Così: an Italian menu turns towards the sea

At Così, a seafood menu did not require abandoning the structure of an Italian meal. Small plates, antipasti and pasta provided the sequence; the ingredients shifted the emphasis.

WAYFARER’s April 2024 report described seven additions at Renato Carioni’s restaurant on Rua Haddock Lobo in São Paulo’s Jardins. Its interest was in how familiar preparations could be reworked without making the menu difficult to recognise.

A beginning made for sharing

Taleggio bruschetta paired melted cheese with dried fruit and honey from native bees. A knife-cut beef crudo arrived with a small burrata and pesto, while grilled prawns met romaine lettuce, avocado and a Caesar-style dressing.

The first dishes established several textures before the menu moved more explicitly towards the sea. Bread, raw meat, leaves and grilled shellfish made the opening less uniform than a succession of seafood plates.

Pasta as the connecting form

Lasagna di Mare combined mussels, prawns, octopus and squid with fresh tomato sauce. Crab ravioli used a citrus-and-saffron sauce, finished with basil oil.

Those combinations retained forms a diner could recognise while changing the filling, sauce and balance around them. The account’s menu details belong to 2024 and are not presented as current availability.

Carioni’s additions offer a straightforward argument for evolution: a restaurant can change the subject of a dish without changing the grammar through which people understand it.