Cristiana Romito

Cristiana Romito was born in Pescara on August 29th, 1972. Two years later, her brother Niko Romitoarrived. Many years later he’d share with Cristiana the creation of one of the most important projects in the Italian restaurant, hospitality and training scene.

The family moved to Rome, where Cristiana trained as a German and French interpreter and translator. In 2000 their father, who years earlier had transformed the pastry-shop in Rivisondoli into a restaurant, lost his battle against a serious illness. So Cristianaand Niko returned to the hills of Abruzzo and made a choice that, at the time, they thought «natural», though it may sound crazy: they took over, with no training in hospitality and cooking. «During our teenage years, we always lived in Rivisondoli – she says. – At that time, I felt I had no options: I could either go abroad, or stay there, where I was born. But moving from Rome to a village with 600 inhabitants was difficult for sure».

In 2011 restaurant Reale moved to the old convent of Casadonna, and they added a hotel and Accademia Niko Romito, a specialised training school for professionals. In 2013 the Spazioformat was born, followed by Bombain 2015, and a partnership with Bulgari in 2017 which led to the creation of the menus for the hotels in Beijing, Dubai, Shanghai and Milan. In 2018 they opened ALT, a “Stazione del Gusto” on national road number 17, between Abruzzo and Molise.

Cristiana became the general manager of the Casadonna site and, by her own definition, she’s the «link between dining room, kitchen and hospitality» in this complex 3-starred constellation. «I’ve created the dining room and hospitality service of both the restaurant and hotel from scratch. I had no teachers and made lots of mistakes – she jokes. – Now I lead 40 people, including some key figures, and part of the guys at the Accademia. The training and turnover are constant».