With a clear path, studded with awards (the Gambero Rosso’s Emerging Chef of the Year award in 2017 and the Michelin Woman Chef of the Year award in 2019), Martina Caruso (class of ’89) has moved Signum into the shortlist of the best restaurants in Italy, together with her brother Luca.
In the new guide Restaurants of Italy 2023, in fact, that pearl set between the green and the clear blue of the sea and sky of Salina, has crossed the threshold of 90 cents, the score that opens the doors of the Three Forks and thus made its entrance into the upper part of the ranking.
The credit goes to the new generation that has taken over the legacy of the previous one. Martina, in the kitchen, in front of the pass that was dad Michele’s, and Luca in the dining room, to pick up mum Clara’s baton; together to weave the threads of a welcome that can compete with the beauty that surrounds it and that – as sometimes happens – risks stealing attention from what happens in the dining room and on the plate. There is no doubt about it, because in these few years the Caruso brothers have been able to move forward at a rapid and steady pace. So much so that if you ask them what was the turning point, they answer in unison that there was no precise moment that marked the change, but a continuous process made up of meticulous commitment on the island, during the season, and of grand tours in the closing months, fundamental for getting to know, grow, confront each other, discover techniques and suggestions to take back home and then re-elaborate in the warm, perfumed air that blows over the Aeolian Islands. Always keeping the family hotel as the gravitational centre, raising the bar day after day, without tears.
“Coming from the world of hotellerie,” explains Luca, “we have that kind of heritage, you can’t separate the two souls” this explains, perhaps, that savoir fare that has characterised Luca’s figure from the start: he is an affable and caring host, capable of embroidering a hospitality of great charm and warmth in combination with Martina’s cuisine, which he has been able to recode from the experiences that have fuelled his islander spirit.
Gambero Rosso, a magazine founded in 1986 by Stefano Bonilli, has been concerned with the culture of good food and wine since its inception.
The Ristoranti d’Italia guide describes the excellence of Italian catering and the ‘Tre Forchette’ are the highest award for restaurants in the Belpaese. The guide gives each restaurant a score from 60 to 100 points and, for the best restaurants, a number of forks between 1 and 3.
FOOD & WINE ITALIA AWARDS 2022
SIGNUM AWARD FOR BEST FOOD AND WINE EXPERIENCE IN HOTELS
The season is full of awards for Signum.In Florence, Luca Caruso attended the Food & Wine Italia Awards, now in its third edition. The evening was held at “The Stellar” inside the Granaio dell’Abbondanza (the former granary of the Medici family and now the Granary of Ideas), where talent, creativity, innovation and social responsibility in Italian food and wine were rewarded.
Food & Wine Italia in collaboration with Lonely Planet magazine Italia, declared Signum the winner of the title “Best Food & Wine Experience in a Hotel” for the year 2022 with these mention:
“A luxury boutique hotel as well as a restaurant and wellness centre, Hotel Signum is nestled in the lush greenery of Salina, in the centre of the Aeolian Islands archipelago. A place where nothing is random, but the result of the care and dedication of the hosts, the Caruso family. The hotel hosts 30 rooms and suites, each with an individual style and furnished with period furniture, refined objects and design. Light, history, refinement and quality materials are the distinguishing features of each room. A dream born in 1988 when Clara Rametta and Michele Caruso decided to renovate some old ruins, handed down from parents to children: Luca at the helm and Martina holding the reins of the kitchen and the starred restaurant. Whether it is a refreshing cocktail by the pool or on the panoramic terrace, a quiet read in the green garden or in the library, or a dinner while savouring Martina Caruso’s culinary creations, everything is designed to meet the guests’ wishes.”
Fourteen categories awarded by a jury of experts in the sector and the editorial staff of Food & Wine Italia, the Italian edition of the famous American magazine founded in 1978.
From excellence in cuisine to mixology, from social responsibility to interior design, passing through the best food and wine experience in a hotel and the most effective packaging. One of the values recognised and sought after by the Food & Wine Italia Awards is innovation, declined in the sphere of food, wine and hospitality.
