The Federico Fellini table: the director’s favourite spots to eat in Italy
Federico Fellini, the Italian movie maestro, loved food. As a child in Rimini, he developed a taste for the bolognese specialities so lovingly cooked by his mother and grandmother and carried his memory of them with him his whole life. But Fellini didn’t love food on a merely sensory level; he adored the conviviality of mealtimes, the atmosphere of sociability engendered by a table laden with meats and cheeses.
Subsequently, Fellini never faked a dinner scene, and the food was always real. Even in huge banquet scenes like the one in Roma, he ensured the food had been carefully prepared by caterers. “We had twenty cooks working for that scene,” he told Variety, “We keep reshooting as long as the food lasts—and the money.”
He was a famously picky man, much like his British contemporary Alfred Hitchcock, who also couldn’t cook to save his life. “I like now very simple foods but perfectly prepared. That is the hardest to find.” he once observed. “If you are going to have only rice or pasta with butter and cheese, the pasta or rice must be first-quality and perfectly cooked, the butter must be fresh, and the Parmesan must be grated just as it is used.”
Though he couldn’t resist his mother’s cappelletti in broth – small pasta parcels filled with pork and ricotta and served in stock – he always preferred rice and soups to pasta dishes. Of course, there were exceptions: lasagne verde al forno, for example, a classic bolognese dish. His favourite risotto, meanwhile, was flavoured with saffron and “exactly two drops of grappa added just before serving”.
Below, we’ll be taking things one step further, exploring Federico Fellini’s favourite places to eat in Italy. Enjoy.
Federico Fellini’s favourite spots to eat in Italy:
Osteria del Fico Vecchio
Location: Via Anagnina, 257, 00046 Grottaferrata RM.
Claudio Ciocca, the owner of Osteria del Fico Vecchio in Grottaferrata, was a great friend to Fellini and spent many a mealtime chatting with the director. “One of the times when Fellini took off his mask and was simply Federico was Christmas,” Ciocca wrote. “Every year we spent Christmas Eve together at my house. Giulietta [Masina] used to cook, helped by my wife, but I must say, in the kitchen he wasn’t exactly the best; instead, Federico used to set the table. Master of direction that he was, he chose the seat arrangements and dressed the table as he pleased. I let him be without intervening.”
Fellini visited Osteria del Fico Vecchio regularly, especially when he was shooting a film at nearby Cinecittà Studios. A lover of simple food made with care and attention, the director often ordered a plate of scrambled eggs, lightly cooked to retain that delicious creamy consistency. Located just a few miles outside Frascati, the restaurant boasts a lush garden shaded by the broad leaves of an old fig tree. Expect classic Roman dishes made with the finest ingredients.
Cesarina Ristorante
Location: Via Piemonte, 109, 00187 Roma RM.
When Fellini stepped inside Cesarian Ristorante for the first time, he was just 19 and still working as a caricaturist – selling drawings to diners for a pittance. He was frequently short on change, so when he entered Cesarina and ate everything on the menu, he was forced to confess that he wouldn’t be able to pay the bill. “Nothing happened until all the customers left,” he told Variety. “Then she came walking around my table, not looking at me but flicking the tablecloth with a towel, and she said, almost to the air but really to me, ‘One who has no money should not go to a restaurant’.”
Months later, the owner who had ejected Fellini from the restaurant found the now emaciated 19-year-old wandering the neighbourhood. She invited him inside and continued to feed him a full meal every day for an entire season. As a way of thanks, Fellini organised the press conference for his film La Dolce Vita to take place inside the Cesarina, transforming it into one of Rome’s most popular restaurants. Sat at the gilded heart of the Eternal City, it continues to attract visitors from all over the world. You may need some time to digest the enormous menu, which is divided into eleven sections: Starters, Piatti Freddi, Primi Piatti, Ministre, Secondi di Carne, Secondi di Pesce, Piatti del Giorno, Contorni, Formaggi, Frutta and Dolce. If your eyes are bigger than your stomach, this is a place to go blindfolded.
Osteria San Cesario
Location: Via Filippo Corridoni, 60, 00030 San Cesareo RM.
Despite being raised in the northern town of Rimini in Emilia Romagna, Fellini was a sucker for Roman food, something Anna Dente from Osteria San Cesario can attest to. Born and raised in the area, the restauranter once met Fellini and was struck by his unpretentious attitude towards food.
By all accounts, Fellini had some rather eccentric dinnertime habits, asking for a piece of parmesan whenever he sat down at a table. Indeed, his father, a travelling parmesan salesman, always claimed Federico had been born with the smell of parmesan under his nose. However, the main thing attracting diners to Osteria San Cesario is meat, not cheese. Anna Dente has a close relationship with an award-winning meat curer from the neighbourhood and always gets the best cuts. If it’s a cosy candle-lit dinner you’re looking for, Osteria San Cesario is the place to go.
Dal Toscano al Girarrosto
Location: Via Germanico, 58-60, 00192 Roma RM.
Serving the best Tuscan cuisine outside of Tuscany, Dal Toscano al Girarrosto on Via Germanico is famed for its Bistecca alla Fiorentina, a braised steak cut from a rare breed of cow raised on the green hills of Tuscany’s Val di Chiana.
When Fellini was in the mood for meat, he knew exactly where to go. It was here the director drew a pencil sketch of owner Paola, whom he eventually nicknamed “Blessed Paola of the Meatballs”. Her delectable polpette can still be found on the menu today and are named after the director, who was known for giving precise instruction on how a given dish should be prepared. Hence Paola’s unusually flat polpette.
His mother’s table
Location: 10, Viale Dardanelli, 1047921 Rimini RN (he and his family had several other addresses in Rimini).
Fellini’s childhood in Rimini was the inspiration behind so many of his movies. Perhaps his greatest tribute to the town was Amaracord, a semi-autobiographical film about a young boy growing up in fascist Rimini in the 1930s. In the 1973 picture, the family table becomes a battleground, a reflection of the tensions within the family.
The director’s niece, Francesca, also remembers the director’s habit of demanding very specific meals when he came to visit his family. “He’d take up the phone and say, ‘I’m just arriving in a few hours in Rimini. I want a cappelletti in broth.’ And for my mummy, that was great.” Indeed, even when he became a world-famous director, he still longed for the home-cooked dishes that had defined his youth. “Life,” he once said, “Is a combination of magic and pasta.”
