Seta by Antonio Guida – Milan's two-star silk route

Seta takes its name from the Italian word for silk, a material whose trade routes once linked Milan to the East, echoing the origins of its host, the Mandarin Oriental, Milan. Set inside the hotel's second courtyard, a few minutes from La Scala, it holds Two MICHELIN Stars, awarded with unusual speed: a star arrived within three months of opening, and a second followed not long after. Chef Antonio Guida took over the kitchen when the hotel opened in the summer of 2015, having already won two stars at Il Pellicano on the Tuscan coast. His cooking reads Milan's cosmopolitan appetite, shaped by years spent in Paris and Florence, in an international, contemporary register rather than a strictly regional one. Diners eat under glass walls that give onto the courtyard, from hand-painted Fornasetti china, inside a building raised from four restored eighteenth-century palazzi.

01The room and the setting

The hotel occupies four adjoining eighteenth-century townhouses in the centre of Milan, a few steps from the Duomo and La Scala. One of them, the late-Baroque Palazzo Confalonieri, was a meeting point for revolutionaries during the 1821 uprisings against Austrian rule. Architects Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel restored the complex, drawing on the work of Gio Ponti and Piero Portaluppi for its interiors.

Seta occupies the hotel's second courtyard: a dining room walled in glass that opens onto the courtyard for outdoor dining in the warmer months, with an open kitchen visible to guests. Each morning, staff lay fifty-five black-and-white Fornasetti plates on tables still warm from the iron. For private parties of up to eight, there is the Saletta Duomo, built around a panel based on a 1951 Fornasetti drawing in which Milan's cathedral appears submerged beneath swimming fish.

02The chef

Antonio Guida was born in 1972 in Puglia's Salento, in the town of Tricase. He began as a kitchen commis in 1998, after hotel school, working through kitchens in Italy, France and Asia, including spells with Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence and Don Alfonso in Sant'Agata sui due Golfi, followed by two years as sous-chef at La Terrazza, the restaurant of Rome's Hotel Eden.

Insider tip

Closed Sunday and Monday; smart dress code; booking recommended well ahead.

In 2004 he became executive chef of Il Pellicano in Porto Ercole, where he won a Michelin star that became two in 2010, followed by three forks from the Gambero Rosso guide in 2011. He moved to Milan to open Seta in the summer of 2015; MICHELIN awarded the restaurant a star that December, and a second the following year. He runs the kitchen with Executive Sous-Chef Federico Dell'Omarino and Pastry Chef Marco Pinna.

03The cooking

Seta offers three distinct tasting menus: one built from Guida's own classic dishes, one that follows the seasons, and one structured around a single ingredient, the cuisine drawing on Milan's cosmopolitan tastes rather than strict regional tradition. In winter, the kitchen turns to game and to cinnamon-scented veal sweetbreads with carrots and a passion-fruit sauce, a risotto with raspberries and a herb cream, and desserts such as a millefeuille of pumpkin cream, coffee and caper leaf.

04What to order

The raspberry risotto with herb cream and a roasted lobster with bagna cauda both number among the dishes Guida chose to revisit for an anniversary menu tracing the kitchen's history back to Seta's opening. In winter, look for the cinnamon-scented veal sweetbreads with carrots and passion-fruit sauce, finishing with the millefeuille of pumpkin cream, coffee and caper leaf.

05Wine and drinks

The list runs past 1,300 labels, available by the glass as well as the bottle, enhanced by magnums of notable vintages and a considered selection of non-alcoholic pairings for more moderate drinking.

06When to go and booking

The hotel's entrance on Via Andegari sits a few minutes from La Scala and from the fashion addresses of Via Montenapoleone and Via Manzoni. Seta serves lunch and dinner from Tuesday to Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday, with lunch from 12.30pm to 2.30pm and dinner from 7.30pm to 10.30pm. The dress code is smart: men are asked to wear full-length trousers and closed-toe shoes, and guests can request the Chef's Table for a close view of the kitchen at work.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.