PESCE AZZURRO OSTERIA DI PESCE

“It’s all about food with Italians,” says Valentina Russo when we’re talking about how a group of seven Italians living in Cape Town, most of whom have no experience in running a restaurant, came to be the new owners of Pesce Azzurro, a totally unpretentious and outstanding Italian seafood bistro in Woodstock.

For this venture, Valentina (who has a PhD in engineering) and her partner Enrico di Giambattista (an IT professional who now runs an AirBnB and imports Olympic fencing equipment), Giovanna Sartor and Fabio Valsasina (both of whom were also involved in the IT industry in Italy) and Marco Castoldi (the manager of a five-star boutique hotel in Camps Bay, with years of experience in the hospitality industry), teamed up with the former owners of award-winning restaurant La Sosta in Swellendam: Gianni Minori (a former optometrist) and Cristiana Ariotto (who worked in a bank in Milan).

“We all love to eat well,” says Enrico, who sometimes