As Nordelaia reopens for spring following its winter closure, the Italian hotel unveils a new chapter for its experimental dining restaurant, Lorto.

Developed by Resident Chef Charles Pearce and translated as ‘the vegetable garden’, Lorto is a refined dining experience where the cooking steps away from traditional, typically meat-heavy Piedmontese cuisine. The new menu centres on family-style dining, with dishes designed for sharing to encourage a more informal experience while retaining its original ethos of conscious cooking using the best locally sourced and homegrown ingredients.

For the new iteration, Pearce has leaned into his British roots for inspiration while retaining a strong vegetable identity, combining traditional British flavours with local Italian ingredients and technically ambitious cooking.

Snacks include antique corn tostada with Ligurian tuna crudo and fermented citrus, and donut with lentil curry, plum ketchup and nasturtium. The bread, butter and olive oil course remains a highlight, featuring a honey glazed fermented potato bun, seeded grissini and marmite butter. Signature ‘inizio’ starter dishes include Ligurian prawn crudo with aguachile and spiced butter hollandaise; barbecued garden lettuce and peas, walnut ketchup and lettuce velouté; and beef tongue carpaccio with salsa verde, rocket and lemon.

Main dishes include braised pig head agnolotti, smoked butter and meat jus gremolada; and vegetable-led lumache pasta with garden herb sauce, garlic and chilli. Guests can also choose from barbecued meat, plant and sea dishes such as pressed Varesio chicken leg with potato chips, asparagus, garden bolognese and fermented white asparagus velouté.

The seasonal desserts are inspired by British flavours, including fresh strawberries with strawberry and angostura sorbet, and Pearce’s take on sticky toffee pudding: sticky flourless date cake, whey caramel and coffee ice cream.

The restaurant itself has been moved to the ground floor of Nordelaia’s three-storey restaurant building, with the spaces above and below now available for private hire and pop ups.