Issue:
December
2011

By Mara Bivone

Rome has always been a food magnet for me  ever since as a child I used to visit my aunt Ornela who was famous in the family for her eccentricity and her bucatini all’ amatriciana. Aunt Ornela had gone to Rome right before the war (WWII) to study art. When the war started, she was living with a famous painter, who she eventually married, in a decrepit palazzo in Rome’s outskirts. After the war, I spent enjoyable summers at aunt Ornela’s, playing with oil paints from the studio, running around the overgrown garden, and dressing up like a grown up. Aunt Ornela loved to cook dressed in long, flowing medieval outfits and her table was always set for 12, no matter how many people were supping with us. The primo was always the above-mentioned bucatini that, according to her friends and culinary admirers, was better than any other bucatini served in either restaurants or private homes. And, aunt Ornela’s food was indeed exceptional, not only the bucatini but also most everything else she made.

So, Rome has always meant “good food” to me and now I can go to a restaurant, take a look at the kitchen, talk with the cook  and tell you whether the meal will be exceptional, just good or bad and don’t waste your time and money there.

There is a number of restaurants in Rome that I love and will go there every time I’m in or anywhere near the Eternal City.

My top choice is Agata e Romeo (Via Carlo Alberto, 45). It is a delightful family ristorante. Agata Parisella is in the kitchen, Romeo Caraccio, the husband, is the sommelier – he is also the host most of the times, and daughter Mariantonietta is in charge of the service. Theirs is a rather romantic story; Romeo was a fourth-year medical student when he met the beautiful Agata, who was working at the family’s simple “hosteria”. The rest is history, and now the osteria has morphed into one of the best Roman restaurants and Agata and Romeo are much in demand to cook at official government functions as well as catering for the Roman aristocracy. Agata, has been researching traditional regional Roman dishes and serves them daily prepared with the freshest available ingredients. The cellar is extremely well stocked with some of the best regional Italian wines as well as outstanding bottles from other parts of the world; in fact, it has won for two consecutive years the title of the best restaurant cellar in Italy. And Agata prepares the best bucatini all’ amatriciana, second only to aunt Ornela’s.

Another restaurant I love is La Rosetta (Via della Rosetta, 8). This is a fairly “new” (established in 1966) also family-owned fish restaurant. The owner/chef, Massimo Riccioli, the creative soul of the restaurant, cooks using only the freshest ingredients. Every morning select fish is brought to La Rosetta from the ports in Anzio, Civitavecchia, and Terracina. In the afternoon Marco, Massimo Riccioli’s trusty helper, carefully selects at the same ports, as the fishing boats come-in, the fish that will be served at La Rosetta the same evening. This procedure has been followed for years as a part of the restaurant's philosophy, and guarantees the quality, the freshness, and diversity of the menu. Massimo Riccioli, is a great connoisseur of flavors and his Sicilian-style cooking is the proof.

A German chef, in an American hotel, in the middle of Rome, serving tasty Mediterranean food, in a rooftop restaurant with an amazing view. That’s what people say when they describe La Pergola on top of the Cavallieri Hilton (Via Alberto Cadlolo, 101). Heinz Beck has been impressing Roman foodies with exceptional cuisine, an impressive wine list, and attentive but not intrusive staff. And, it’s not just tourist or hotel guests that frequent this gem of a restaurant. It’s the local upper middle class that has become the loyal clientele of Chef Beck’s, because of the fine dining experience. Even the mineral water menu with 40 choices makes sense in that environment. On the pricey side, but well worth it.

Another hotel rooftop restaurant with wonderful views, excellent food and wine, and solicitous staff is La Terrazza dell’ Eden (Via Ludovisi, 49). The Hotel Eden’s management contract was recently taken over by Starwood, (a giant American hospitality company that has numerous brands) as part of the Méridien group of properties Starwood acquired. In most cases, the quality of service improves as Starwood takes over. Certainly, it would be hard to improve on La Terrazza, but let’s hope the quality will remain unchanged.

Shades of La Dolce Vita. A favorite place, not for the food that is mediocre at best, but for people watching, is Café de Paris (via Vittorio Veneto, 90) right across from the Excelsior Hotel, where one can sit with a glass of wine in the glassed-in verandah, and watch the world’s beautiful and not-so-beautiful people go by. 
 

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