italian chef
FROM STAR TO STAR
F
or Nino Di Costanzo being a chef - a tremendously demanding job that demands great passion - was a natural choice, because his mother and grandmother passed on this
calling when he was a small child. His successful early years, driven by study and experimentation, investigation and practice, were spent in the kitchens of great masters like Marchesi and Arzak, in the international temples of fine food. The reward for all this effort came in 2008, only six months after opening his Il Mosaico restaurant in the Manzi hotel in Casamicciola Terme, when he was awarded his first Michelin star. He won his second just under a year later, as well as the title of Grand Chef and Ambassador Relais Chateaux. It was a very satisfying experience, but accompanied nevertheless by a certain yearning for something new...so after spending a year as ambassador in the world of the traditional cooking of Campania, in 2016 he opened Daní Maison, his restaurant in Ischia. In the space of only four months it was awarded two stars by the Guide Michelin, three forks by l’Espresso, the title of New Arrival of the Year and restaurant of the Year by the Mattino newspaper of Naples. His instincts were correct and now he welcomes guests in the former family home he has transformed into a destination for adventurous gourmets. Guests dine in an intimate drawing room or in the kitchen, a sort of front-row seat from where they can watch the food being prepared.
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The house was a deliberate choice, made on the basis
a desire to recreate dishes and recipes from the past, giving
of a passion for the land and traditions, but above all the
them a contemporary twist. To create refined dishes and refine
desire to welcome guests in a hospitable place where they
simple ones he studies combinations that emphasise every
feel comfortably at home.
Daní Maison broke from the
single ingredient, each of which should be instantly discernible
stereotypical view of a Michelin-starred restaurant, and has
even when it forms part of a more complex whole. This is
become something unique and precious, a place to go to
driven by research and innovation in tradition, in a context
for the pleasure of fine food. Every dish reflects the chef’s
where tradition does not mean something static, but rather a
philosophy and the essence of his cooking, made up of
dynamic element that evolves over time, and he follows this
passion, love, research, study, experimentation and above all
transformation with total respect for the flavours, aromas, and
respect for the ingredients of the Campanian tradition - and
textures of the past. www.danimaison.it
WONDER WORLD