.”

 

Less extravaganza, more intrinsic value. This is a fine-dining experience Bangkok needs, and Casa Lenzi is filling that gap.