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Carlo Cracco’s restaurant occupies one of the most storied addresses in Italy: the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan’s 19th century glass covered arcade, long associated with luxury shops, cafés, and civic spectacle.
To cook in such a setting is to contend with history and theater at once, and this book reflects that tension. Created in collaboration with the Italian artists’ collective TOILETPAPER, it documents Cracco in Galleria not simply as a dining room but as an immersive environment where fine dining, interior design, and contemporary art meet.
Cracco’s credentials are formidable. He trained with Gualtiero Marchesi, the first chef to earn three Michelin stars in Italy, worked with Alain Ducasse in France, and later led Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence during its three Michelin star era.
Here, however, technical authority is paired with visual playfulness. More than fifty recipes, rooted in Italian tradition but willing to stretch it, appear alongside surreal, color saturated imagery. Dishes such as spaghetti with barbecued fish and tomato and ginger sauce, veal marrow with smoked almonds, and even chocolate and lardo soufflés suggest a kitchen that treats tradition as foundation rather than boundary.
The result has a touch of theatrical whimsy, recalling the imaginative spirit of Dalí’s Les Diners de Gala, while remaining grounded in the technique of a chef at the top of his profession. For readers interested in ambitious Italian cooking and the evolving idea of the restaurant as cultural stage, this book offers both substance and spectacle.
Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.
Published on January 6, 2026
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