17/08/2024: If you want to eat the best meat in central Italy....
If you want to be amazed by one of the best amatricianas in Italy....
If you want to be and pampered by wonderful and welcoming people, whose smile and courtesy are the added value of everything....
Here, come to the Genziana.
I am ready to confront anyone. Try to prove me wrong.
11/08/2024: A breath of magic. This is the air I breathed at "Genziana". Perhaps it was a comet that landed by chance in one of the most enchanting places in the upper Sabina Laziale, Leonessa. In this very elegant restaurant, I had the privilege of getting to know the owners: Alberto, the brazier, and Marika, the undisputed chef in the kitchen. But this is not a restaurant: it is a life experience, not only sensorial, but also emotional. Alberto welcomes customers with a welcome that smacks of ancient times, to be preserved; and the climate that is perceived is one of familiarity, of conviviality. Not only do you cook and taste it, but you listen to the stories. Of a land of pure beauty. The embers are real old school, a wood ember. And it's a first compliment. Cooking with post-modern methods is banned. The matured meat is very precious, and I was guided by Alberto in choosing the perfect steak, to each their own. An enchantment. Behind the scenes, but only apparently, Marika invents combinations for starters and first courses that leave their mark: with great imagination, giving space to strictly local seasonal products, she dishes up as if she were painting a picture by Michele Cascella. The smoked Angus carpaccio, with first fruits of figs and other fruit, is a rainbow of sensational flavors and essences. The ricotta and truffle panzerotti are perfect, the Angus meatballs with tomato, sublime; but, listen to me, ask for basil in addition, and then you will be able to tell me. I let Alberto, an expert in wines, pair the right glass of red for the steak, and let him do it. Many boast of improvising as a sommelier, Alberto actually is, but he doesn't boast about this. The vegetables are to be tasted together with the meat without discussion, you will notice the freshness of the raw material. At the end of the meal, there is a fairy tale for everyone: Alberto and Marika, as soon as they can, keep the customers company, telling the story of Leonessa, and its hidden wonders, offering the 'Genziana' - the only one of that kind - produced with the red wine. Something that cannot be described or explained in words. Because after eating at Genziana, it almost feels like you've entered a novel. Which was written there. You just have to let go, and it will be magic. With love and admiration, Gabriel
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