“A good dish is like a good book. A good recipe is like a good narrative. Every dish has a story to tell. With sounds, images, scents, with tensions and climaxes but mainly with a silence… without secrets. By the end of this ‘narrative’, you should feel the ultimate satisfaction. As if to say… redemption!… If I ever had the chance to tell or write a story about a dinner or a recipe, I would have to make my restaurant… a library. Who knows? Perhaps my son, my grandchildren, or someone else will do it in the future…”

BRUNO ORTOLANO (Da Bruno) CORRIERE DELLA SERA, July 1954.

Today, sixty years later, the now famous Italian restaurant Da Bruno, under the initiative of its owner and continuer of the tradition, Dimitris Tsoukari, has decided to fulfill the dream of its eighty-year-old mentor and founder. But who could narrate the hundreds of everyday stories of a historic restaurant? Stories that have occurred all these years within its hospitable hall? Who can possibly imagine and recount all the beautiful and difficult moments that have happened during a dinner? The comedic, even surreal situations, the loves, the breakups, the misunderstandings, the friendships, the anniversaries, and the memories…

The answer comes from twelve young writers. Twelve new voices that record with their pens twelve stories. Eleven short stories chosen by the jury and one which was voted by the public, inspired by a dinner. An idea from the online literary magazine Diavasame.gr, which, in collaboration with the Italian restaurant, organized perhaps the most original nationwide short story competition. The result is twelve delightful narratives. Twelve stories as true and as fantastical as life itself…