meet matilde pettini from “dalla lola”

“What does food mean to you?” – “It’s just everything for me.”

It’s a sunny and mild Wednesday morning. I am sitting with Matilde Pettini inside her restaurant Dalla Lola, near the Piazza Santo Spirito. The space is cosy. Mint and warm cream colours and large wooden tables set the scene for a friendly and communicative atmosphere. The first guests are arriving to slowly start their day with coffee and home-baked sweets.

Sipping a Cappuccino, I observe how Paolo, Matilde’s right hand, writes the menu of the day; Salvia fritta (fried sage leaves), Sformato di verdure (vegetable flan), Orecchiette alle cime di rapa (Orecchiette with turnip greens), Cervello fritto (fried brain), Coniglio al forno (rabbit from the oven), Trippa finta (fake tripe – made with eggs, parmesan cheese, and breadcrumbs), and more. Every day, at least two dishes are replaced. Change is essential, Matilde remarks, to find your identity as a restaurant.

Matilde bought the restaurant in 2019. Having grown up in the neighbourhood, she had known the place for years. The first owner of the restaurant was named Lola. Lola opened a milk bar in the 1970s called Chicco di caffè (coffee grain), and her son eventually began to offer fast lunches to clients. After Lola and her son, another owner arrived who renamed the restaurant Dalla Lola. When Matilde bought the place from him, she kept the name to honour its first owner. The beginnings of the restaurant were challenging and marked by financial and staff problems. Especially when Covid-19 hit, it became difficult. Matilde had to close the restaurant. Fortunately, she could reopen Dalla Lola in June 2021. Now the clouds have cleared, and she delights in seeing her vision coming to fruition: “Everything goes well. I’m so happy.”

Dalla Lola is a place where everyone talks at eye level. Matilde explains: “you give something to a friend and have the chance to teach them about food”. The prices are low. Antipasti cost seven euros, Primi eight euros, and Secondi nine euros. Matilde wants everyone to be able to afford her food, to make Dalla Lola the social and intimate place that it is.

“I grew up with all these flavours & in the kitchen.”

Matilde has life-long experience in gastronomy and the workings of a professional kitchen. Together with her sister, she is the fourth generation of the family-run restaurant Trattoria Cammillo. The restaurant is a Florentine institution. Her great-grandfather Cammillo founded it in 1925. You’ll find many typical Tuscan dishes on the restaurant’s menu, including Trippa di Fiorentina (tripe Florentine style), Crostini di Toscana (slices of bred with chicken liver pâté) and fagioli (white beans). One recipe curiously stands out; a chicken curry. The recipe dates back to Matilde’s grandfather Bruno. British soldiers were stationed around Florence in the 1950s and asked him to cook them a curry. Bruno would buy mango chutney to accompany the curry. Eventually, the chutney producer turned bankrupt. Matilde’s mother, who, according to Matilde, “is one of the best cooks I’ve ever met in my life”, recreated the chutney recipe from memory.

As a child, Matilde liked to eat Tortellini in a creamy sauce with curry powder. Now, Matilde’s favourite dishes at Trattoria Cammillo are Ceciata, a main course made of spinach, chickpeas, and small pieces of pork, and (still) the hand-made Tortellini. The pasta recipe goes back to her grandfather Bruno who brought it from Bologna. Growing up surrounded by food and flavours, Matilde decided early on that she would also follow the culinary footsteps of her family.

Matilde was six years old when she began to cook. She remembers making the “worst plum cake of the world”, as she refused to follow a recipe. Free-spirited, she wanted to create a recipe herself. At the age of eight, Matilde developed the creamy chocolate cake that she still serves today at Dalla Lola. It has a heavenly texture and tastes like a comforting hug. As a teenager, she wondered how to imagine her future: “The only right answer was cooking.” After finishing high school, her best friend Marta found out about the School of Culinary Arts Cordon Bleu in Florence. Matilde and Marta went to the open day and fell in love with the school: “It was like my Hogwarts.”

Matilde signed up for a bachelor’s degree in Business and Management. She loved learning about the theory and chemistry of cooking and ingredients. “For five hours, we just talked about eggs”, she recalls enthusiastically. After successfully completing the degree, Matilde worked at different places as a cook and personal chef, and also consulted restaurants. Three years ago, around the same time she opened Dalla Lola, Matilde began teaching at the Cordon Bleu school. It was a very stressful time: “I lost 10 kilograms.” But Matilde genuinely enjoys teaching. It helps her explain better her menu to clients. It’s a cooking lesson for her students and a communication lesson for herself. That is also how we met. Matilde was my teacher—an excellent and patient teacher—when I completed five weeks of cooking lessons at the Cordon Bleu School. Up until today, Matilde has explored many different positions in the culinary sector. She’s been a cook, teacher, consultant, and restaurant manager.

Cooking provides “a very big world” to Matilde. There are always new ingredients, combinations, and techniques to explore. You never stop learning. Matilde’s mother taught her the importance to taste everything and everywhere. It is essential to broaden and develop your palate as a cook: “to eat is an investment”. Matilde thus travelled to various countries, including India, Indonesia, and Thailand, always looking for new flavours. In Thailand, she indulged in street food and found a recipe for her restaurant: fried frogs with fried garlic & Sriracha sauce. Matilde particularly loves intestines, whether it’s tripe, sweetbread, brain or tongue. You’ll find all these dishes and more at her lovely and lively restaurant Dalla Lola. It is open for breakfast and lunch, Monday to Saturday. Go, go, go! Buon appetito!

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where to go in florence? matilde’s recommendations:

Restaurants:

• Aurelio for a Crostone Imperiale Soppressata (slice of toasted bread with Soppressata (a sausage made of all the left-overs of the pig), mayonnaise and Tabasco)
• Hostaria da Fulvio for mussels
• Circolo Ricreativo Culturale Pozzolatico (cultural centre) for spaghetti with burrata, lots of garlic, and fresh tomatoes

Food shops:

• Vegetables: Mercato Santo Spirito
• Meat: Mignani Rodolfo
• Prepared food: Gastronomia Enoteca Galanti
• Wine: Vineria Sonora

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I hope you enjoyed this article on Matilde! 🙂

See you next week! Alla prossima!

Lilly