It was April 7, 1977 when Stefano, just nineteen year old, took over the restaurant: a small space and a reduced menu that made the tables fill up. He has worked from the beginning together with his mother, a fundamental figure in Bondi’s life and also the soul of the restaurant to which he has dedicated his entire life. Mamma Mara, initially in the kitchen with her son, prepares succulent recipes still present in the menu of Zà Zà.
Bondi works with the passion and curiosity that distinguish a young person, and that have never abandoned him in the course of his life: “I put all myself in a recipe, I study it, I have to understand what’s wrong, I cook it until it’s not how I would like to eat it “. A dish is not born by chance, and, in addition to the indispensable creativity, it requires “technique and common sense, attention to timing, to individual ingredients, to seasonings …”.
The restaurant Zà Zà has expanded its spaces year after year, to become 1000 square meters of rooms and two terraces overlooking the Piazza del Mercato Centrale, a short walk from the Duomo of Florence. It deliberately preserves the appearance of the ancient and thick stone walls, vaulted ceilings, and floors of the seventeenth century. There you can breathe a mixed atmosphere of history and suggestions, which blend well in the many rooms and rooms all different from each other – as if they were more restaurants – and full of tables, old beliefs, antiques from all over the world and new colors with which to warm the walls. You can find Tuscan atmospheres, but also exotic, colonial and a little bohemian, in any case always warm and welcoming.
The menu is also varied, from Zà Zà it is possible to taste
typical dishes of the Tuscan and Florentine tradition, ancient recipes handed down over time, but also dishes that welcome forms and flavors of international cuisine. In short, a menu that does not fear the combination of different elements, such as flavors and aromas, all under the banner, of course, of quality. The ingredients come from the Central Market, where Stefano Bondi has continued to supply supplies for over 40 years. So fresh and mostly locally sourced products.
Still frequented by the traders of the Central Market, by the Florentines and by the Tuscans who continue to appreciate the quality of its cuisine, by tourists and travelers from all over the world, the restaurant Zà Zà is also a favorite destination for artists, celebrities, culture and politics, who often renew their appointment with the venue during their visits to the city.
Among this kaleidoscope of presences, which it would be very long to list, and of which we have testimony on the entrance walls of the room covered with photographs, Stefano Bondi still remembers with emotion the evening in which the famous Italian actor Alberto Sordi was sitting at his table. restaurant, but also the appearance of King Juan Carlos of Spain and that of the four African kings and their entourage, a disguised (but recognizable) Michael Jackson, the talented Italian actress Mariangela Melato and many others …
