Today I want to tell you a good story, one of those with a happy ending.
The year 1977, the Monterosso al Mare locality, a delightful small village in the eastern Ligurian.
The protagonists of our story are Simonetta and Miky De Fina not yet twenty, in love and with two big dreams: to create a beautiful family and dedicate themselves to catering.
These are complicated years, but the determination and enthusiasm of our protagonists are reflected in the fellow villagers, who support the children as best they can, and in a benefactress from the nearby town of Levanto, who entrusts these two penniless young people with a small disused restaurant to help them. to give substance to their dream; thus was born, in Levanto, the first Pizzeria Miky.
The year 2021, the locality is always Monterosso al Mare; the small village has become a renowned seaside resort famous for its breathtaking views.
Simonetta and Miky have both fulfilled their dreams: they are happy parents of Sara and Manuel and grandparents of two splendid grandchildren.
Today I want to tell you a good story, one of those with a happy ending.
The year 1977, the Monterosso al Mare locality, a delightful small village in the eastern Ligurian.
Miky, on his return from Levanto, has for years opened a very popular and highly sought-after restaurant of excellence in the Ligurian territory, mentioned in the main gastronomic guides (Michelin, Touring, L’Espresso, Gambero Rosso).
With Simonetta’s help he diversified his offer, turning to hospitality, opening a delightful little inn 50 meters from the sea “A Cà du Gigante”, and a small bistro restaurant “pied dans l’eau”, “La Cantina” di Miky “which has quickly become one of the 10 excellent restaurants of Italian cuisine.
What is the strength and the recipe for the success of the De Fina family?
Our strength is certainly our family which is constantly looking for innovation, quality and beauty. – Simonetta replies smiling and proudly – I have never pushed my children towards catering – he continues – but both Sara and Manuel have decided independently to dedicate themselves to it, enriching our common work project with their ideas and their professionalism.
My daughter Sara is a sommelier graduate and with me she does the honors in the dining room at Miky, our restaurant, taking care of our guests, her husband Boris has been supporting my husband Miky in the kitchen for 13 years and, over the years, has signed several of the most successful dishes of the restaurant that maintains its international imprint.
My son Manuel has been in charge of “La Cantina di Miky” since its opening in 2008, bringing his passion for slow food and the spasmodic search for the excellence of the territory into the kitchen.
In this activity he is joined by Christine, his wife, a graduate in the United States in Food and Beverage who, who arrived in Monterosso years ago to study the characteristics of the oil of the 5 Terre for her degree thesis… back to the States.
A contagious passion for catering your…
The extraordinary thing is that we walk together without any constraints, but with a strong commonality of values. We tend to always improve, we are very attentive to innovations, to experimentations, we want to continue to amaze our customer by bringing our search for beauty not only in the “mise en place”, but also in the unusual combinations of flavors and aromas and in the dish. Some of our dishes rework the Ligurian tradition, to which we are very attached, in terms of the quality of raw materials, but always in a modern key, others take inspiration from art, from painting… totally leaving the cliché of regional cuisine to approach a more aesthetic use of the dish itself.
My children have traveled the world to learn what is beautiful is offered elsewhere, but also to try to avoid the mistakes we sometimes witness. We are extremely attentive to the voice of our customers, their feedback is fundamental for us. Our continuous improvement is based on listening to what the customer tells us, but sometimes also to what he does not express to us in words. We ask our waiters to pay attention to the whole body language of the customer, during the tasting of the dishes, to better satisfy their tastes and intuit their sensations and emotions.
Ours is a relationship of love with the customer that passes from hospitality at the table to welcome. We want to offer an experience of taste, but also of beauty.
Simonetta, what are your future projects?
Today, Miky and I continue our work with the same love and passion as always, but the future is firmly in the hands of Sara, Boris, Manuel and Christine.
Of course, over the years I have realized that I increasingly like to take care of the details, welcome the customer, learn to know him and establish a relationship with him, understand his tastes, devote all those little attentions that make you feel pampered at home … and in telling about herself Simonetta looks at the beautiful flowered terrace of her house and I see a flicker in her eyes – but to do this you must necessarily contact a few!
Who is already thinking of a new little big adventure? Who knows, maybe we will soon be back to tell you a new episode of this beautiful story.
