My daughter lives in Milan and I visited her for a few days before Christmas. On the first night I took her to Ristorante Piazza Repubblica which I’ll write about later and for lunch on the day I was leaving she took me to Restaurant Cracco, a 2 Michelin star restaurant.

The amuse bouche were amazing and included black bread with lardo, a tiny tiny olive bread with an intense cheese flavor and a piece of olive in it. Also there was a basket of incredibly crispy vegetable sheets including courgette flowers in a tempura so light it was almost non-existent. Then one of the most amazing things I’ve ever eaten – Russian Salad in a caramel coating! Weirdest sounding thing ever but divine.

We shared a starter (no problem at all when we requested this) of pasta with tomato, raw fish and a lemon sauce. Our main courses were a fish casserole which was out of this world and a Milanese veal dish. The latter being the only disappointment of the meal, my fault I chose badly.

We didn’t have desert but the coffee was served with the most fantastic petit fours. One plate contained three different petit fours each containing blackberry. Alongside, in a sort of toast rack, dried very thinly sliced fruits – apple, pear, kiwi, orange I remember well. Plus icing sugar dusted almonds and cocoa dusted hazelnuts.

Service was an equal match to the food and after the meal I was invited into the kitchen to meet the chef. Altogether a wonderful experience.