Villa Roncalli Officially Declared Best Restaurant in Umbria

Villa Roncalli, chef Maria Luisa Scolastra's  sublime shrine of  Italian home cooking taken to a stratospheric level,  was officially declared the best restaurant in Umbria by the Panicale Panthers. the elite dining commando unit of Team Italy 2014.

The Panthers, aka Le Pantere, dined at Villa Roncalli in the eastern  Umbrian city of Folgino three times this season, never having the same dish twice and never not proclaiming a dish to be ."Delicious!".

"Villa Roncalli is one of my favorite restaurants, not just in Umbria, but anywhere," said capitana Pantera  Nancy Silverton   

The last meal began at nine, ended after midnight, and, like the other feasts,  lived up.  I won't do justice to the courses we ate, other than to say we relished most bites in silence for several seconds,  taste buds overwhelming spoken words, until a simple nod or, as noted above. a superlative, proper in this case, was uttered. (The term "so good" was said so many times during our meal II here - a Sunday lunch - that the owner of the property came to our table (of six) and told us if we said that one more time we would be asked to leave.) 

Each meal included a soup that was thick and green and . deep in flavor* and  based on what chef Luisa had pulled from the garden that evening. Yes, not that day, that evening. The first time I saw her, was about 8:30 at night, and she was walking back from her garden, her arms full of onions and fennel and other vegetables destined for soup. This weren't soup that had been simmering for hours. They were just made..

As for risotto,  here's was I stated in a previous article. that Grizzly bears repeating. "That porcini risotto could drive to a risotto convention and there'd be a reserved parking space for it right by the entrance."    For that review  http://krikorianwrites.com/blog/2014/7/27/pks5wt8xkb500xfkuwu7d6ca4u9ica

2014 Italy is about over, but I know next year we are destined to go back to Villa Roncalli.

If you are in a hurry, don't come here. Go somewhere else. And if you are in a hurry and want a fast, easy read, don't read "Goldfinch".. And if you are in a hurry and want no curves,  don't take Highway One or the Nurburgring..  

* An effort was made - and successfully so - not to add the word "Staggeringly" in front of "deep". 

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