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 en years ago, the Hapsburg Lorena princes decided to open a restaurant in Florence: La Giostra. The news of a noble family handling with dishes and napkins caused a sensation, but not for everyone. The family friends who were accustomed to gathering around the table of the prince at the castle of Barberino Val d'Elsa in Chiantishire, had often suggested the idea. The many restaurants that were supplied with olive oil, wine and other products of the estate had started fearing what would come ever since the prince began asking them (and obtaining) some recipes of their chefs.
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The daughter Anastasia, and the sons, Dimitri with Soldano who is responsible for the cellar, knew exactly that the idea would have passioned all the family into a full time job. The passion started in Wien, when the grandmother began taking the nephew to the kitchens of the castle and only once the servitude had been dismissed she would show him what she called “the big magic”: the natural leaving of krapfens. |
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A fantastic spell that charmed the young prince, who was bound to a life of prying into old recipes manuscripts, anecdotes, and suggestions on how to prepare the dishes of the Hapsburg and Lorenese tradition. “The sciences are not like Minerva that came out of Jupiter all armed, they are daughters of time”, here in lies the secret of La Giostra. One expectes a typical cuisine, instead new savors are discovered, hundred years old. The flavours of a forgotten Tuscany, when the restaurant rooms, surmounted by Sixteen century arches in red brick hosted the merry-go-round in Salvemini square, from which the prices got the name of their restaurant. Where shiny horses rested once upon a time, today there are only just sixteen tables, where couples, beautiful women, famous guests and also entire theatre troupes sit now and then… All of them united by the love of good cuisine and by the pleasure of a refined hospitality: in a “homely”, warm and cozy environment. It is a merit of the historic chef Ubaldo Tonarelli, who cooperates with the talented Japanese, Aruki Igari, but most of all it is the merit of Liliana, who prepares all different kinds of fresh, handmade pasta every morning. A joyful party of people who know how to give happiness…
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Because food is necessary and choosing it is a privilege, but cooking it is an art. |
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