The chef who revolutionized Molise with her cuisine (and an excellent wine list)

Stefania Di Pasquo, along with her life and business partner Tomas Torsiello, runs one of the most interesting establishments in Southern Italy. It’s the only Due Forchette-rated restaurant in the region, which, in addition to the award for Best Wine List in the South, also received the "smile" for Quality/Price for Molise. Here is her story and that of Locanda Mammì.

Who is Stefania Di Pasquo

Determined. If there is one thing that strikes you when you meet Stefania Di Pasquo's dark eyes, it is this characteristic trait, typical of mountain people. A gentle strength, like the valleys of Trigno and Sangro, which embrace the beautiful town, long among the most prosperous in all of Molise due to its numerous productive activities. The town is famous for its metal craftsmanship (pontifical bells come from here) and for the quality of its dairy products (applauded caciocavallo and stracciata cheeses). Determined to stay in Agnone to follow in the footsteps of her father Renzo, she chose to study managerial sciences at the University of Pescara and completed a master's in the construction business—an industry where women are still rare today, let alone twenty years ago. The culinary teachings of her grandmother Esterina and her mother Silvana, as tradition dictates, had helped her manage well away from home, instilling a not-so-hidden passion. "I was the youngest, the last grandchild of the youngest son," Stefania recalls, "and I grew up with stories and culinary rituals tied to agrarian rites or religious festivals, which are still very important in our area. On weekends, I would find myself baking desserts and making kilos and kilos of jam with fruit from our garden."

In the old family farmhouse

Between one construction site and another for the family business, in 2008 the time came to renovate the old farmhouse where her grandmother was born and raised, which was in urgent need of repair. "The idea was to turn it into a B&B with seven rooms that we would manage ourselves. I would prepare the breakfasts," Stefania remembers, "but the work progressed slowly because, of course, we prioritized our clients." One day, two years later, while defining the spaces, Stefania made a joke that would change the course of her life: "...what if we made a restaurant on the ground floor?" Only weeks later did she begin to realize that this spontaneous idea was actually a completely different job. "I wasn’t prepared. And then, what kind of restaurant would I open? What would I serve? Cheese, maccheroni alla chitarra, and grilled lamb like everyone else around here? So, I started looking for training courses. Alma was too far away and demanding, and I had to oversee the renovation."

Training under Niko Romito

“Luckily, my brother-in-law made me read a newspaper article where chef Niko Romito (whose Reale in Castel di Sangro is, along with Piazza Duomo in Alba, at the top of the Tre Forchette rankings in the Ristoranti d’Italia 2025 guide) announced the upcoming opening of his Academy in Castel di Sangro, just a few kilometers from home. I didn’t even know who Niko Romito was (who, by March 2012, already had Tre Forchette from Gambero Rosso with a score of 93 and two Michelin stars, ed.), but I went to the interview with the chef and told him about my educational and work background. A quick tour of Casadonna’s kitchens showed me that everything was much bigger than me, but Niko didn’t give me time to think. ‘See you next Monday for the first class of the course,’ he said.”

As a customer at the restaurant

So, Stefania withdrew all her savings (which the post office clerk didn’t want to release early because she’d lose all the interest) and threw herself into what would become a beautiful story of sacrifice and courage—“of staying,” as Vito Teti would say—because, in this gesture, Stefania poured all her desire to change the course of things in the place where she was born and raised, even at the cost of some early mistakes. "A whole new world opened up for me, and I realized it was my world. After a few months in the kitchens of Reale, which would soon earn its third star, I opened the restaurant less than a year after finishing the course because I was so eager to test myself. Now I realize I should have gained more experience first. The beginning was very tough—it was a kind of cuisine that we call 'settled,' meaning lightened, with some fish dishes, and people didn’t always understand. Sometimes I did everything myself; other times, my mother, father, and sister came to help. I learned the hard way, visiting restaurants as a customer. It took me twice as long—one thing is being in the kitchen and watching how things are done, and another is trying and trying again to replicate what I’d tasted. But one thing I was always sure of: I would never give up, it was my choice, and I would hold onto it."

The girl who wanted to build buildings has instead built her hidden dream and a new family with Tomas Torsiello, an excellent sommelier and front-of-house professional, and little Leonardo, who arrived almost three years ago. The love story was sparked in quick succession—a lunch among Niko and Cristiana Romito’s friends (Tomas had worked with Cristiana in the dining room), a newspaper article mentioning Osteria Arbustico (the restaurant Tomas opened with his brother Cristian in Valva, now in Capaccio Paestum, which also won the Ristoranti 2025 guide’s special prize for Best Pasta Dishes) and Locanda Mammì among the top ten emerging restaurants, and then the Festa a Vico Equense where they both found themselves. "We got married in 2020 during the height of Covid, a difficult period, but we lived it peacefully, enjoying the silence of our countryside and planning our future," Stefania says confidently. “From the new dining room decor to the direction we’ve taken in the kitchen, in both cases, we’ve wanted to bring the territory and our memories into it—mine, Tomas’s, and the beautiful, unspoiled place where we are.” The essence of these principles is captured in one of the signature dishes of the new menu, the transhumance risotto, cooked in hay broth with sheep micischia (dried meat), hay powder, and rosehip—a tribute to the scents and flavors that shepherds encounter on their long journeys between the mountains and the sea. And grandmother Esterina, “Mammì,” as she called her, is surely smiling with satisfaction as she watches from above.