Gianluigi Morini - founder

Gianluigi’s childhood and youth were spent in the shadow of his father, and to please him he completed his accountancy studies. At the same time though he developed his natural leaning towards the arts by getting involved in amateur dramatics and moving to Rome, where he worked at the experimental film centre.
The cinema remains one of his favourite pastimes, along with cooking, which he hones by inviting friends to dinner and trying out his skills as a chef, sommelier and even director on them.
He started getting information on the restaurants of Italy and other countries and became convinced that he could set up his own “made to measure” restaurant. He did so towards the end of the 1960s in some rooms at his father’s home, where he established a 20 table restaurant where everything was arranged down to the last detail: he covered the walls with linen and the ceilings with decorative fabric, which was also used to cover the lampshades over each table.
There are heavy, deep pink coloured linen tablecloths, crystal glasses, silver place plates, candlesticks, cutlery and vases, which are filled with fresh flowers every day. San Domenico, which opened its doors to the public on 7 March 1970, looks and feels like an exclusive, members only club. At first the gastronomic choices tended to adapt traditional flavours with the attention to detail and style typical of the aristocratic Italian table; later on, following Luigi Veronelli’s advice, Gianluigi Morini turned to the experience of Nino Bergese, a great chef who had had a prestigious career in the kitchens of Italian and foreign royalty and dignitaries. Bergese endowed the San Domenico kitchen with the same style of the grand kitchens he had worked in, always choosing the best ingredients and preparing everything, from the bread to the desserts, in house, because he said “our guests must be treated with the utmost respect, they come here to eat and enjoy the flavour of our dishes”. He established a very special, harmonious relationship with Valentino Marcattili, the young chef that the kitchen management had taken on.

What is San Domenico’s secret? Its cuisine seeks to return to the roots of genuine, carefully prepared food, full of a fertile creativity that makes it stand out. It also boasts an absolutely amazing choice of wines that Gianluigi Morini is proud to display in his legendary cellar, which is also his pride and joy. It contains Morini’s lovingly and painstakingly sought out collection of the best wines available, with the aim of pairing them with the dishes produced by the kitchen to enhance their aromas and flavours. Everything is done to offer the customers who choose San Domenico a welcoming service and to “take care of their happiness”.