Da Fusillo

Open studio and dining experience for The World of Coffee in Milan

Da’ in Italian means ‘at’ ‘from’ or ‘to’ but is also used as a traditional way to name a location where social gatherings take place, usually one that includes hosting and gives a feeling of being at home, as well as meeting people.

As you may know The World of Coffee fair took place in Milan at the end of June. This event was scheduled to take place in Warsaw, Ukraine but due to the current circumstances was moved to Milan in Italy, (the hometown of the espresso) and is committed to donating 100% of the attendee revenues to Ukrainian coffee businesses and professionals in need.

As we are coffee enthusiasts and we enjoy hosting and making connections, we decided to take part in the event by opening the doors of our studio. We wanted to welcome our community and share what we do at the Lab on a daily basis.

We started the day by organising the space, watering the plants and making sure we had our home-roasted coffee selection ready to brew during the day. Our friend and collaborator @gianlucarossetti started live cooking for the invitees and he was also sharing the list of ingredients and as well as the recipes. He made some spiced mini plum cakes and nut-caramel bars, which paired perfectly with the coffee. In addition to this, he was preparing the mise en place for the dinner we planned for the evening.

Alongside the cooking scene, we started showcasing the coffees that we carefully picked out. We talked about origins, smelt them, roasted some green beans in our @ikawahome machine, ground them with the @weberworshops Key grinder and made some espressos and filter coffee. Our curious guests participated actively in the whole process and made some great coffee. We also shared a lot of coffee brewing tips for an exceptional sensorial experience. This was our coffee selection:

Inzovu, Red Bourbon Peaberry, Rwanda, washed
Luis Anibal, Pink Bourbon, Colombia, washed
Finca Los Angeles, Pacamara, El Salvador, honey

By Matteo Pavoni @peacockscoffee

Danilo Perez, Caturra, Colombia, Anaerobic Extended 200 h Fermentation

By @cofinet

Simultaneously, @elenapegurri was documenting the event by taking reportage pictures as well as authentic still photos with natural light on a styled set with natural fabrics and handmade ceramics.

The day went by quickly and we started preparing everything for the 10 seat intimate gathering. Gianluca created an authentic and seasonal 4 course menu which was paired with a selection of natural wine curated by our friend, Graziano Nani @hellofawine_ who was also present during the dinner. We set up our long table with simple, but elegant @kintoeurope tableware. We arranged some vases with organic flowers from @raw.fleurs and added some candles, mixed ceramics and glassware for the guests. The light was beautiful and it gently touched the setting.

As we give a lot of value to ingredients and their origin, we decided to go for a simple yet refined and flavorful menu which highlighted the essence of the produce.

To start we served a zucchini cream with salted and raw zucchini served with toasted bread and aromatic herbs. We paired it with a lightly sparkling white wine from Emilia Romagna, Lubigo, Croci, 2020. Then we continued with a refreshing zero waste gazpacho with a hard-boiled egg. For this we went for a Naturalmente frizzante from Casa Belfi in Veneto. The third dish was undoubtedly the favorite; an Acquerello risotto with pomodoro confit and basil cream. It was perfectly balanced and rich in flavor. At that point we offered two wines: a complex dry white wine with long maceration, a Fricandò from Al di là del fiume and an intense orange from Tuscany, Chiarofiore, Tunia 2015. To finish this charming encounter we served a fresh dessert: marinated peaches with hazelnut crumble and spiced whipped cream accompanied with a sicilian passito, Malvasia Delle Lipari, Fenech.

At the end of the dinner we could not skip the espresso, probably the most Italian manner of finishing a meal; @lammaigal made an extraordinary creamy espresso with @lamarzoccohome. A home roasted anaerobic Colombian Castillo from Danilo Perez supplied by our friends from @cofinet.

We are looking forward to hosting more unique experiences in order to connect with creative minds that are interested in conveying the same values as ours: quality, honesty, sustainability, respect and creativity.