A LITTLE HISTORY OF
DEMETRA HOSTARIA

The History of Our Cuisine

Since the time of the Etruscans, our region has placed primary importance on the table. Many poets and prose writers of antiquity have celebrated the splendors and pomp of their banquets. The Etruscans were the first in the world to understand the importance of conviviality at the table and the first to allow women to sit at the table with men. They knew two types of gatherings: the banquet proper and the symposium. The difference was that during the symposium, only drinking took place, while during the banquet, both eating and drinking occurred, and usually, the symposium followed the banquet. If we were to compare this with our current habits, we could liken the banquet to dinner and the symposium to after-dinner. The presence of women at the table has been certified by the depictions that have remained, particularly the oldest one found on one of the slabs of the Murlo frieze, where a woman is depicted at the banquet.

Our region has always valued cuisine and the table as an expression of art. Florentine Renaissance cuisine is the basis of French cuisine thanks to Catherine de Medici, which means that our traditional cuisine is the foundation of all contemporary cuisine. The characteristics of our cuisine are simplicity, sobriety, and genuineness. It is a cuisine where the sense of measure reigns, with absolute respect for ingredients and flavors. It is straightforward, rustic, but also refined, rural, peasant, but also noble and attentive to the great cultural traditions of the region.

The variety of Tuscan cuisine derives from the fact that “talking about Tuscan regional cuisine” is almost an oxymoron, as a mountain, a hill, or a river is enough to make the traditions and ways of eating of two neighboring villages, even a few kilometers apart, different. This great variety is the richness of our land, an inexhaustible source of appetizing stimuli.

For the reasons mentioned above, the true definition is “local Tuscan cuisine.” Therefore, our restaurant concept exclusively refers to traditional Florentine cuisine (absolutely not revisited) in absolute respect of the recipes and raw materials.

All the “DEMETRA EXPERIENCE” is based on the concept of “TRADITIONAL FLORENTINE CUISINE.”