Traditional Tuscan Dinners

Tuscany is a Garden of Eden for local agriculture and farm produce, and features an abundance of tomatoes, porcini mushrooms, white and black truffles, artichokes, aubergines, rosemary, oregano, basil, and game, to name just a few favorites. 

Traditional Tuscan cuisine centers around the freshest, most pure seasonal ingredients and includes legumes, cheeses, vegetables, and fresh fruits. Complicated seasonings and elaborate creations simply aren’t needed, instead the natural flavors and high-quality local ingredients speak for themselves.

Local produce doesn’t have to travel far to reach Villa I Busini, as the region's gentle hills and warm sunlight create the perfect climate and terrain, and produce is bountiful. Our traditional Tuscan Chef will surprise and delight you with local dishes, freshly prepared for your enjoyment.

Tuscany’s traditional menu echoes that of the rest of Italy and consists of antipasti (small starters), primi piatti (pasta dishes), secondi piatti (main courses) with or without contorno (side dishes), and dolce (desserts). Your dining experience will be unique to the season, your requests, and your dietary requirements. Our Chef will prepare a specialty menu for you which will be accompanied by your wines of choice or our Villa I Busini house wines.

Modern Experimental Dinners

The marriage of local produce, food science, and the culinary arts continues to be explored in Tuscany. Local ingredients are exceptional, and bountiful. The Chianti region best-known for its wine, is also home to some of the most prized culinary delights in Italy.

At Villa I Busini our classically-trained, yet innovative “experimental” Chef embraces Tuscan tradition, while focusing on creativity and playfulness. Uniting technology with science to enhance—never replace—hand-prepared cuisine, our Chef carefully selects the finest local ingredients and thoughtfully designs culinary creations to deliver a modern Tuscan dining experience like none other.

Abreast of biodynamic, sustainable, and regenerative farming practices, each ingredient is handpicked and artfully combined to support the region and showcase the best of what Tuscany has to offer. Our Chefs embrace curiosity and our country’s passion for world-class dining, to curate one-of-a-kind menus unique to the preferences and requests of every guest.

The creative combinations, fusion of classic favorites with contemporary skill, and the beauty of each dish’s presentation makes this experience a multi-sensory delight, not to be missed.

The seasonal menu will accommodate your dietary requirements and can be enjoyed with your wines of choice or our Villa I Busini house wines.

A Taste of History Dinner

During the Renaissance, Chefs were highly sought-after. Across Italy, the court’s noble and powerful families, and Vatican-city residents, hosted sumptuous banquets as both a pastime and a demonstration of wealth and power.

Maestro Martino da Como (also known as Martino de Rossi, circa 1430), is thought to be the world’s first celebrity chef.

Another notable Renaissance Chef was Bartolomeo Scappi (1500), whose innovative concepts revolutionized culinary arts. His 1570’s cookbook, Opera dell'arte del Cucinare (The Opera Art of Cooking) features 1000 Renaissance recipes and is well-known throughout Europe as the most extensive cookbook of the Renaissance era.

One of the prized breakfast recipes in this book—the plum and sour cherry crostata (sweet tart)—inspired the sweet tarts served daily at Villa I Busini breakfasts.

The zuccotto is the oldest known dessert of Florence, invented by Bernardo Buontalenti for a banquet held in honor of Caterina de’ Medici in the 16th century. The dessert was initially known as the Helmet of Caterina and legend has it that the first Zuccotto desserts were made inside a zuccotto (military helmet), worn by the infantry. The shape of the famous dessert is also reminiscent of the Duomo of Florence.

Every culinary experience prepared at Villa I Busini pays respects to Renaissance tradition. Our Chef Historian is a gastronomy expert on authentic Tuscan cuisine and she will not only design and prepare a historical  meal for you during your week long stay, she will also explain each course’s origin, history, and preparations. In addition, our Chef will enhance your experience with insightful facts, mesmerising stories, and legendary tales, such as the reason why Tuscan Chefs do not use salt in their bread, and how Michelangelo had seasonal pecorino cheese sent to him from Florence when he was working in Rome. She will compile the perfect menu for you taking into account any dietary requirements, and enchant and delight you with an authentic Renaissance experience, served with your wines of choice or our Villa I Busini house wines. 

Food and Wine