When you say fate. That two-thousand-metre vineyard left a bit neglected, owned by the family, high up on the hill of Montetiguso, in Ischia, where he enjoyed playing as a child, had passed on to him, without his knowing, something he had never realized at the time. The joy of roaming around that land to touch with your hand, the reveries about the ancient peoples who had inhabited those places many centuries ago carrying with sacrifice and humility the baskets full of grapes and fruit on their shoulders, the scents of that extraordinary island, of land rather than the sea, (the complete opposite of the superb Capri of the emperor Tiberius), the flavors of the island's wild herbs, the colors of the earth but also of the sea, with a thousand shades, the richness of a wild nature that the volcanic earth has made luxuriant, the mild climate due to its particular geolocation.
Here we have already provided the interpretative key of one of the greatest chefs in the South (and not only the South) of Italy, Nino Di Costanzo, two Michelin stars and candidate sooner or later to the third, and of what you will happen to find in his dishes. A Neapolitan spirit brought to extreme interpretative rigor, where everything speaks of Naples but with a light and polite touch (he is shy by nature, just as he is not inclined to the media exposure of many of his colleagues, his cuisine speaks for him) with the humility of those who are so in love with their land that they never raise their voice in the kitchen so as not to disturb an atmosphere of harmonic naturalness that must be transferred from pots to plates. And that from the kitchen he must also pour into the restaurant, which he wanted with few places, 20 maximum 22, because even the buzz of the multitude disturbs, why each dish must always be the center of attention. Just like the customer who is never a stranger even if he enters the first time. And that's not all, because Nino wanted to transmit the natural harmony that he pursued in the kitchen to the outside too, personally taking care of a green path through the beautiful garden of flowers, Mediterranean scrub and aromatic herbs that mix with stone sculptures and terra cotta objects that want to represent, for those who are about to enter his restaurant, a synthesis of local traditions. And all around olive and lemon trees, the signature of the Mediterranean. Almost an initiatory introduction to the world of Ischia of which Nino feels high priest with the pride of belonging to a land that has enchanted Boccaccio and Maupassant, Curzio Malaparte and Pablo Neruda, Tennessee Williams and Luchino Visconti, the Marquis de Sade and Ibsen, Truman Capote and Allen Ginsberg. And to complete everything, a large painting of Pulcinella stands out on the walls while speakers play the music of Pino Daniele in the background. In short, Naples is all there, with its recent, remote past, and with its present.
All this as a child he could not know. But he knew one thing well: that the dishes that his mother Concetta, who came from a family of fishermen, prepared for him and were very good and all fresh because his father, Sabato, who came from a peasant family, was obsessed with eating the harvest 'today and did not accept that of the next day. In short, a nice start of flavors between the garden and fresh fish.
At eleven the beginning of a long successful journey
But comes the endgame season. At the age of eleven, Nino responsibly feels that the time has come to lighten the burden of home and goes to work as a boy in a pizzeria. From there, when he was older, he then moved on to a hotel where they made him clean the vegetables and fish. In practice he was wallowing in the humus that had grown him as a child. The desire to learn all the secrets of cooking grows stronger. TO 14 years he enrolled in a hotel management school, that occupies all his thoughts, he wants to forge ahead, he is proud of his first results, the tart and sponge cake that he had seen his mother make which he makes in his own way and immediately receive acclaim. His passion makes itself felt more and more overbearingly: during the day he watches what happens in the kitchen but in his spare time he begins to read Marquises and Paracucchi that introduce him to quality cuisine. And in Gualtiero Marchesi's kitchen (“a timeless master and philosopher of cooking”) he manages to slip in to study and learn the secrets of haute cuisine. From Marchesi it then passes to Gaetano Trovato, chef and patron of the luxurious Arnolfo restaurant, two Michelin stars, located in a beautiful Renaissance building in Colle di Val d'Elsa, which has always reserved for itself a role also as a great teacher for young people who want to embark on a path of excellence. Then the big jump from Juan Marì Arzak three Michelin stars in 1989, confirmed for over twenty-five years, founder of the New Basque Cuisine, which will decisively influence Spanish cuisine, including what is now considered one of the best chefs in the world, Ferran Adriá. But he does not forget his tribute to his fellow countryman Alfonso Iaccarino ("who was the first to be able to conceive a new way of thinking about Campania and its products")
The Mosaic in Ischia, the entry into the world of adults
With so much baggage of exclusive experiences there property of the Hotel Manzi, historic hotel in Casamicciola, built in the 800th century following the discovery of the Gurgitiello spring, whose thermal waters, endowed with exceptional healing properties, have attracted great personalities of industry, literature, art, and even, in his time, Garibaldi who treated the wounds of war, calls him and proposes that he give life to a restaurant worthy of the history of the Hotel and its prestigious clientele, the Mosaico. Nino Di Costanzo is very young, he is 25 years old. It is a bet for the young Chef and for the property that he has invested in his qualities and also involves him in the design of the restaurant. Bet won by burning time, because only one year after the opening of the Mosaic, the first Michelin star arrived in 2008. And two years after the second and then another important recognition the position of Grand Chef and Relais Chateaux Ambassador. An exhilarating experience that lasted a decade, “An extraordinary ride” as Di Costanzo defines it. And in reality he has jumped many obstacles. Attracting the attention of a high-level clientele with its traditional-innovative proposals.
The time is ripe for the big leap, to carry out a project to which the restaurant, its restaurant, has long aspired. Leaving Il Mosaico, Di Costanzo uses emotional and grateful expressions in line with his way of being: "I sincerely wish to thank the Polito family who, in all these years, with their efforts and their availability, have allowed me to achieve my results . In the next few days I will dedicate myself to a new professional activity that will begin where my experience of Ischia ended. I cannot forget, in this moment veiled in melancholy, all my collaborators who have allowed me to realize this wonderful experience. I also want to express all my deep gratitude to them". In the meantime, the world travels between the experience of the Mosaic and the implementation of his project. Kiton, the great Neapolitan Fashion House founded by the legendary Ciro Paone, calls him with him to all the great world capitals where he presents his collections, Di Costanzo thus has the opportunity to be appreciated by artists, entrepreneurs, businessmen, international professionals who they appreciate his cuisine and become a high-ranking audience of admirers of his stoves. Collaboration that continues today.
Finally at home the circle closes with Danì Maison
And finally, in the gardens of his childhood, he sees the light “Dani Maison”. After so much wandering it is a circle that closes. The chosen name is a play on words: it has an international allure but in the first term it hides something much simpler: “Danì” stands for Da Nino, a place to feel at home for him and for his guests.
Let's leave it to his words: "Just in the most important moment of my professional career I felt the need, dictated by reasons of various kinds, to embark on a new path; so, after a year during which I was an ambassador in the world of the traditional cuisine of my land, alongside Kiton, I decided to undertake a project of my own and I opened the "Daní Maison". In just four months, from scratch, important awards such as the two Michelin stars, the four forks of Espresso as well as entry into the “Les Great Tables of the World” in 2019. The Daní Maison restaurant is located inside an ancient house on Ischia, the house owned by my family where guests can find a place in the cozy room or even in the kitchen, to assist in the front row at the preparation of dishes. The choice of the "home" is motivated by the fact that it is a welcoming place where one feels at ease, it is also a place with a history, roots and a strong connection with the territory where the guest is placed at the center of attention and feels at home, trying to offer at the same time a great service that is also discreet and refined”.
Words from which emerge the passion, love, research, study, experimentation, which animate his cuisine, but above all respect for the raw material of the territory and the tradition of Campania and the desire to bring the dishes and recipes of the past in a contemporary key, seeking the quality of the products in full respect of seasonality. According to a philosophy whereby the choice of materials, attention to detail and skilful combinations are capable of enhancing every single ingredient which, “despite the complexity of the proposal, must be identifiable and recognizable, even by less educated palates. Technical research and innovation on tradition, tradition – Nino insists – should not be considered a static element, but something dynamic, which evolves over time and I am constantly looking for this change in tradition while fully respecting the flavors, smells, textures "of the past".
And here it takes shape under the eyes of its customers real gastronomic masterpieces that Di Costanzo, mindful of his childhood passion of patiently building small sailing ships, he also builds in the presentation of dishes. As is the case with his "Gran cru... do di mare". Presented on very heavy (over 20 kg) and colorful Murano glass cubes, personally studied and drawn by Di Costanzo who also had a carbon tray made to be able to present them at the table, a surprising setting to say the least for serving, composed like a mosaic, on a carpet of legumes and ginger cut into julienne strips and then into cubes White and red prawns, Scampi, Spheres of prawns alla puttanesca, Bonito carpaccio, Cuttlefish, orange and radishes interspersed with green apple, yoghurt and lime, mandarin, creamy of buffalo, and fresella. A whirlwind of flavors and colours, a sensory journey of art that every time arouses cries of admiration.
A kitchen between entertainment, baroque play and Neapolitan attitude
And while we're on the subject of spectacularity, what can we say about your “Le Paste… le Patate”? A vortex of 25 pasta shapes treated with 7 cooking techniques, 5 different potato qualities (in terms of colour, shape and consistency) all strategically positioned on a huge plate to be eaten in two, so that it becomes an accomplice game of recovering flavors from the past, which everyone can recreate at will, but in doing so a dish of the purest Neapolitan-Ischian tradition takes on a new, current and refined gustatory dimension. And always staying on the subject of Neapolitan Baroque spectacularity here with the Napul'è dessert - and the name already says it all - you enter a dreamlike-spectacular dimension with 10 iconic Neapolitan desserts that arrive in a theater of representative testimonies of its reality over time: Totò, the football players' stickers , the postcards of the gulf with Vesuvius and the regretted maritime pine of the Gouaches of the Grand Tour, the coffee pot that the great Edoardo in "These ghosts" made immortal in one of his great interpretations overlooking a balcony of Naples in the lower districts. Does all this look like a game? It is not at all. It is a network in which the Chef attracts you by catching your attention and your admiration.
Nino Di Costanzo, with a thousand facets, and even if you want with a thousand contrasts, because he is capable of passing from the most disarming simplicity to the most sophisticated philosophy, taciturn by nature, but loquacious when he talks about the flavors and scents of his island, he is all this and much other. And especially a vestal of Neapolitans that he has been able to raise in his kitchen, e with its kitchen, a work of art.
