From Hell’s Kitchen to Contigliano, Carlotta Delicato's essential cuisine attracts gastronomy enthusiasts to a small village at the foot of the Sabine Mountains. Nothing is missing to define it as a "gourmet destination"; indeed, in a short time, the chef has brought to life a beautiful human and culinary reality.
The story
It's always a matter of choices, and priorities, especially when facing the eternal problem of how to reconcile family and career, from which different doses derive great successes or epochal failures: "We wanted to become parents," the relevant part of the story begins like this.
In June 2022, Carlotta Delicato and Gabriele Tarquini opened their restaurant in the fairytale village of Contigliano, a few kilometers from Terni and Rieti, between Lazio and Umbria, which serves as the backdrop for the restaurant but at the same time, it substantiates itself in it, becoming one of its main attractions, as well as their new home. So, let's proceed in order.
Carlotta Delicato, born in 1994, has shown a great passion for cooking since she was a child. She took her "first steps" in Cassino at the restaurant "22 Laboratorio di Cucina". Then, in 2016, the triumphant experience at Hell’s Kitchen Italia with Carlo Cracco opened the doors to the most prestigious restaurants, until she arrived in the kitchen of the JW Marriot Venice. Here begins a new adventure, a new professional path that intersects with that of her future husband Gabriele, who at the time was in charge of supervising the customer experience in the food & beverage sector, and redesigns her concept of luxury, laying the foundations for an idea of identity cuisine, closely linked to the essential and familial adjectives.
When Carlotta was asked to start the kitchen at the prestigious Marriot W Costa Rica Resort, Gabriele left his job to join her in this new adventure, which allowed her to strengthen her natural inclination towards craftsmanship, thanks to the close contact with nature and the growing respect for the environment and the territory.
However, the most complex, challenging, and formative experience for both, both professionally and as a couple, is in Barcelona, where Gabriele was hired by an important hotel chain to take care of reception and guest relations, while Carlotta became the Executive chef of the W Barcelona and was tasked with creating Fire, the hotel's main restaurant, with a style focused on fire in its various forms, from preparations to cooking methods: "I had to create a restaurant for the Catalans inside a hotel, it wasn't an easy task," she admits.
This tough test, however, allows her to definitively forge her cooking style, characterized by marinades and direct cooking, aimed at highlighting raw materials, enhancing their flavors and authenticity: "Artificial dishes don't represent me, I like impactful, essential cuisine," she continues. Carlotta's work does not go unnoticed, to the point that the lifestyle magazine La Vanguardia in 2020 includes her among the most influential women in Spanish cuisine and projects her to the peak of her career.
It was at this historic moment that Federico, their firstborn, was conceived, shaking up the couple's life: "Initially, we were confident," Gabriele recounts, "the city was very livable, and travel was easy, we had two successful careers, a beautiful home, we were fine, we lacked nothing. However, over time, concerns grew about a future that would see Federico grow up without our constant presence, due to too many work commitments, and that wasn't what we wanted. So, without yet having a clear idea of what we would do, we decided to give up everything and return to Italy."
Fate had it that this small place in Contigliano, Gabriele's hometown, was for sale, ideal for setting up a family-run restaurant, which entailed less burdensome commitments, but above all, more flexible and compatible working hours with a young child: "We strongly wanted to reconcile family life with work, and this seemed to us the best solution, also considering the proximity and support of both my parents, who live here, and Carlotta's parents, who live two hours away," Gabriele continues.
The Restaurant
So, after years of significant experiences around the world, Carlotta and Gabriele decided to settle in Contigliano, where they opened the Delicato restaurant: "Initially, it was tough, many thought we wouldn't make it in this remote village," Gabriele recounts, "then fortunately word of mouth and mention in the main gastronomic guides gave us visibility and encouraged many people to come and visit us." The restaurant is located in the upper part of the medieval village, inside an ancient building that once housed the main commercial activities in the area, from groceries to pharmacies, through the butcher, before the opening of the provincial road pushed the inhabitants to move further down.
About twenty years ago, the palace was renovated, and the rooms were connected to each other to create a unique place, full of charm, which preserves the original floors, the characteristic exposed stone walls, and a very large cave dug into the semi-basement, formerly used as a pantry and today partly used as a cellar: "At the moment we left it like this, but the idea is to exploit it further, given the particular microclimate inside," explains Gabriele.
The restaurant is divided into two small rooms and includes eight tables, which become sixteen in the summer by utilizing the outdoor area; the atmosphere is intimate, romantic, and welcoming, thanks also to the artisanal furnishings and minimal mise en place that fully reflects Carlotta's philosophy. The cuisine synthesizes various experiences but is the natural evolution of Spanish cuisine, as it retains suggestions, influences, and techniques learned, but frees itself from unnecessary frills to focus on the ingredient, processing it minimally to enhance its peculiarities and ensure it remains the star of the dish.
"Returning from Spain, I wanted to focus on a product-driven, immediate, understandable cuisine, enhanced by direct cooking methods and strongly linked to small local artisanal businesses, capable of providing top-quality raw materials," explains Carlotta. This leads to a simple and dynamic menu that depends entirely on the seasons and the availability of certain ingredients, which may be replaced without disrupting a path aimed at remaining identity-based, consistent with the local context, and above all, conveying the pleasure of dining, even to those with specific dietary preferences or suffer from allergies or intolerances, accommodated and embraced by Chef Delicato with absolute naturalness, without any prejudice.
A concise menu is available from which to choose, selecting seasonal proposals or some iconic and unmovable dishes, both described solely by the ingredients that compose them, such as leek with romesco sauce or rabbit buttons with mascarpone and lime, or opting for one of the two tasting menus that can be tailored to guests, without particular impositions or constraints, ranging from 6 courses for 75 euros to 8 courses for 100.
The dishes
Simplicity also means knowing how to do away with various amuse-bouches, often forgettable and disconnected from the culinary philosophy, to present a simple tartlet of burnt wheat with celeriac and almonds, clean, direct, consistent, well done. It starts with one of Carlotta's signature dishes, the "Leek Romesco," a zero waste dish that uses the leek in its entirety: the root is fried, the green part is reduced to powder and used as seasoning, the white part is cooked at low temperature and burned with a blowtorch, at the center, the romesco sauce served cold, based on hazelnuts, almonds, pimenton de la vera, and ñora pepper paste, the equivalent of our tomato paste but made with peppers and also used as a base for paella.
"I am very attached to this dish, it originated at the Fire in Barcelona. I still remember the skepticism from my colleagues who claimed it was too much of a home-cooked dish, considering the local tradition of grilling calçots (a type of green onion), but I was convinced I could do it better," says Carlotta. Next is the "Venison, Pomegranate, Beets," a marinated venison carpaccio with aromatic herbs, accompanied by fresh pomegranate, raspberry vinegar, yogurt, and lightly smoked beets, which integrate very well with the freshness and acidity of the other elements.
The "Egg, Potatoes, Mushrooms" represents comfort food par excellence: egg cooked at 65°C served with a Leonessa potato mousse, 36-month aged Parmigiano Reggiano, crumble, and porcini mushroom and white truffle sauce, if available: "We also have more identifiable dishes on the menu to meet the needs of those approaching a more refined cuisine for the first time," says Carlotta. Interesting is the chapter of the first courses, which opens with the "Rabbit Button, Mascarpone, Lime," another very popular dish: homemade egg pasta stuffed with stewed rabbit and served with a cold mascarpone and lime mousse, brown sauce, and hazelnut butter: "The use of cream in cooking is often demonized," comments Carlotta, "but I don't mind, so to reproduce that functional fatty note to the dish, I inserted a light mascarpone mousse, softened by the freshness of the lime."
Next is "Pappardelle, Cauliflower, Truffle," a vegetarian dish, seemingly one of the least interesting on the menu, but surprisingly tasty, with a unique alternation of flavors that disorient, as they make each bite different from the other. It is an egg pappardelle that wants to resemble a classic butter and Parmesan pasta: the cauliflower is cooked at low temperature, rests for 48 hours in the fridge, is whipped in a planetary mixer to obtain a butter, then the cauliflower base and the prized black truffle are added: "This dish arose from the need to insert a delicate flavor into a menu characterized by very strong tastes and the abundant use of proteins, it has a deliberately secondary role but becomes more or less interesting depending on the moment of the meal in which you taste it," comments the chef. The following first course is indulgent and satisfying: “Cannelloni, Tail, Broccoletti, Sour Cream” features an ultra-thin green pastry made with broccoli and filled with shredded oxtail, cooked traditionally for the first part and finished without adding the typical aromatic component of the recipe, such as cocoa. Sour cream is served at the base of the dish.
Among the main courses sampled, a special mention goes to “Quail, Pork, Mushrooms, Grapes, Bread”: a deboned quail stuffed with pork, mushrooms, bread, and slightly rehydrated raisins, where the melting of the pork belly during cooking blends all the elements with great elegance, imparting a unique flavor, subtly complemented by sautéed spinach. “Initially, we were afraid it wouldn't be well-received, but today it's the most requested dish,” admits Chef Delicato. The desserts are also excellent, especially the historic “Hazelnut and Parsley,” a parsley madeleine with salt and extra virgin olive oil, hazelnut cream, and toasted hazelnuts.
The dining room is managed by Gabriele, a great expert in hospitality, who has managed to create a relaxed atmosphere and a unique family climate thanks to his innate empathy; Consuelo supports him, gentle and discreet, also with relevant international experience.
The wine list is concise and predominantly Italian, with the exception of a small selection of Champagnes. It includes between 170 and 200 labels divided into sparkling, white, and red wines, mostly conventional and commercial, overlooking lesser-known artisanal realities that would equally complement the culinary philosophy. There are references from every single Italian region, with a focus on Umbria and Lazio, perhaps less represented particularly productive areas, especially for whites, such as Friuli. On the red side, especially Piedmont, Tuscany, and Umbria, testify to how Gabriele and Carlotta feel emotionally more attached to Umbria than Lazio, given the location in a border area: “We're working on the wine list; it's constantly evolving. We prioritized bottles that were most requested by customers and wouldn't end up sitting in the warehouse for too long, but gradually, we'll adjust the cellar to the cuisine,” Gabriele solemnly promises.
Contacts
Delicato Ristorante
Via Umberto I, 2, 02043 Contigliano RI
Phone: 0746 249202
Website
