Across the globe, Italian cuisine is popular with elites and laymen alike and has been on their lips from as early as the 13th century. Tradition, quality, simplicity, taste, and health are just some of the reasons why Italian cuisine continues to win fans until today.
So, the next time you are in Rome, you might want to pop in into a little Italian restaurant and order some Ricotta and Aubergines fillings and chase it down with some Sangiovese after all ‘when you go to Rome do as the Romans do’ right!.
Thanks to globalization, though you don’t need to fly thousands of kilometers in order to treat your taste buds to some Italian cuisine. You can do it right here at Nairobi, Kenya.
Located on the 4th floor of Greenhouse Mall along Ngong Road is La Terrazza Restaurant, an Italian restaurant that serves mouthwatering authentically Italian cuisine.
From the tomato to the oil all ingredients in this restaurant which doubles up as an art gallery are directly imported from Italy making every meal no different as that one can order on the streets of Rome.
“The principle here is everything must be authentic Italian so I order all my ingredients from Italy because if I try to use something different the taste of the meal will immediately be different and our customers will know right away so quality for us here at La Terrazza is very important,” explains Murielle Minchella, the co-owner of La Terrazza who also doubles up as its top Chef.
And if the glowing reviews on TripAdvisor are anything to go by, then they are not wrong to insist on importing salt from Sicily, olive oil from Tuscany, cheese from Milan and even Balsamic vinegar from Modena, etc. La Terrazza is no doubt little Italia in Nairobi.
Business Insider Sub-Saharan Africa recently had a sit-down chat over with Murielle Minchella fondly referred to as Madam Murielle by her staff and customers, in a bid to understand what makes La Terrazza tick and on the lips of every Nairobian.
Madam Murielle, who first arrived in Kenya in 1987 and immediately fell in love with the Kenyan coastal town of Malindi, has more than 20 years’ experience in the hotel industry under her belt.
So, who’s a better person to ask than Murielle about Italian cuisine.
Here are five Italian dishes you should definitely surprise your friends or better half by trying out before the year ends, according to Madam Murielle.
Murielle says this creamy pasta dish tossed with mushrooms, leek, and bacon will have you licking your fingers.
Kenyans are no stranger to chicken, however, Murielle says they don’t know what they are missing until they taste Italian Herbed Chicken in a Creamy Mushroom Wine Sauce.
Ravioli is a type of pasta comprising a filling enveloped in thin pasta dough. It is usually served in broth or with a sauce.
Green Gnocchi Maree Monti with prawns
This is a classic Italian combination that never fails. Mari e Monti in Italian means “The Seas and The Mountains” because this dish marries the two worlds: prawns from the sea and Gnocchi from the mountains.
In layman’s language, this is simply Spaghetti cooked very fast in order to preserve all the ingredients.
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