The Caupona used to be a tavern, a place where the ancient Pompeians habitually consumed their prandium (daily lunch). On April 21 2016 we gave life to this fantastic and exciting project recog-nized with a patent of the Superintendence and defined the first Caupona faithfully reproduced. The customer for the first time is welcomed in a magical setting, where the majesty and beauty of the hand-decorated frescoes are the protagonists. Overwhelmed in a magical and almost surreal atmosphere, the soft lights in warm tones, the beautiful solid wood tables, and chairs authentically faithful, and finally eating in terracotta plates, enjoying wine in amphorae, and of course drinking in goblets or cups. In short, eating the typical dishes of ancient Rome, and tasting their true essence, with ingredients faithfully prepared and expertly crafted, the result of a careful and accurate study of research and preparation.
Mission
To enchant our guests in the hall of the restaurant with the magnificence and meticulousness of the frescoes faithfully reproduced, so that it seems to be in a real Caupona (tavern) of Via dell’Abbondanza, that of Lucio Vetuzio Placido. To live a unique and unrepeatable experience in the guise of Senators and Matrone of the time, diving into a distant past a few meters from ancient Pompei. Our cuisine is based primarily on antiquity and on the continuous search for distant flavors, bringing to light ingredients that are often not used in our traditional cuisine. Our mission is there-fore to revive the dishes of ancient Rome, offering distant flavors, using sources such as De Re Coquinaria by Marco Gavio Apicio, using excellent raw materials, preserving the taste of the Medi-terranean, based on interesting contrasts and bold combinations, in a unique setting a few steps from the ruins of Pompei, (from some views you can even admire the ruins). We also have a traditional cuisine expertly prepared with nuances of the Mediterranean and traditional dishes, all enclosed in a unique setting: the customer will be catapulted into a distant and magical era.
Who was Apicio?
Apicio is the most famous chef in history, the biggest spender of all times, the author of De Re Coquinaria, a bible of gastronomy in 10 volumes. A legend tells that he fed moray eels with the meat of slaves. Stories and adventures are told such as that of an expedition in the Mediterranean and the near Middle East just to find prawns of excellent quality. In the environment of ancient Rome, he was very popular, so as to come down to us, especially for culinary extravagances made of excesses. Numerous are the combinations of foods, such as soups with camel’s heels, crests cut from live birds, mullets killed in Garum, geese fattened in dried figs and stuffed with Mulsum, nightingales’ tongues, peacocks and flamingos. Meat and game abounded on the table of the nobles, meat was very common. For the preservation of meat, salting and smoking were already used at the time and various types of hams and sausages were prepared. The pork was the animal whose meat was most appreciated. All the different types of meat were roasted in the oven or cooked on the spit. The chicken was the most eaten and spread food, by the rich and especially by the poor, it could be served boiled, roasted, fried, hot, cold, in a thousand ways, there were many recipes, even with milk. The egg, a symbol of rebirth and fertility, was always eaten at the beginning of meals. The closing of the banquets was celebrated with a particular ritual that consisted of eating the mousse of sheep ricotta sweetened with honey and carob and red berries, accompanied by a glass of Mulsum “The nectar of the gods”, as a wish for luck and happiness.
For more information please visit:
www.caupona.it
info@caupona.it
