During this journey, we stopped to examine the proposals of some famous restaurants which had been recommended to us, but for detailed indications, I will add notes and link them from here. It is not my intention to express an opinion, by approving or criticizing, but rather, I shall try to give my impressions which, being personal, must be taken merely as an opinion. Having stated this, it is natural for me to say that I do not eat well everywhere in Chianti. In recent years, catering has increased enormously, maybe excessively. Those who want to discover the taste of the local cooking, should give priority to some of the small family-run trattorie. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call them ‘resting points with cooking facilities’. They are informal places where the idea of adding something new to the dishes of our great great grandparents does not even occur to them the creativity of a master chef would be superfluous.
This is the case of La Bottega di Volpaia, a small restaurant with just a few tables, a friendly atmosphere not giving any importance to refinements, where the cook serves those who happen to be there, offering the same dish from the same pot or pan, from which he serves himself and the other members of his family. The cooks are Carla and Gina Barucci who were born in the small hamlet of Volpaia and will remain there for the rest of their lives. “I’ve put a really good meal on my stomach”- says a young American when she hands over some money to the owner, as a paying guest. Her friend agrees and she insists: “Yes, it was a really good meal” not knowing that with her inaccurate Italian, she has just used a popular Florentine expression of the ancient nobility. The word ‘eating’ should be interpreted as food while the expression ‘on the stomach’, instead of the more correct one ‘into the stomach’ is very typical. ‘On my’ is something you feel, which continues to give you a passing joy of being full till the time of digestion but which is not heavy and makes you cheerful. We get close to her glancing at the bill and find out that that good food is ‘ribollita’ which they really cook well here. But the experience of this place is the same as many others with cooking facilities, found here and there in the area as a pleasant alternative to more sophisticated restaurants.
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See also:

Chianti Cooking: The Origins, Culinary Vacation in Chianti, The Most Famous Butcher of Chianti in Panzano, Chianti Sheep and Pecorino Cheese, The Most Famous Butcher of Chianti in Panzano, Pigs of Chianti – Cinta, San Felice Chef: Antonio Fallini

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