VENCO: After the successful launch of ‘Antonia at home’ in April, Antonia Klugmann, one of the most influential young Italian chefs with a restaurant in the countryside in Vencò on the border between Italy and Slovenia has opened a store in Trieste. The aim is to bring the traditional cuisine of the region to the Italian city at the crossroads between Italy, Slovenia and Austria.
“It is a completely different cuisine to what we normally offer in the restaurant,” said the chef of L’Argine a Venco. which had become a ‘destination restaurant’ prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The offer at the shop and also with ‘Antonia a casa’ is both regional and traditional family cooking. The Italian chef has taken traditional recipes from Trieste, where she grew up, and Friuli. “Using her memories, she is working on traditional recipes for the first time in her career,” said her sister Victoria Klugmann, who is in charge of communication at the restaurant.
“But we are staying coherent to what we do in the restaurant using the techniques that we have used and refined over the years for this new objective.”
“With this project we wanted to really show we are committed to our region and territory offering an interesting option to our local clients. In Trieste, we distribute our food from the shop we have opened in Cavana. It is an area of Trieste which from the sea takes you to the hills of San Giusto and which has seen a revival in the past 15 years,” she said.
There is a large selection of food items from antipasti to soups and pasta dishes for starters, a selection of main courses including a pork goulash, sweet and sour eel and their signature meatloaf among others.
Meanwhile, Antonia a casa is delivered i the cities of Gorizia and Udine which means that they have managed to cover 3 of the four big cities of Friuli Venezia Giulia.
In the shop, Antonia is offering a selection of produce from the Collio region including wines and beers as well as the flour from Molino Tuzzi which is situated a few kilometres away from the restaurant. There is also a selection of vinegars and patisserie products.
It is their intention to increase this offer by showcasing other small producers from the area.
In April, she was one of the first top chefs in Italy to launch a delivery service with her “Antonia at Home’. While this might be easy in cities, this is not necessarily the case for L’Argine a Vencò which is really a ‘destination’ restaurant.
Read our in-depth interview with Antonia Klugmann here.
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