La Bottega del 30

There’s a story behind the name of this restaurant: on the 30th day of every month a travelling salesman used to stop in this small, delightful village. In the meantime, a young French chef, Hélène, arrived here and fell in love with Chianti and its cuisine. She named her restaurant after the travelling salesman and the name has been kept in his memory. In a typical setting of stone walls and old rural objects from bygone days, Hélène is now front-of-house taking care of guests, while Nadia Mongiat has replaced her in the kitchen, where she continues with the restaurant’s tradition of creating simple Tuscan cuisine. The focus here is on preparing ingredients in traditional ways, such as pork liver (the thinnest part of the liver is used) cooked at a low temperature and then stored in lard with fennel for a few days before being re-heated sous-vide in a bain-marie. As a result, the liver (served lukewarm on a bed of Tuscan green beans) is soft and delicious.