Consider the opener at Fico – a carrot and cumin gazpacho, scented with orange oil, tarragon and capers – a quiet declaration. It says something like: Here are some flavours and ideas you know well, combined in ways you didn’t see coming. And so it is for much of the loosely Italian nine-course menu, which dares to follow defiantly al dente Muscovy duck agnolotti in a green-cardamom sauce with a perfectly sculpted wild hare pithivier. Every taste and texture on the plate is ruthlessly interrogated, yet for every left-of-centre move they make, chefs Federica Andrisani and Oskar Rossi never lose sight of the fundamentals. Their towering tin-shaped sourdough loaf is uncompromisingly fluffy, and even the pangrattato scattered over hand-cut taglioni with tender calamari brims with uncommon freshness and crunch. These smarts extend to steady-handed service and a simpatico Franco-Italo-Tasmanian wine list, adding up to an experience that should top every Hobart diner’s dance card.
