To say Tuscany’s Toscana Resort Castelfalfi has a rich history is an understatement. Its fine-dining restaurant, La Rocca di Castelfalfi, has a kitchen located in a castle that dates back to approximately 700 A.D. Once a medieval fortress, the castle was transformed into a manor in the 18th century, and the current 970-square-foot (90-square-meter) kitchen was completed in June 2014.
The kitchen serves La Rocca di Castelfalfi’s dinner guests every evening as well as lunch at the resort’s Bistro four days a week. Plus, the kitchen features a pastry-making room that produces special holiday cakes as well as pastries for weekly Sunday brunches.
Francesco Palma, Toscana Resort Castelfalfi’s food and beverage manager, highlighted the pastry room as the most significant in terms of design, since in addition to state-of-the-art equipment it features historical decorated vaults.
“The aim of the project was to turn the castle into a suitable venue for the restaurant without threatening its historical nature,” Palma said. “The restructuring operations were carried on with two main guidelines. The first was creating the modern La Rocca di Castelfalfi kitchen with all the necessary adjustments, and the second was maintaining the historic integrity and Tuscan identity of the building, preferring local traditional materials.”
Editor’s note: For more on the latest trends in kitchen design and technology, check out the July/August issue of HOTELS.