Good for Food experience.

When a cook from Naples falls helplessly in love with Northern Italy, and in particular, the wonderfully romantic Lake Orta, you can expect more than a few fireworks in the kitchen. This is exactly what happens each time award winning Chef, Antonio Cannavacciulo, enters the kitchen of his 2 Star Michelin restaurant at the Hotel Villa Crespi; a splendid 19th century villa in Orta San Giulio. From the "Homemade "plin" ravioli, Partenopea style" to the "Pearl barley soup, mushrooms, and salt cod confit", Cannavacciulo's dishes represent an inspired fusion of Northern and Southern Italian cooking, created using a combination of the excellent produce of Piedmont and the flavors of the Mediterranean.

For Cannavacciulo, the choice of raw materials is fundamental. It is then no surprise if, in Villa Crespi's kitchen, in addition to the finest cuts of meat from Piedmont, we find buffalo ricotta from Campania, prawns from Sicily, bread from Fobello and pasta from Gragnano. Antonio Cannavacciulo was born in Vico Equense and gained experience in a number of Europe's most prestigious restaurants, including that of the Grand Hotel Quisiana of Capri, before arriving at Lake Orta and Villa Crespi, the luxury four star property which he now manages with his wife, Cinzia.

Villa Crespi was built in 1879 by a much traveled Italian cotton merchant who had been so impressed by the beauty of Baghdad that he decided to construct his very own Arabian style residence, complete with minaret, back home in Italy. Today the hotel and restaurant with its sumptuous "Yellow", "Red" and "Blue" dining rooms still conserves the villa's original Arabian-inspired opulence, providing the perfect setting for an unforgettable taste experience, courtesy of a chef who defines his cooking as 'the perpetual evolution of form, color and flavor'.

Hotel Restaurant Villa Crespi
Via G.Fava, 18
Orta San Giulio (Novara)
Tel: +39 0322 911902
www.villacrespi.it