The Restaurant
In our kitchen we utilize mainly our biological garden products. In fact Villa Maria
is surrounded by wonderful terraced gardens where every morning our farmers harvest
the biological products (fertilized with humus from near mountains sheep and goats'
breeding) which can be savoured in our restaurant. Our guest are welcomed
to stroll through the gardens and even visit the cave chapel at the end of the gardens,
where farmers used to stop and pray during work pause.
The restaurant opened, just like the hotel, in 1934 with grandma Orsola at the burners;
today it is possible to savour regional and local cuisine recipes improved with
knowledge and modern taste by the coast's famous chefs.
The restaurant, suggested by major culinary guides, has received awards from the
Gambero Rosso and from the Italian Culinary Academy, the TV network BBC, has filmed
the chefs at work for the program "This Morning" starring Lloyd
Grossman and gastronomy expert Antonio Carluccio.
Well know are the Cooking Schools who take place here, led by a famous professor
of historical gastronomy, they go from the harvest of produce from the biological
garden to tasting what has been cooked by the same partecipants.
Photos of American writer Gore Vidal, sociologist Domenico De Masi, the surgeon
Antonio Guarnieri, Susan Sarandon, Matt Dillon and Hugh Grant just to mention a
few, hang on the walls as everlasting memories. Giulio Andreotti, Maria Gabriella
di Savoia, Gianni Brera, Luciano De Crescenzo, Irene Papas, Vittorio Sgarbi, Lina
Wertmuller are among others who enjoyed dining at Palumbo family's restaurant.