At a prison restaurant in Italy, meals are prepared and served by inmates.
by Andrea Thompson
If you think getting into some of Paris's hottest restaurants seems hard, then you obviously haven't eaten at Fortezza Medicea in Volterra, Italy. Diners at the high-security prison restaurant (you read that right) have to submit to a background check and receive a security clearance from Italy's Department of Justice to snag a reservation at the 500-year-old facility just outside Pisa.
The restaurant, which is staffed with murderers and thieves, is an experiment in modern-day prison rehab: The idea is that reformed inmates can find work in the restaurant business upon release. (Since the program was launched in March 2006, four convicts have landed food-service jobs in Volterra.) In a cavernous space filled with simple wooden tables and benches, guards stand watch as sommelier Santolo, who's serving 24 years for murder, pours Chianti. In the kitchen, chefs Massimo and Giuseppe prepare mini frittatas served with fennel crisps, nonna Catozza (baked vegetables in a bread bowl), gnocchi with a fava bean purée, and a thick cheesecake garnished with chocolate. They also happen to be doing time for armed robbery and murder.
If you can look past the paper plates and the plastic cutlery, the Southern Italian dishes from Puglia, Sicily, and Naples (all hotbeds of mob activity) are rather delicious. "Several of our inmates have restaurant training, so they're trying to refine their skills," says prison director Maria Giampiccolo. There's even entertainment: Pianist Bruno, a murderer, plays classical music in the background.
Fortezza Medicea also has a theater company; members have performed cabarets and plays by Bertolt Brecht, Jean Genet, and Shakespeare in the jail's courtyard. via del Castello, 011-39/058-886-099, volterratur.it, $34, allow at least two months to get a reservation.
Fortezza Medicea also has a theater company; members have performed cabarets and plays by Bertolt Brecht, Jean Genet, and Shakespeare in the jail's courtyard. via del Castello, 011-39/058-886-099, volterratur.it, $34, allow at least two months to get a reservation.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Diners are flocking to what could perhaps be termed the most exclusive restaurant in Italy - one located inside a top security prison, where the chefs and waiters are Mafiosi, robbers and murderers.
Serenaded by Bruno, a pianist doing life for murder, the clientele eat inside a deconsecrated chapel set behind the 60 ft-high walls, watch towers, searchlights and security cameras of the daunting 500-year-old Fortezza Medicea, at Volterra near Pisa.
Under the watchful eye of armed prison warders, a 20-strong team of chefs, kitchen hands and waiters prepares 120 covers for diners who have all undergone strict security checks. Tables are booked up weeks in advance.
Under the watchful eye of armed prison warders, a 20-strong team of chefs, kitchen hands and waiters prepares 120 covers for diners who have all undergone strict security checks. Tables are booked up weeks in advance.
The Mafia may be in charge, but there is no horse's head on this menu. Instead, a smart, middle-aged crowd tucks into a vegetarian signature menu, cooked up by head chef Egidio - serving life for murder - and keenly priced at €25 (£17.50), including a glass of wine with each course.
The restaurant opened two months ago and has proved so popular that Italy's prison department is thinking of trying it in other jails.
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