The restaurant — “It’s not an Italian restaurant, as such,” they told us — is the most modern of Italian restaurants. Were it not for the fact St Georges Terrace was just a few steps away, we could have been on the Via Brera in Milan.

No exaggeration.

We were sitting in the moodily lit Post restaurant at the Como the Treasury hotel, being served by a polished, well-groomed, good-looking young Italian man and listening to the buzz of conversation from around the half-filled room. It came to mind that we were sharing a very European experience — the kind of experience one gets in the northern cities of Italy where cuisine celebrates produce in a way that pays homage to the foraging Scandinavians and the chemistry-set Spaniards.

An excerpt of Rob Broadfield’s article in The West Australian. Read on for the rest of the article by Rob Broadfield.(opens in new tab)