From The Daily Meal…"A Legendary Roman Hotel Celebrates its Restaurant’s 10th Anniversary with a Gift to its Guests". And a recipe for its Chef’s Risotto with Cacio Cheese, Pepper and Sesame

At the top of the newly refurbished Spanish Steps in Rome, sits one the Eternal City’s most extraordinary hotels. The Hassler Roma has entertained everyone from Dwight Eisenhower to Grace Kelly and, quite famously, when Audrey Hepburn used it as a home base while shooting “Roman Holiday”.  As noteworthy as the hotel’s guests have been, the Hassler is likely most famous for its rooftop restaurant, the first ever in a Roman Grand hotel.  It’s been called “Rome with a View” but for the last ten years it has been home to Imàgo, a Michelin-starrred restaurant with food as phenomenal as the views it offers of Rome.

To celebrate its 10^th Anniversary, the restaurant recently underwent a re-design that updated its furnishings, lighting and added an open-style wine cellar.  The project was the work of Hotel Owner and General Manager Roberto Wirth and his wife, Astrid Schiller Wirth, a noted interior designer. Together with their Executive Chef Francesco Apreda and architect Andrea Marini, they treated the renovation with the attention to detail befitting their role as 5^thgeneration hoteliers.  The Hassler has always been a family affair.

In the 1860s, Albert Hassler, the son of a Swiss hotel family, came to Italy with his bride.  They spent the next fifteen years in Naples and Catania before moving to Rome.  In 1885, the Hasslers bought the property at the top of the Spanish Steps.  And 8 years later, the Hassler opened. Just as Paris has its Ritz and New York it’s Plaza, the Hassler quickly became the hotel in Rome.  Oscar Wirth, Roberto’s father, came on board to run the hotel in 1915.  In 1968, the Hassler and Wirth families went their separate ways and the Wirths kept the Hassler.  In 2002, Roberto became its sole owner.

To celebrate Imàgo’s reimagined space, the Hotel is pulling out all the stops.   They are offering a package called “10 Years of Imàgo”: Three nights in a Double Deluxe room with daily breakfast, a sensory massage for two at the hotel’s Amorvero Spa and the piece de resistance: a 10 course Tasting menu for two.  The rate for the package starts at $1975. based on double occupancy.  And if that isn’t enough to have you packing your bags, a look at the Chef’s Tasting menu should.

Chef Francesco Apreda was born in Naples.  After graduation from Culinary School there, at 19 years of age, he came to Rome where he began working at the Hassler. In just a year, he became Chef de Partie. A year later, he left for a five-year stint in London

Chef Francesco Apreda of the Hassler Roma

where he worked at Michel Roux’s Le Gavroche and where he was reunited with a school friend, Maurizio Morelli, London’s best known Italian chef. From Morelli, he learned how to create new and exciting flavors never losing sight of the traditional underpinnings of great Italian cuisine.  Roberto Wirth followed his young chef’s career closely, sending him to manage the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo’s Italian restaurant for which Wirth was a consultant.   In 2003 Francesco returned to Rome where he was made Executive Chef at the Hassler.  He was 29 years of age.

For Imàgo’s Anniversary Tasting menu, Chef Apreda chose ten signature dishes that have evolved over the last decade and are proven favorites of the chef and guests alike.  This tasting menu features these dishes, reinvented for today.  They are Foie Gras and Scones (2105), Breaded Scallops, Shiitake Mushrooms and Black Truffle (2007), Octopus, Seaweed and Roots (2016), Parmesan Cappelotti Pasta “Double Umani” (2010) Risotto with “Cacio” Cheese, Pepper and Sesame (2012), Capellini with Garlic, Olive Oil, Chili Pepper and Smoked Eel (2008), Black Cod and Purple Vegetables (2009), Tandoori-Style Duck (2014), Neapolitan Sfogliatella “Samosa” (2011) and Sweet Buffalo Mozzarella (2013).  This remarkable menu is available at 160 Euros or approximately $173. Per person.  But it certainly sounds like after you’ve tucked into dinner, you might want to just tuck into a gloriously luxurious room downstairs.

The “10 Years of Imàgo” package is available from April 1^st through December 20^th, 2017 To Book: Tel: +39 06 699 340. Email at [email protected]  The Hassler Rome’s address is Piazza Trinità dei Monti, 6  00187 Roma Italia