Cracco

Cracco is the restaurant of the chef Carlo Cracco in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in central Milan. Its entrance is on Via Silvio Pellico.

Cracco grew up near Vicenza, studied at the hotel school of Recoaro Terme and began under Gualtiero Marchesi in Milan. In Paris he worked for Alain Ducasse and for Alain Senderens at Lucas Carton, and as head chef of Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence he saw that restaurant reach three Michelin stars for the first time. He opened Cracco Peck in Milan in 2001, and it earned two stars under his name. In 2018 he moved the restaurant from Via Victor Hugo into the Galleria, and the guide that year took away one of the two stars.

The new home spreads over five floors of the arcade. A café, bistro, pastry and chocolate shop and wine shop share the building with a cellar and a private room for events. The restaurant itself sits on the first floor above the arcade, with an Art Deco reception and plates by Richard Ginori based on drawings by Gio Ponti, and the pastry kitchen works a few floors higher. Below lies the cellar that supplies the dining room.

Cracco made his name with a marinated egg yolk, a caramelized Russian salad, aubergine with elderflower and prawns, and rice with lentils. At the opening in the Galleria the kitchen served a yellow risotto with chicken livers, an oyster laid on buffalo mozzarella and a small focaccia of potato and truffle, dishes that keep Milanese and southern Italian ideas close together. Beyond the kitchen, Cracco became known across Italy as a judge on MasterChef Italia and the host of Hell's Kitchen Italia. The restaurant holds a Michelin star.