By Aubrey Buckingham (Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2007-04-16 09:23

There is a tendency for people to complain that fine dining can be somewhat pricey.

Five-star meals often involve a great deal of pomp and ceremony as people who pay top dollar expect an experience that appears to be as grand as the final bill.

Cucina, at the Grand Hyatt Shanghai, goes for a slightly different approach. The 56 floor trattoria, one of three around the magnificent atrium beneath the hotel rooms, goes for a more casual approach.

With its magnificent view, the focus is on good ingredients, classical flavors and efficient service even if the seats are fancier than benches and there are not checkered tablecloths.

"Some guests come here after traveling through Asia and the rest of China," said the property's chef de cuisine Stefano Di Salvo. "They really want some Italian food that reminds them of home; they're not looking for anything fancy."

The restaurant changes its menu every four to five months, and offers interesting promotions through the year. Starting Friday through April 29, the Jinmao Tower hotel is presenting a taste of the Italian south with its Sicilian promotion.

The island is the largest in the Mediterranean Sea. Fans of the film "Cinema Paradiso" will instantly recall the sand-blasted buildings and dusty shores that dot the coast. The autonomous region is particularly well-known for its agricultural products, especially olives, oranges and wine.

Chef Di Salvo was born in Turin to a Sicilian father, and his family's recipes have greatly influenced his cooking style.

The appetizer stewed bell pepper with onion and tomato was served with a Palermo tuna ballotine stuffed with breadcrumbs, anchovies, rosemary and covered with a sprinkling of olive oil (130 yuan/US$16.80). Appetizers are as important as the first scene of a play or the first chapter in a book, and this dish magically transports diners to the Mediterranean coast. Each bite alludes to the salty sea breeze and the setting summer sun reflecting on the warm water.

"My uncle used to make this," said Di Salvo. "He would roll it with his own hands and it was always beautiful."

Think Italy and pizza immediately springs to mind, the Sicilian offers an interesting take on this concept. Scacciata catanese (130 yuan) is a stuffed version of the popular dish with cooked ham, caciocavallo cheese (a Southern Italian specialty), onion, black olives, freshly sliced tomato and anchovies again.

"Sicily is an island, so the main occupation is fishing. Tuna and anchovies are plentiful in the waters around."

Most gourmands have a love-hate relationship with the small fish. Extremely salty, the taste is so extreme it has the potential to overwhelms everything else. With the ingredients above, however, it cedes attention as much as it fights for it, and the pizza certainly did its job of getting the saliva flowing.

Just in time too, as the main course of lamb loin in marsala sauce, zucchini and gratinated tomato (280 yuan) arrived. Marsala is a sweet Italian wine from the Sicilian city of the same name. The dish was so rustic it tasted sincere, traditional and down-to-earth. It did not try to achieve too much but it hit the mark head-on. This was a hearty course, a salt-of-the-earth dish.

Desert was a pleasant sponge cake with homemade ricotta cheese, chocolate and candied orange (70 yuan).

A number of Sicilian wines will be available during the promotion. The 2005 Tre Feudi Nero d'Avola is made from a less popular indigenous grape, but was well structured and delightfully balanced. The acidity was so crisp and fresh that it practically tingled on the tongue.

Cucina
Address: 56/F, 88 Century Boulevard
Tel: 021-50491234 ext 8908