Osteria Il Bibbio In Capolona

09/09/2025: Fantastic experience. One of the three most memorable gastronomic epiphanies of my life. Excellent. If you decide to visit Casentino, I recommend Mater!

06/09/2025: Mine isn't appetite, it's a true hunger for simplicity, beauty, and harmony. In gastronomy, reaching the essence of simplicity is the most difficult feat possible, because simplicity lies in the use of a few good raw materials and a few, but expert, techniques. And Filippo does this at Mater. But there's something even more difficult. In life, as in cooking, we seek the "landscape," but we know nothing about "nature." Director Ermanno Olmi said that you can't love a forest by thinking of it only as an oxygen factory. Do you want to love a forest? Kneel down and look at it closely. Filippo and Marta go to the Camaldoli forest in their free time, kneel down, look closely, listen with all five senses, and dream of a dish. Many chefs are passionate about what they do, but Filippo's passion is imbued with a strength that runs through him, which isn't simply the strength of the ego, but something beyond the ego. This is why his passion isn't blind, it's visionary, and this is why, as a dear friend says, he manages to go beyond "banal perfection." Luigi Verdi