Sabìa puts Stefano Toscano and Pilar Toledo in charge of its kitchen

Sabìa, a family-run restaurant in Gela, Sicily, said Monday, November 9, that it is reshaping its kitchen around chefs Stefano Toscano and Pilar Toledo as it enters a new phase roughly a decade after the La Rosa family began its restaurant venture.

The restaurant, run by the La Rosa family, said Toscano and Toledo have led the kitchen brigade since April 2026. The pair, who are partners both personally and professionally, are overseeing a menu centered on Mediterranean cooking with a strong Sicilian base and a focus on local ingredients, long cooking methods, direct heat, and contrasts in texture and temperature.

The move is part of a broader repositioning for Sabìa, which the family describes as a hospitality project that grew out of plans for hotel accommodations and later expanded into a more ambitious restaurant operation. The business is based in Gela, in the province of Caltanissetta, an area better known for its coastal setting and industry than for fine dining.

Toscano comes to the role with training that, according to the restaurant, includes study in Italian cuisine and work with chefs Giuseppe Raciti and Pino Cuttaia. He also worked with Toledo at the Santantonio Resort in Riposto and at Dentro le Mura in Butera. In a statement, Toscano said his goal is to make diners feel at ease while preserving the identity of a recipe and highlighting ingredients through contrasts in flavor.

Toledo, who is from Alicante, Spain, said she entered Italian professional cooking after winning a competition that opened the way to study at ALMA, the Italian culinary school. Sabìa said she later completed training placements with Pino Cuttaia and Enrico Crippa. She met Toscano in Cuttaia’s kitchen, the restaurant said, and the two developed a shared approach that combines Mediterranean roots with limited outside influences.

The chefs said they chose to build their careers in Gela despite the challenges of operating in a city without a deeply established high-end restaurant tradition. In remarks released by the company, they said the decision allows them to work closely with the surrounding territory and its ingredients.

Sabìa’s menu is organized around four tasting paths, named Smart, Terra, Marea, and Sabìa. The dishes outlined by the restaurant show a split between land and sea, with several plates built on familiar Sicilian products but presented through more contemporary techniques.

Among the meat dishes are a guinea fowl served in two preparations, with the breast cooked sous vide at low temperature and the leg turned into a croquette with roasted pumpkin cream; a red wine risotto with braised duck, Piacentinu Ennese DOP cheese, and toasted hazelnuts; and a pork tenderloin cooked at low temperature. Seafood dishes include citrus-marinated langoustines with chickpea cream and lemon foam, mixed pasta in a sweet spring onion velouté with amberjack tartare flavored with orange, bottarga, and a Tuma Persa cheese gelato, glazed octopus with teriyaki sauce and coffee reduction, and stuffed ribbonfish with dates and dried fruit on romesco sauce.

The restaurant said its kitchen also relies on handmade pasta, bread baked each morning, and savory ice creams used to create contrast within individual dishes. That approach reflects a broader effort to combine techniques associated with fine dining with flavors tied to Sicily’s pantry and to older regional recipes.

Sabìa traces its origins to the La Rosa family’s long interest in hospitality. According to the business, the initial idea came from Salvatore La Rosa, a cardiologist from Gela, who wanted to start a hospitality project. His sons, Giuseppe, also a cardiologist, and Francesco, a lawyer, later pushed for the addition of a restaurant. The family said the project was also shaped by the memory of their mother, Bianca, whose cooking and pastry traditions were central to family life.

That domestic influence remains part of the restaurant’s identity, the owners said, not only in its emphasis on bread and fresh pasta made in-house but also in desserts intended to recall childhood flavors and family meals.