Serenaded by Bruno, a pianist doing life for murder, the
clientele eat inside a deconsecrated chapel set behind the 60 ft-high
walls, watch towers, searchlights and security cameras of the daunting
500-year-old Fortezza Medicea, at Volterra near Pisa.
Under the watchful eye of armed prison warders, a 20-strong
team of chefs, kitchen hands and waiters prepares 120 covers for diners
who have all undergone strict security checks. Tables are booked up
weeks in advance.
The prison director, Maria Grazia Giampiccolo, said the
inmates had developed a flair for their cooking: "I feel haute cuisine
in a place like this prepares the inmates for when they are eventually
released. The guests enjoy their meals and although the security seems
at first very daunting and imposing, they get over it quite quickly and
forget about the guards."
The Mafia may be in charge, but there is no horse's head on this menu. Instead, a smart, middle-aged crowd tucks into a vegetarian signature menu, cooked up by head chef Egidio - serving life for murder - and keenly priced at €25 (£17.50), including a glass of wine with each course.
The restaurant opened two months ago and has proved so popular that Italy's prison department is thinking of trying it in other jails.
Securing a table is as tricky as getting past the sternest maître d'. Diners are thoroughly vetted by the Ministry of Justice in Rome and anyone with a dubious background is turned down.
But at least there is no danger of the meal being disrupted by the annoying chirrup of mobile phones. They have to be handed in, along with handbags, and ID must be produced before passing through a metal detector at the top of stairs leading into the complex, which houses 150 inmates.
Diners go through a series of checkpoints and past the cells, before sitting down in the candlelit restaurant.
In the kitchen, Egidio, a burly 50-year-old from Taranto, in southern Italy, reigns over his team of six chefs like an Italian Gordon Ramsay. "The pasta is boiling over! More salt, less garlic! Keep stirring the pasta sauce!" he shouts.
Seventeen years into his sentence, he is thinking of going into the restaurant business when they finally let him out. "Like any Italian I take my food very, very seriously. I like to be sure the diners are satisfied and they don't just enjoy the food, but enjoy it with the same passion that I prepare it."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his record, diners have been reluctant to criticise.
"Before this I couldn't even fry an egg but now here I am preparing five-course dinners and I have not had any complaints," he said.
Most of the dishes the restaurant serves are southern Italian staples from organised crime hotspots such as Puglia, Sicily and Naples.
Somelier Santolo Matrone, 41, from Naples, landed behind bars after getting into "a spot of bother" when he was younger, which earned him a 24-year sentence for murder. He, too, is hoping to use his new skills when he gets out in seven years.
"I'd like to think that when I get out of here, I can start a family and maybe get a job in a restaurant or hotel," he said.
The unique nature of the restaurant has, however, imposed some restrictions. "Guards watch over the inmates in the kitchens at all times and the cutlery used is plastic, as are the plates," said Miss Giampiccolo. "The main thing is trust and we trust the inmates to behave. If we didn't, we would not allow this to happen.''
Diners professed themselves delighted. "When I heard about it I thought it sounded fun, so we booked a table and I have to say the food has been very good," said off-duty policeman Alessandra Ciabattini, 36.
"The fact that the dishes are prepared by murderers, armed robbers, Mafiosi or terrorists doesn't really bother me, though I might be worried if someone had been convicted of poisoning."
The Mafia may be in charge, but there is no horse's head on this menu. Instead, a smart, middle-aged crowd tucks into a vegetarian signature menu, cooked up by head chef Egidio - serving life for murder - and keenly priced at €25 (£17.50), including a glass of wine with each course.
The restaurant opened two months ago and has proved so popular that Italy's prison department is thinking of trying it in other jails.
Securing a table is as tricky as getting past the sternest maître d'. Diners are thoroughly vetted by the Ministry of Justice in Rome and anyone with a dubious background is turned down.
But at least there is no danger of the meal being disrupted by the annoying chirrup of mobile phones. They have to be handed in, along with handbags, and ID must be produced before passing through a metal detector at the top of stairs leading into the complex, which houses 150 inmates.
Diners go through a series of checkpoints and past the cells, before sitting down in the candlelit restaurant.
In the kitchen, Egidio, a burly 50-year-old from Taranto, in southern Italy, reigns over his team of six chefs like an Italian Gordon Ramsay. "The pasta is boiling over! More salt, less garlic! Keep stirring the pasta sauce!" he shouts.
Seventeen years into his sentence, he is thinking of going into the restaurant business when they finally let him out. "Like any Italian I take my food very, very seriously. I like to be sure the diners are satisfied and they don't just enjoy the food, but enjoy it with the same passion that I prepare it."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his record, diners have been reluctant to criticise.
"Before this I couldn't even fry an egg but now here I am preparing five-course dinners and I have not had any complaints," he said.
Most of the dishes the restaurant serves are southern Italian staples from organised crime hotspots such as Puglia, Sicily and Naples.
Somelier Santolo Matrone, 41, from Naples, landed behind bars after getting into "a spot of bother" when he was younger, which earned him a 24-year sentence for murder. He, too, is hoping to use his new skills when he gets out in seven years.
"I'd like to think that when I get out of here, I can start a family and maybe get a job in a restaurant or hotel," he said.
The unique nature of the restaurant has, however, imposed some restrictions. "Guards watch over the inmates in the kitchens at all times and the cutlery used is plastic, as are the plates," said Miss Giampiccolo. "The main thing is trust and we trust the inmates to behave. If we didn't, we would not allow this to happen.''
Diners professed themselves delighted. "When I heard about it I thought it sounded fun, so we booked a table and I have to say the food has been very good," said off-duty policeman Alessandra Ciabattini, 36.
"The fact that the dishes are prepared by murderers, armed robbers, Mafiosi or terrorists doesn't really bother me, though I might be worried if someone had been convicted of poisoning."
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