Combal Zero

Reverse order at the castle pass

The tasting menu turns back on itself at Combal Zero in Rivoli, where Davide Scabin, Chef, sets avant-garde Italian cooking inside Castello di Rivoli. His long run here, from 1994 to 2020, fixed the terms by which many readers first came to his work: research-led, exacting in format, and careful about the easy comparison between cooking and art. Scabin has said, “I've always been careful with the parallel art/food, even when many of my colleagues claimed that cooking is creating art.” That caution matters in a room where the architecture and the menu both invite interpretation. He does not need the plate to behave like a canvas. He asks it to behave like a dish, even when the dish has been taken apart, re-ordered, or given a name that sounds as much like a device as a course. Cyber Egg, Zuppizza, Quadralink, Fassona al Camino, and Vitello Tonnato "Trattoria al Combal." mark the register: Italian memory under pressure, tested at the pass rather than dressed in theory.

Maccheroni lifted out of sequence

The program here is built as a tasting menu, served in reverse order, a decision that changes the usual rhythm of appetite and release. Instead of moving obediently toward weight, the meal begins with the premise that sequence is a material too. Maccheroni soufflé and cotoletta di filetto sit among the named dishes associated with the house, not as nostalgia pieces, but as formats Scabin can stretch without cutting their thread to the table. The culinary approach is avant-garde, and at the bench, the word is discipline. A soufflé asks for air, timing, and heat. A cutlet asks for the edge between crust and meat. Even when the plate is conceptual, the station still answers to texture. The wine program is curated rather than sprawling in description, which suits a kitchen that already works with reversal, compression, and surprise. Combal Zero held a place on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list at 28 in 2011, with 6 awards attached to the house; the numbers sit behind the service, not in front of it.

Modern glass against old stone

The room carries the tension plainly: thoroughly modern architecture set against ancient castle stones, with the views of Rivoli opening beyond the dining room. The contrast could become decorative, but here it gives the cooking a useful frame. Formal service keeps the movement quiet. The tasting format gives the pass control over pace. In that quiet, the whimsical side of the kitchen has room to land without noise doing the work for it. The house is intimate in scale, minimalist in posture, and sophisticated without needing to soften the edges of the idea. Castello di Rivoli is not a neutral shell. Its age presses against the modern room, and Scabin’s cooking presses back through maccheroni soufflé.