A Michelin star since 2020, Re Santi e Leoni has a determined, pragmatically talented chef who can skillfully reconcile the different areas of the profession. Based on recognizable elements and expertly researched quality, his is one of those ecumenical proposals that make gourmands and people who have less experience with haute cuisine happy.
The restaurant
It is often heard that fine-dining has no future. In reality this is an entirely superficial statement, because there is a world of nuance behind this definition. Underlying it is a fundamental issue: a fine-dining restaurant can function if there is a sound business idea behind it. This happens when the business is sound and is governed by those who know the reality of the restaurant business and its meanderings. It is therefore logical that Re Santi e Leoni, a leading creature in entrepreneur Lucio Giordano 's network of local restaurants with Luigi Salomone at the helm in the kitchen, is a successful gourmet.
Nola is a hub for commerce in Campania, and it is home to what is in fact Europe's largest permanent fair: a lively, bustling town that also knows how to respond appropriately with an important gastronomic offering. This restaurant, elegant in every detail, whose name is inspired by Giordano's three sons, is located in the renovated spaces of a beautiful late 19th-century building. Here, there used to be first an old oil mill and then a store where you could buy oil and cured meats. Now one enters a comfortable environment, with its bright rooms, in the background the open kitchen and to welcome guests the smiling staff, starting with Silvana Di Domenico, a young maître with solid experience (with studies as a cook) from the Comandante of the Hotel Romeo, where from commis to chef de rang she became first maître of the restaurant and then d'hotel.
Then there is Salvatore Matarazzo, an expert sommelier who takes care of an important wine cellar, full of 650 labels, capable of recommending ad hoc routes that can also result in non-alcoholic or at least alternative areas; the fact remains that here the excellent Campania wine proposal is represented as it should be and it is always worthwhile to learn more about it, for those who are unfamiliar with it.
The chef
A Michelin star since 2020, Re Santi e Leoni has a determined, pragmatically talented chef who can skillfully reconcile the different areas of his role. Luigi Salomone, born in Saviano, not far from Nola, is a predestinate: he works in his uncle's butcher shop, attends the hotel institute and on turning 18 goes to Sweden on a scholarship. We find him in Val Gardena and then again in Campania, first with Francesco Sposito at Taverna Estia for a couple of years and then at Mosaico with Nino di Costanzo. Sous chef with Paolo Barrale at Marennà, he will also be with the Izzo family at Piazzetta Milù, among the youngest Campanians to win their first Michelin star. There are also internships with Alessandro Gilmozzi in Cavalese and with Roy Caceres at Metamorfosi in Rome.
He arrived in Nola in a tricky time, amid lockdowns, in June 2020: he was supposed to open his own restaurant, but eventually he met Giordano and a partnership was born that would bring a star as early as November of that year, in record time. His is an intelligent cuisine, exploiting every possible synergy in a system that includes important receptions and catering, the first at Villa Re Santi e Leoni in Palma Campania, on a hill among olive trees, with a large terrace that allows a wonderful view all the way to the Gulf of Naples, with Vesuvius in the background. Based on recognizable elements and an expertly sought quality, his is one of those ecumenical proposals that make gourmands and people who have less experience with haute cuisine happy, because the flavors found in his dishes, the result of technique and savoir faire, are immediate and usable but above all convince by immediacy.
"I go ahead with my approach: the menu is traditionally oriented, the tasting contains more creative dishes. In any case, I always manage to change as I want. We have about fifteen proposals that rotate with the seasons, we are always buzzing, and we manage well up to forty place settings.” This is why the presence of the a la carte menu is vital: "You can't take it away, unless you have a few tables in a protected setting like a hotel. There are customers who come twice a month, some even every week: we don't have the problem of saying 'if you occupy me you have to spend a figure.' If you want to work with 40 covers you don't have to look at yourself as a starred restaurant, but as a normal restaurant, one day you collect less another day more. Otherwise if you want to do only tasting you make 10 people at most, but whether you have a few or many tables, to guarantee a service like ours, a certain number of employees you have to have them, and the fixed costs are always those."
And speaking of staffing, Luigi recalls how-especially after the pandemic-the approach to work has changed: “There is no such thing as a 16-hour day anymore, I can't do it anymore either. You need respect for people, you have it if you can be a leader, because there's no point in arriving in the morning and shouting all the time."
The Cuisine
Three menus, in addition to a rich menu that also includes two choices of raw fish, there are Re with 4 more traditional courses, Santi in the middle with 6 proposals and a pinch more creativity and finally Leoni in which the chef expresses himself freely. There is a lot of taste, in Luigi Salomone's dishes, starting with bread and leavened products, of remarkable fragrance; above all, however, there is a great research on harmony and balance, with a very clear purpose that is to seek an understandable and immediate expression: “it is the untrained customer who gives us the answer with his satisfaction.”
This, we would emphasize, regardless of the techniques, present and precise, whose functionality is to enhance flavors, rather than venturing in search of satisfying small acolyte niches. Thus an itinerary at Re Santi e Leoni is under the banner of extreme pleasantness and at the same time never obvious, nor banal. Very good, for example, the 'Indonesian' style amberjack ceviche with a coconut sauce, curry mayonnaise, grilled pineapple and toasted cashews.
Succulent and of beautiful complexity is the cod in scapece with fried zucchini, accompanied by a masterful almond ricotta and ponzu sauce. Remarkable, in terms of cooking and flavors, is the fish risotto cooked in the broth of barbecued heads with salmoriglio mousse and marinated amberjack. Gorgeously scented and perfectly al dente fusilloni with sea and mountain herbs, urchins and seaweed.
Among the main courses, it is of graceful sweetness, perfectly mitigated by the bitter note of Campari, the barbecued lobster with red fruits, Misticanza and pine nuts. Again, a colorful and very tasty version of modern parmigiana.
We end with a couple of excellently crafted desserts, credit to the excellent pastry chef Alessio Iodice, such as the double texture pumpkin, caramel and creamy and the elegant, very fresh peach, almond and basil.
Contact
Re Santi e Leoni
Via Anfiteatro Laterizio, 92, 80035 Nola NA
Phone: 081 278 1526
