Tuscan Hills Table
The hotel-restaurant Bellavista Impruneta is a 4th generation restaurant that has been in business since 1906.
Today we talk to LA born Alexandra Ancich about how she fell in love with the place, and is helping the business grow into an international one.
A street view of the hotel terrace and veranda.
Hotel Bella Vista is run by Matteo and his parents. And more recently, by Matteo and I. We are soon to split our time (6 months-6 months), by going to California during the low seasons here. Even when we won’t be there, the hotel-restaurant will continue to run with his parents and staff. Tuscan Hills Table is private dinner events in California or in peoples’ rental villas in Tuscany.
Front entrance of the hotel/restaurant
What is Tuscan Hills Table all about? How did it start?
Tuscan Hills Table is all about the most magical aspects of an Italian meal: the family recipes, culture, history, storytelling, warmth and immersing yourself in the moment. My husband, Matteo, grew up in his family’s 4th generation hotel-restaurant “Bellavista Impruneta” in the rolling hills above Florence, Italy, and I’ve been so fortunate to be welcomed into his family who have embraced this California girl, taught me about Tuscan food and philosophy, and served me countless delicious meals.
Great Grandpa Giuseppe opened the local shop, which offered food and practical daily items like buttons, for people traveling through the town from Florence en route to Siena, which was an 80km+ journey. Due to the long journey, Giuseppe’s customers started asking him for a place to sleep and rest, and he was always ready to host and innovate, so he started offering up rooms to sleep, essentially transforming a private home into a hotel, and Matteo’s Great Grandma Giulia (an incredible cook) served dinner to the travellers.
The guy in the middle of the photograph above is Giuseppe Becucci, Matteo’s Great Grandfather, who started the family business in 1906, with a local shop/restaurant.
Bellavista is now a 19-room hotel with 2 restaurants, a panoramic terrace and cozy common spaces for the guests, and it still feels like that welcome place Great Grandpa Giuseppe opened 116 years ago.
Over the last 8 years, I’ve witnessed guests and my family and friends experience this same hospitality during their visits to Bellavista Impruneta and seeing how happy they were really sparked the idea of recreating this Tuscan meal experience in peoples’ homes in California for small groups of 8-10 people, where we could give people the magic of Tuscany even when they are 6,000 miles away. What I love most about this business is the way our dinner guests forget about the hustle of life and their to-do lists for an evening and just soak up the food, wine, interaction, stories and joyful atmosphere.
Matteo and Alexandra
How did you end up in Florence, what made you decide to move there?
Well, nothing too shocking: love. After a few years of long-distance with my now husband and business partner, I finally took the leap and moved. I was scared but I was never so sure of anything in my life.
What makes a Tuscan meal different from the ones we’re used to in the UK & U.S.?
Life is busy everywhere, including Italy, but I’ve seen and experienced a larger emphasis on longer meals with more courses in Tuscany as well in most parts of Italy. In Italy, when you book a table at a restaurant, that table is yours for the night, largely because tipping is not a factor as the staff works on salaries, so whether at home or at a restaurant, hours of chatting, eating and drinking wine can go by in the company of your family and friends without you realizing it. When my husband used to visit me in the U.S. when I still lived there, he would look at a restaurant menu and ask me why there were so many things in a certain pasta or salad. Now, after living in Italy, I understand that he was used to simple dishes with just a few ingredients prepared well (spoiler: I’m this way too now). When we look at Tuscan cuisine compared to other regions of Italy, there can be a ton of differences, too. For example, in Tuscany there isn’t much use of butter, cream, spice or oregano, but you will find these ingredients more in other regions.
A collection of images: a dinner in San Francisco, CA, March 2020 with guests who come back to Bellavista Impruneta almost every year. A mini soup tasters at a tasting event in California November, 2019 and a dinner in San Jose, CA last March (2020).
Tell us about the interactive dinners & cooking classes
Our dinners take place in California (or for vacationers at their villas in Tuscany) and start with making a connection with the host of the dinner, where we plan out the menu and the evening and get to know the person hosting. Leading up to the dinner, we learn about the host’s kitchen through photos or videos and do the grocery shopping and some of the prep ahead of time. The dinners are usually 10-15 people because our dinner is a full Tuscan experience where we not only cook 5-6 courses, but spend time with the host and guests, telling stories behind the dishes and interacting as much as possible. We love when people come into the kitchen and ask us questions, and like to create an environment that is warm, relaxed and at the slower pace of a true Italian meal. For those who love to cook, we also offer interactive cooking classes for small groups, where we cook about 3 courses and then enjoy the meal together at the table.
When it comes to our private chef business, we don’t have a set venue, because we go to peoples’ homes in California or in their rental villas in the Tuscany region, but the hotel-restaurant Bellavista Impruneta runs all year round and is about a 30 minute drive out of the Florence city center, in a city called Impruneta, which is up in the hills and on the border of the Chianti area. Impruneta is convenient not only to Florence, but to all the surrounding Tuscan hilltowns, which is a huge draw. You can get to Impruneta by bus or car. Of course contact us if you want to come and we will be happy to help you.
A taste of what’s yet to come in…
Any tips to keep in mind when building a restaurant?
Our restaurant is “mobile” — we go to peoples’ homes, which brings some challenges! Since we are cooking in a new kitchen we aren’t familiar with the host’s appliances and kitchen set-up which is why we get to know their kitchen through speaking to them and seeing photos or videos ahead of time. In the Bellavista Impruneta restaurant in Tuscany, the challenge is a bit different because we know the kitchen well, but we have to estimate the amount of food to buy without always knowing how many people are going to show up.
What have the main challenges been for you since setting up?
The right ingredients! In our business, we ship olive oil, wine and pasta from our town, which is an overhead cost but also a logistical puzzle at times as we have to get the timing right, ship the right amount of ingredients and hope that everything arrives in California intact. Luckily for us we have managed this so far. At first it was a challenge to find the right perishable ingredients in California, too, but we have found amazing suppliers there and have been able to shop at farmers markets, which has allowed us to replicate the same taste and quality as the food we serve in Tuscany.
The lockdown completely halted our bi-continental life, but we accepted it, knowing it was temporary. We have used this time to focus on the hotel-restaurant in Tuscany and to improve and create for our private chef business. We started strong out the gate with Tuscan Hills Table and we were building the business while running it full speed, and the lockdown gave us a chance to just focus on building and innovating.
On the terrace
How do you manage the 50/50 split between your two locations?
Strategically! We plan our trips to the US during months that are more popular there, and low season here in Italy at the hotel. Our trips are usually about 2 months at a time. That said, one of the exciting things about this business is that it isn’t predictable. It’s a lot of trial & error and I just know us as a couple and as individuals and we always analyze situations and make adjustments as needed. One thing we know is that we don’t ever want to choose one or the other - US or Italy - because we have our families in both places and love so many things about each place: truly the best of both worlds.
Do you cater to a local demographic or tourists?
At the restaurant in Tuscany, there is a large local and tourist demographic, but the food and experience is traditional and based on generations-old recipes no matter what. Matteo’s family has never adjusted the menu, experience or prices based on tourism, so you really get that old world hospitality here. Most tourists at Bellavista Impruneta are from the U.S., U.K., France and Germany, but we really get people from everywhere. The ratio is probably 60% local-Italian, 40% tourists, but it’s a really rough estimate. This is mostly because the hotel is open year round so in the low tourist season, we continue to get a lot of locals.
How important is branding and visual identity in what you do? Or is your business all word of mouth?
Visual identity is extremely important, despite the fact that a lot of our business is word of mouth. Over the last year we have been working behind the scenes on our branding and are looking forward to revealing that over the coming months. We are going through a probable name change, a new website, working on our social media and making sure that our messaging and visual identity really represent the experience and feeling we give to people.
Find Tuscan Hills Table on Instagram via their website or via email. Alexandra is happy to connect with you first through email or Instagram to take it from there.
