'Quite successful' - Authentic county Longford Italian restaurant getting rave reviews

Marco Fabbi officially opened Sorrento Restaurant & Café in Lanesboro on June 16 last with a celebratory evening event and despite being open less than six months the family-run eatery has already garnered a wonderful reputation.

Marco and his wife Marina run the business and they are assisted by their adult children Francesco and Lucia.

The quartet also work alongside their staff members Joanna, Isodora and Inga to serve up delicious food with a large quantity sourced from local providers.

Speaking about the difference between secondary school here and in Italy, Marco said he started in hospitality school aged 15.

"In Italy when you go to hospitality school, for example, you do the subject and mainly your core learning will be in the hospitality area for five years."

Marco uses locally sourced and natural ingredients at Sorrento Restaurant & Café in Lanesboro

Marco said he had a big interest in cooking from a young age and growing up on the coast was an advantage sourcing ingredients.

"I'm from the Amalfi Coast and there was always a lot of cooking at home, seafood and meat, with my granny and my parents.”

Asked about the things he started cooking with when he was training to be a chef, Marco said he learned to use simple and wholesome ingredients initially.

"We started from making dessert, cooking fish and, you know, learning from the basics really, from sauce like bolognese and fresh tomatoes.

"We would use the products from the field and the surrounding area that we have around, like nice veg, nice lemon, orange, fruit, you know and all these kinds of things."

Marco said he finished his education at 19 and he went working around Italy in some of the main areas popular for tourists where he learned his trade from the experienced chefs that he worked with.

"I didn't just work in the kitchen. I even worked in the bar as well, because that is the training that they give to you.

"I worked as a floor manager, I worked as a restaurant manager and then, during the last 20 years I have worked in the kitchen full time."

Marco worked in Italy for nine years in the Amalfi Coast, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Lake Garda before moving abroad and deciding to come to Ireland in 2005.

"I spent three years in the States, in New York. And then I met a friend of mine who had a restaurant and he was looking for someone and he offered me a job in Lucan."

Marco lived in Dublin for two years before moving to Roscommon in 2007 and he said in terms of family life and a suitable environment for his children it was much better.

He then moved on in 2009 and he worked as a sous chef in Glasson Lakehouse where he was assisting the executive chef, supervising kitchen staff and managing orders for several years.

Marco returned to the Amalfi Coast in 2016 where he worked as banqueting manager looking after weddings and other large functions and two years later he returned to Roscommon where he was a head chef at the Abbey Hotel for seven years.

Marco said he saw a gap in the market to open an authentic Italian restaurant and he is delighted by the positive feedback.

"I like to look after customers and I like to give an experience to people.

"Even though it is our first year, the restaurant is quite successful. The meat is all local, the fish is Irish and it's all sourced from local suppliers."

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