| Adriana Giramonti | |
| Birth Name: | Adriana Silvestri |
| Birth Date: | 25 May 1929[1] |
| Birth Place: | Presenzano, Italy |
| Death Place: | San Rafael, California, U.S.[2] |
| Spouse: | Nino Giramonti |
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| Television: | |
Adriana Giramonti (1929–2016) was an Italian-American chef who co-founded restaurant Giramonti's in Mill Valley, California in 1977.
Adriana Silvestri was born on May 24, 1929, in Presenzano, Italy.[1] Her parents were Clotilde Pascale and Umberto Silvestri.[2] Silvestri was one of five siblings. The family lived in a village near Monte Cassino. The village was occupied by the Germans during World War II. The Germans ransacked the village for food and supplies.[1] The family was frequently hungry as a result of the occupation. When she was a child she painted and won an art competition. Her prize was a kiss on the cheek from Mussolini.[1] [2]
After World War II, the family moved to Rome.[1] Silvestri's parents taught her how to cook, preparing simple meals for their large family using produce and ingredients from local Roman markets.[1] [3] The young Silvestri was a childhood friend of Sophia Loren, a relationship that would sustain throughout their lives. The family spent their summers in Nettuno.[3]
Silvestri moved to San Francisco in 1956, settling in the North Beach, San Francisco neighbourhood.[1] She sought to become a teacher, but was unable to find a job in the education field.
Silvestri began working in the kitchen at an Italian restaurant called Little Joe's. She met Nino Giramonti, who waited tables at various restaurants.[1] The couple would eventually marry and have two sons.[2]
After fifteen years of working at Little Joe's,[1] Adriana Giramonti, alongside Nino, considered buying Little Joe's, which changed ownership a number of times when Giramonti worked there.[4] However, the couple decided to start new and opened their namesake restaurant Giramonti's, in Mill Valley, California in 1977.[1] The restaurant overlooked Richardson Bay.[4] The menu focused on Roman cuisine. SPQR was the theme - with menus and signage at the restaurant displaying the motto of ancient Rome.[1] The restaurant was reviewed positively in Gourmet in 1981.[5] In 1983, Giramonti was featured on Great Chefs.[1] Three years later, in 1986, Clint Eastwood described Giramonti's as being not "pretty" but serving "some of the best food in the Bay Area."[6] Dishes on the menu included Roman-style artichokes, Empress mushrooms, crostini with chicken livers, marinated eggplant, linguine with prawns, and veal in mustard cream sauce.[7] For her veal, Giramoti sourced local, avoiding mass raised synthetically fed veal. The San Francisco Examiner called Giramonti a "master chef" and called it, alongside Ondine, "Marin's most favored dinner houses" in 1981.[4]
Giramonti opened Adriana's in San Rafael, California in 1985.[1] As of 1992, Adriana's served 100 meals daily and grossed $1 million annually.[8] She appeared regularly on the morning news program on KGO-TV.[2]
During her career, Giramonti never called herself "chef" choosing to refer to herself as a cook. She acknowledged that there were not many women being celebrated as chefs during the 1980s. Giramonti believed that women chefs were more creative and experimental than male chefs.[7] She worked five days a week, starting in the kitchen at 10 a.m.[4]
Giramonti taught her grandchildren how to cook, with gnocchi being a favorite dish of the children. She also continued painting throughout her entire life, displaying her own paintings in her house.[2]
Giramonti died on June 6, 2016, in San Rafael.[1] [2]