Umbria is the green heart of Italy, a land where time appears to be suspended between the relaxing landscapes, rich artistic and religious heritage and food and wine culture supremacy.
In Italy, food choices are often made based on regional and seasonal factors. Eating seasonal isn't a trend here; rather, it's been a normal part of life for generations.
For example, the hunting of cinghiale, or wild boars, begins in November, so at this time you will find such dishes as cinghiale alla cacciatora, a slow sautée of carrots, onions, celery, and spices.
If you say “Volare” you immediately think of Italy’s most famous worldwide song (whose title “Nel Blu dipinto di Blu” was changed into “Volare” in Dean Martin’s version). It immediately transmits the light heartedness, the fantasy, the irony that are typical of the Italian people and their way of life.
In Chicago, when you say “Volare” you immediately think of Benny Siddu’s restaurants, that like the mythic 50s song, transport you to the country of the sun, with their delicious regional dishes, their rich Italian wine list (about 350 labels, one of the best in Chicago, topped only by “Benny’s Chop House”, Siddu’s steak house, that contains 2500 labels), their interior design so full of colours, candle sticks, paintings (by famous painter Matt Lamb), give the impression of being in a typical Italian trattoria, simple and elegant at the same time, with the kitchen in plain view, the red brick oven, the Carrara marble bar.
From the small “Trattoria Veneta” in the heart of Little Italy in Chicago (with only 40 seats and always a cue that went all the way outside), where mother used to help in the kitchen, to Executive Chef of the 312 Chicago, in the Chicago Loop (the restaurant together with the adjacent Allegro Hotel, is part of the Kimpton Boutique Hotels & Restaurants).
Luca Corazzina has gone a long way and his dishes have evolved alongside his career: he has always stayed loyal to the Veneto and Italian tradition but with imaginative innovations that made him win the Italian Quality Seal Award, a prize granted to him directly by the Italian Government through the Chicago Chamber of Commerce.
The winner of the “White Guide Global Gastronomy Award”, a kind of Nobel prize for gastronomy awarded every year in Stockholm, is the Italian chef Massimo Bottura.
The prize was awarded to Bottura on the same day in which the film director Paolo Sorrentino won the Oscar for “The Great Beauty”.
In 1995, Massimo Bottura opened the “Osteria La Francescana” in Modena (in the centre-north part of Italy), that obtained the third Michelin star in 2011; this is what can be read in the Michelin Guide about Bottura and his restaurant:
We use cookies to enhance your experience. By continuing to visit this site you agree to our use of cookies.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
