Back in March, Mamma Parla and I took a trip to Basilicata, one of our southern Italian ancestral homelands. We traced family roots, visited a deserted city, and checked out Francis Ford Coppola’s newest resort. Check out my review of the place in this Sunday’s NYT Travel section.
So you didn’t like the food. 🙂
Why do I get the feeling some editor somewhere cut out some of the more specific details about it?
I must strongly disagree with what you wrote about the food at Palazzo Margherita. We stayed there for 5 days and the food was consistently good and all from the region, as were all the wines, they were scrupulous about it. How many meals did you eat there? They buy direct from local farmers (I know because I met one who was meeting with the F&B manager). Maybe there has been a change in policy since you were there. Perhaps you could check with the hotel and post a correction.
I just feel so bad for the hotel, maybe they had a misstep or perhaps the Food and Beverage manager was not employed yet; because I had many discussions with her about how she and Mr Coppola are insisting on only regional and in seasonal product whenever ever possible. We ate 5 meals there, all excellent and even cooked with Filomena and you had one bad meal. Some people take what they read in the New York Times to be gospel and I don’t think it is fair to the hotel. However, I truly believe that you did have a bad meal, I am not disputing that. It’s just that to review a hotel on it’s food after only eating one meals seems a little unfair.
@marian hmmm… 🙂
@oliver a correction for what exactly? the food was terrible and gave me indigestion. i was up all night. and mamma parla can confirm the pasta was cooked to death. terribly bitter eggplant were served in march. peppers, too. the friend lampascioni were inedible. if you didnt have the same experience, fine. but i reported on what i was served and it was rank so no correction will be issued.
i had 2 meals, breakfast and dinner. one was good one was bad. i actually think the advice to go offsite for food is sage and hope it will be taken by readers. there is lots of great winter/spring produce in basilicata or conserve that they could have served instead, which shows me the dedication to seasonal produce is not all that strong. perhaps the review will make them take a closer look at their menu.
Too bad you had a bad experience with the food. I was stayed at Palazzo Margherita for one night in May and the three meals I enjoyed were excellent (lunch, dinner-along with cooking class, dinner). Everything was fresh, properly cooked, not fancy but very good. Was the head chef Filomena in the kitchen while you were there?
Too much confusion and no decent english speaking staff, the FB director seemed to be more worried about covering mistakes then doing what she was supposed to do.
Hope it can get better soon, the place is amazing, but no experienced people working there in my point of view.
Anyway, cinema and garden are amazingly nice.