Welcome back, Don Alfonso: what has changed and what will remain the same

Time was suspended, hovering over the sea of the Two Gulfs, the Sorrentine peninsula on one side, the Amalfi coast on the other. As the physical framework of the place acquired new life, from the bowels of the earth to the top of the rocky coast, Don Alfonso 1890 was preparing to experience, at last, a new era.

Because Don Alfonso evokes the hospitality of the Iaccarino family: Livia, Alfonso, Ernesto, Mario and the great team that surrounds them have waited a whole year to begin to exist again in their natural habitat, to be there through the guests, because in this immense home of Italian hospitality, magic is born when the wonder of the guest meets the joy of the host.

The completely renovated dining room

A year's pause that does not mean stagnation for the restaurant set in the centre of Sant'Agata dei Due Golfi (Naples), one of the world's most evocative places; a pause that evokes reasoning and only later planning: three months, in fact, were enough just to consider what needed changing, how to do it to minimise the impact on the environment, in light of the ultimate aim of the restyling of Don Alfonso: to implement a model of integral ecology. To be precise, the intervention involved insulating the rooms, expanding the solar park, replacing the old boiler with a recovery heat pump, and adhering to the zero waste model in order to optimise waste (for instance, bread and pasta leftovers go to feed the farm's chickens, coffee leftovers become compost), the use of renewable sources, the design of tanks to encourage the collection of rainwater, up to the creation of a 'dry garden', populated by plants that require very little water.

The beautiful garden of Don Alfonso 1890

Why such a step? Let's face it: these changes certainly did not represent a compulsory choice for the Iaccarino family in terms of the enjoyment of the boutique hotel; the kitchen, after all, would have continued to try its hand at creating delicious dishes, and guests would still have enjoyed the peace of the patio overlooking the pool. The question, however, is another: at Don Alfonso 1890 much of what is served is produced in the organic farm overlooking Capri, Le Peracciole, at Punta Campanella, an expression of care that originates from the earth and arrives on the plate, and this does not happen everywhere. This is why the concept of hospitality cannot be limited to the wellbeing offered, the quality of services or raw materials, or the aesthetic beauty of the place. Something more is needed: to extend the concept of hospitality not only to the customers, but also to the environment, to the collaborators (providing for an extra day of weekly rest - the restaurant is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays), to the social fabric in its entirety, thus also involving suppliers, looking straight to future generations.

For sure, everything evolves according to what Don Alfonso has represented over the past 50 years of activity, half a century of achievements, of pure devotion to the art of hospitality; but the journey continues by virtue of what Don Alfonso is called to be in the present and especially in the future.

Because the future has always occupied the vision of this family: think of Alfonso Iaccarino, Livia's husband and father of Ernesto and Mario, the future in the kitchen and dining room; the son of hoteliers, he had the intuition that this corner in paradise needed tourism to be free from banality and the masses, to be wrapped in exclusivity, enveloped in the fragrances of the place and its essence; an intuition ahead of its times, where, once again, changing skin was never perceived as a diktat imposed from above, but rather a desire of the soul. That revolution, of course, would never have left the kitchen indifferent: respecting the origins, the simplicity of the food that has always been part of one's taste imagery, like bread and tomatoes, the excitement of sharing it with people who come from all over the world and having it rediscovered by locals.

An idea that comes back even stronger today, echoed by Ernesto Iaccarino, who has never been idle: China, the United States, Toronto, but also San Barbato, in Basilicata; now, while in the past, each trip opened up a natural need to sew up what his eyes plucked from his travels around the world, now a strong desire for an Italian style prevails, inspired by the daily harvests of Punta Campanella, where in the meantime work is underway to create a cooking school, an extension of the embryo already present on the Don Alfonso property.

Clearly Campanian flavours, traditions dear to the local cuisine embellished with unexpected nuances; even slight contaminations, always well contextualised without forced detachment; visions articulated in three tasting menus (in addition to the à la carte menu) called Vegetarian, Tradition and Tasting.

Mise en place and the menu at Don Alfonso 1890

In each one, the immediate, unequivocal impression is the awareness of eating something enchanting to the eye, satisfying in its flavours, but also extremely healthy; nothing is muddled, each ingredient gets the attention of the technique, the right preparation time to ensure the best version, as demonstrated by Tuna belly puttanesca style.

Tuna belly puttanesca style

The right balance between capers and olives, the latter deconstructed into sauce and crunchy powder, thus 'detached' from the tomato sauce, gradually re-enters the harmony of the classic ingredients of this recipe (parsley, tomato, in addition to the aforementioned capers); the tuna, on the other hand, is first cooked at a low temperature, left to rest for a whole day so its fibres relax and its fats settle; only then is it regenerated and then browned in a frying pan and baked again, to obtain a soft bite, intertwined with the Mediterranean explosion of the sauce; there is also technique in the Pepper Cannellone, whose pastry comes from a raw roasted pepper extract; the resulting concentrate is mixed with kuzu like choux pastry, resulting in a pastry filled with a triumph of vegetables - aubergines, courgettes, peppers, truffled mushrooms - that once again evoke the tradition of Campania, the vivid memory of an 'mbuttunato' pepper (stuffed).

The Pepper Cannellone, a homage to Punta Campanella's vegetable garden

The Pepper Cannellone, a homage to Punta Campanella's vegetable garden

Then, the crunchiness of courgettes alla scapece collected in a tartlet, covered with a myrtle-flavoured honey gel, the vegetal intensity of an asparagus velouté served with buffalo ricotta cream, milk tuile and, at the base, fresh chilli pepper, but also the simplicity of an apricot jam served with warm, freshly baked bread and butter: the pulp of the fruit, the scent of toasted wheat: together they recall an ancient flavour, genuineness.

The intense light and the salinity of the sea, so close, nourish the fresh, lush vegetation of the countryside above the sea, to the benefit of a cuisine that restores us deeply. Welcome back, Don Alfonso 1890.

And now our photo gallery with more shots from the sumptuous cuisine (and beyond) of Don Alfonso 1890

Tartlet of courgette scapece with cream of courgette, smoked scamorza cheese sauce and lemon gel; on top, a veil of myrtle and chilli-flavoured honey

Reinterpretation of fried egg with burrata and black truffle

One of the marvellous suites at Don Alfonso

The Iaccarino family's reserve

Beef fillet from Benevento in bread crust and guanciale with green cream and spicy tomato

Sfogliatella the Don Alfonso's way, filled with cinnamon and sour cherry ganache

Petit fours

Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso