New proposal for guests at the resort and restaurant
With the Spring re-opening of Menfi Foresteria and its many novelties the atmosphere of a Sicilian Easter can already be felt, with our preparations for welcoming guests with some delightfully familiar traditions, and with our arrangements for the all-important holiday lunch, the eggs and the traditional home-made cakes.
From the rooms to the kitchens, from the welcome to the outside areas, from the guest facilities to the communal areas, the whole resort has been replenished and improved this year.
‘The important thing for us’, explains Francesca Planeta, ‘is to make available to our guests everything to make their experience unforgettable, from the care that we provide every day to every aspect of our hospitality and with thanks for the privilege of working in a place which is ‘beloved of the gods’, blessed by the climate and by the countryside. To make the most of the country and to lose oneself completely in the silence which surrounds the Foresteria, we thought to entirely renovate the external arrangements and to develop in the ‘garden of aromas’ and the surrounding vineyards, areas devoted to meditation, to relaxation and to harmony with nature. Another new feature is the exhibiting at the Foresteria of some of the most significant contemporary art works composed during the ‘Voyage through Sicily’, our project of a travelling residence for artists now at its seventh edition, evoking the unbreakable link between art and the land, between man and the countryside.’
If it is true that La Foresteria is one of the main entries into the world of the Planeta experience, the first among these is certainly the cuisine in the restaurant of the wine resort. ‘The countryside around La Foresteria strongly inspires our new menu, ‘ says Chef Angelo Pumilia, ‘We considered it as an actual progress from the restaurant to the sea and back again, passing through the country, the stones, the vines, the herbs, the vegetation, as far as the fish. A passage through ingredients and memories, which we have sought to render visually as well, in the presentation of all the new dishes.’
In Pumilia’s menu, which is always linked to the seasons with an ever more attentive eye to the blend of freshness, lightness and intensity, the traditional family dishes are included as usual, these being contained in the book ‘Sicilia, la Cucina di Casa Planeta’, recipes which are the departure point for the cookery lessons always held at La Foresteria.
From this year onwards the Restaurant of La Foresteria will also be a place even more dedicated to wine, thanks to the arrival of the new Restaurant Manager Chiara Bordonaro, with many years of love for and experience in the world of wine and of quality catering, in Italy and abroad. ‘We wish to dedicate to wine the attention it deserves in a place such as this. The discovery and knowledge of every wine must be closely linked to the territory not only in terms of matching to products and the cuisine but also to the guest’s experience’, explains Bordonaro. ‘From this year we will pay great attention in our wine list not only to the Planeta wines, which will of course remain the most represented, but also to a selection of producers we know and labels that enthuse us.’
Welcome is a word with many meanings, above all at La Foresteria, explains the House Manager Cristina Gionfriddo, ‘To feel at home and to embrace the culture of a region as rich as ours, these are our priorities. With the greatest attention to all the needs of our guests, whom we will also accompany in their exploration of the area; sea, wine tours, guided visits to the principal archaeological sites, to towns with art and to villages, are just some of the opportunities which will enrich a stay at La Foresteria’.
Opportunities which we will offer to our guests from Easter onwards; for this special occasion at La Foresteria Menfi you can enjoy among other things the familiar traditional lunch and a wine tasting with exclusive en primeur wines.
The continuing development both of the Restaurant and the resort continues thus: a recent entry in the prestigious tour of Le Soste di Ulisse and awarded ‘Restaurant of the year 2018’ by the Guida Bibenda (as well as recognition by the Guide di Repubblica and Identità Golose, who placed it among the best in Sicily), and both being esteemed by the Touring Club which assigned the ‘Buona Cucina’ award to the Restaurant and the ‘Stanze Italiane’ prize to the hotel.
Menfi, March 2018
