Il regno delle due Sicilie

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies 

The language of southern Italian cooking translated  by David Ayn

 In the far south of the Italian peninsula, the climate, like the people, is extreme.  The temperature always seems to be rising beneath a sun that is always intense.  The tomatoes grow sweeter, the peppers taste hotter, and the olives are riper.  And the winds that well up from deep in the African dessert blowing across the Mediterranean Sea, called il scirocco, bring to the land a heat-drenched pungency that bakes into the earth that oppressively sweet perfume of sunlight and sea that promises a spicy and aromatic harvest.

The constant turbulence of their politics just like the relentless blaze of their sky have forged into these people an insurgent spirit that is reflected in the vehemence of their cooking; and in this food you are able to taste the blood born of their soil, the salt washed up from their seas, and the fire breathed down from their sun.

Davio

A restaurant created especially for those of you who crave the fascinating and friendly flavors of  southern Italian cooking

dal 1991

former restaurants created by David Ayn, now gone or no longer part of the Davio family

Palio     Mi Scusi     Jacob’s Well     Alla Famiglia     Caffe Davio

My father taught me the things which I now teach my sons:  honor, respect, and tradition. One hundred years to the family.

                                                                            -Old saying of the Ciaffoni family