With so many options, it's often difficult to find the best places to eat in Florence. Here is a guide to some great authentic Italian
By Lele Gobbi
Florence is not only a city of wine, but also of food, since, especially in the last ten years, alongside the historic osterias, many fine new haute cuisine initiatives have sprung up (or at best, have been perfected), offering increasingly refined, light and tasty dishes, often without losing touch with tradition, while at the same time cultivating the innovative and constantly evolving aspects of this exciting activity, perfect catering.
The cuisine of the late Fabio Picchi is ancient and cultured, made up of long, slow cooking, humble ingredients, and decisive flavours. Among the elegant and sober tables, one feels the vibes of past generations and a carefree goliardic lifestyle, in an atmosphere of absolute respect for food mediated by the great ability not to take oneself too seriously.
With the starters, the menu begins with decisive and immediate goodness: authentic assaults on the tastebuds that are difficult to forget. It continues more with soups or broths than with pastas or risottos, arriving at rich main courses built around the philosophy of making the most of great ingredients.
A restaurant with a large open pass and a beautiful counter for convivial dining is the calling card of chef Simone Cipriani, who is certainly and correctly ambitious, and is driven by truly remarkable creativity. His cuisine, in fact, stands out for the imagination he puts into his various dishes, starting from traditional, mostly Tuscan recipes.
A fine Italian gastronomic journey of research, sometimes enriched by the rest of the world, which respects seasonality and the careful selection of raw materials and ingredients.
In the heart of the historic centre, just a few steps from Palazzo Vecchio, in the rooms of the Palazzo di Mercanzia, stands a glamorous restaurant that 'from its kitchens, with flair and inclusiveness, embodies the same values of high creativity as the House of Gucci’.
Tradition, but also plenty of evolution, accompanied by technical expertise, gastronomic culture, and originality. Dishes that create playful interpretations while also highlighting a love of art and music, but always with enormous respect for the classics of Italian cuisine.
Costa San Giorgio is a charming hillside street in Florence ( the 'coste' are in fact steeply sloping streets), located in the Oltrarno, between Piazza Santa Felicita and Via San Leonardo. The sensation of elsewhere that you get when you walk up to the refined venue (Villa Bardini), is very 'appetising', not to mention the amazing view from up there, looking out over the cradle of the Renaissance.
The view of the Arno and Ponte Vecchio, with a large window that illuminates the room, does not disappoint expectations and is well integrated. "A hymn to sincere cuisine", where flavour and lightness very often reach extraordinary levels.
The Mediterranean is the master, clean and tasty, polished and refined. Careful selection of raw materials and complex techniques are the basis for well targeted and colourful dishes, where textures and contrasts highlight a remarkable knowledge of ingredients.
A stone's throw from the masterpieces housed in the Uffizi, Marco Stabile's open kitchen continues to offer dishes that can be likened to small works of art, both in taste and appearance. Dishes with an international flavour, but which reveal a profound bond with the Tuscan way of life, and to which Marco Stabile adds his individual touch.
Delineating the Tuscan territory in the dishes is, therefore, his special trait and strength, because everything starts from a well-considered and intelligent idea which puts the agricultural raw materials first.
Inside one of the most evocative hotels in Florence is one of the places favoured by gourmands, very elegant, with soft lighting and furnishings studied down to the smallest detail. Here, chef Giovanni Cerroni finds noteworthy gastronomic inspiration that certainly honours traditional cuisine, but does not back away from adding a dash of excellent idealism.
Respect for seasonality and territoriality are blended with substance and finesse. There is a scrupulousness, meticulousness and great precision in his dishes which are as beautiful to the eye as they are delicious to the palate.
Overlooking the splendid garden of the Gherardesca, in one of the most beautiful hotels (if not the most beautiful, objectively speaking) in metropolitan Italy, where supreme refinement intoxicates anyone who crosses the threshold, Il Palagio restaurant of the Florentine Four Seasons offers cuisine of class and great exploration, seeking to promote excellent Tuscan cuisine in its dishes.
Chef Paolo Lavezzini, 'a chef with an Italian heart and a Brazilian soul' combines precision, technique, sustainability and goodness of ingredients.
Housed in one of the city's most elegant buildings, Palazzo Portinari, Vito Mollica, one of the greatest interpreters of neoclassical Italian cuisine, offers a simply magnificent and richly flavoured cuisine.
Displaying talent in its purest state, the Lucanian-born chef always manages to slip the best of the raw materials into his dishes, without being too avant-garde or breaking the mould, but bestowing well-being and exquisite flavours. His risottos, creamed to perfection and 'playing' with countless flavours, have become famous.
The Trattoria dates from 1952, and has been completely transformed by young chef Lorenzo Romano, the third generation now at the helm of the new restaurant. It is not a simple experience, but a game to all intents and purposes, since, through the use of all the senses, diners must detect how the dishes have been conceived and made.
There is a lot of Tuscany in the various and very curious courses, accompanied by a healthy gastronomic madness. The chef has imagination to spare and in his culinary camouflage he amazes diners with the combination of ingredients, textures and colouring, without ever forgetting the main flavours of Italian cuisine.
A tight-knit team with a dream: to create a virtual meeting place between chefs, journalists and producers with Italian food and wine lovers around the world. Mamablip is a technological neighborhood cafe where a simple and intuitive language is spoken. It allows anyone to get in touch with the places of production and their interpreters and live real experiences made of scents, flavors and desire to learn. Mamablip brings producers, produce, chefs and experts directly to your home, offering authentic content that enhances sustainability and respect for the planet.