A unique experience awaits diners at Anantara Convento di Amalfi Grand Hotel as Dei Cappuccini Restaurant and its bar welcome guests for the summer season with a "future-heritage" concept that introduces new and innovative ideas while staying rooted in tradition.
Dei Cappuccini Restaurant's new concept
Executive Chef Claudio Lanuto invites guests to the restaurant - set on an al-fresco terrace overlooking the Mediterranean - to explore a menu of heritage dishes reinterpreted with futuristic flair. Growing up, Chef Claudio was inspired by the women in his family and their generational recipes. Through an international career in renowned kitchens, Claudio perfected modern and creative techniques. Now he applies them to the fresh ingredients grown on-site in the hotel's convent garden or caught in local waters to create an exciting culinary journey for his guests.
The dining experience
The journey begins with a "Bread Ritual" designed to orient diners to the restaurant's unique setting in a 13th-century convent. Traditional grissini symbolise the quills used by monks to write their scriptures, and toasted flatbread is served to represent the historic Amalfi paper.
Dei Cappuccini's new menu features a choice of two five-course tasting menus. La Grande Bellezza is a symphony of local seafood, including red prawns in Neapolitan pesto risotto and Gragnano spaghetti with baby octopus. Ever Green is a vegetarian delight, bursting with fresh produce, including eggplant with tomatoes and spring onion, and a goat cheese tortellini with broad beans and yellow datterini tomatoes.
A la carte dining is also available and menu highlights include the monkfish cutlet with green salad, raspberry vinegar and shellfish dressing, and a Sfusato Amalfitano lemon cake inspired by Chef Claudio's grandmother's special Sunday recipe.
Perhaps most emblematic of the future-heritage theme, though, is the selection of Cannelloni - the iconic cylinder-shaped pasta, which celebrates its centenary this year and was invented in 1924 at the hotel, then named Hotel dei Cappuccini. Diners can choose from the classic recipe with beef and tomato coulis, or Chef Claudio's creations - either stuffed with cod, potatoes, clams and spirulina or Cannelloni Parmigiana with crunchy grana padano and basil pearls.
In addition, Chef Claudio has created a new pizza for guests to sample at the al fresco, La Locanda della Canonica Pizzeria by Gino Sorbillo. Sorbillo is a third-generation Neapolitan pizza maestro serving gourmet pizzas overlooking the bay of Amalfi. The 'Convento Pizza' is inspired by the previous monastic inhabitants, crafted with ancient grain flour and topped with traditional ingredients including alacce local sardines, zucchini flowers, smoked provola and zest of Amalfi Sfusato lemon.
New offerings at Dei Cappuccini Bar
Continuing the theme, Dei Cappuccini Bar draws inspiration from the convent setting and the nature surrounding it.
New Head Barman, Luigi Gallo brings a wealth of expertise from some of the most prestigious hotels in the world. He takes the helm at Dei Cappuccini Bar to present a botanical concept that takes its cues from the convent garden and the digestive liqueurs mixed by the friars who tended it for centuries.
Among Luigi's new signature drink is the Amalfitano. A blend of bitters, Carpano Classico, Absinthe, Gazzosa lemon and Amaro Dei Cappuccini, a distinctive amaro with soothing digestive properties exclusive to Anantara Convento di Amalfi Grand Hotel. This amaro has been crafted in the traditional way with wild fennel, myrtle, juniper, olive tree and basil picked fresh from the hotel's convent garden in collaboration with the hotel's insider, Friar Marcus, to honour the monastery's historic heritage. Also central to the new mixology selection is the Amalfi Coast lemon, spotlighted in the Spritz dei Cappuccini - Limoncello, St. Germain, Amaro Santoni, Spumante Costiera and lemon tonic.
Guests and visitors will be immersed in a sensory journey this summer as Dei Cappuccini Restaurant and Dei Cappuccini Bar create culinary and drink magic, blending heritage recipes and local ingredients with futuristic flair in a uniquely historic setting overlooking the Mediterranean.
For more information about Anantara Convento di Amalfi Grand Hotel, visit https://www.anantara.com/en/convento-di-amalfi.