Restaurateur Claudio Vigilante has opened a new Hamilton eatery inspired by the taste of authentic Italian cuisine.He named Maria’s Ristorante in honour of his mother, and his memories of her cooking and preserving food in Italy while he was a kid.The restaurant is located on the site of Fresco’s, the eatery that Mr Vigilante operated until recently on Chancery Lane.Mr Vigilante closed that restaurant for renovations in January. On a trip home to his parents in San Remo, Italy, he had an epiphany.“I was looking forward to the meal my mother would make and it kind of hit me,” he said.“I have opened many restaurants over the years, but this one is close to my heart, this one is special.”His true appreciation for his mother’s cooking really came to the surface when he went to work in London, England at the age of 17.According to Mr Vigilante, Italian restaurants in the capital city at the time were serving food that was “really, really terrible”.“I suddenly realised that the world wasn’t cooking like my mother did. So then I started calling her up and asking, ‘by the way, how do you make this?’“And that’s when I really started cooking at home, because I couldn’t face going to these fake Italian restaurants.”As with many Italian families, food played a big part in his childhood.“Everything happened around the dinner table all the drama, all the laughs, all the tears.“Everything took place in the big kitchen and dining area. You sat there for two to three hours and food was the centre of the life.”Food was especially tasty because it was eaten when in season or it was preserved, he said.“My parents used to go to the market and buy ten cases of tomatoes in August... and then they’d sun-dry them for the winter.“So for three or four days we were cutting tomatoes and putting them outside with a little bit of salt my mother would cry if there was a summer storm, because if they got wet they would get mouldy and they were finished.“All these things that you grew up with and take for granted but those sun dried tomatoes were more flavourful than anything you can get today, because today everything is done in ovens and is industrial. So that is the type of things that we are trying to recreate [at Maria’s Ristorante] and have fun with.”Among the offerings is an array of fresh pastas.“It is basically homemade or peasant food that we’ve basically forgotten how tasty it can be. It is the traditional Italian Riviera styled food with pastas, risottos, gnocchis, some fresh fish and all about herbs.“I am going to have an herb garden [outside]. Everything is going to be simple with fresh ingredients. [Growing up] for us, an afternoon snack was a piece of bread, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, it was no Nutella or ice cream and we were happy with that.”Families socialised in the square the piazza so he has done his best to create one at the restaurant.His mother is known affectionately by many in Bermuda as ‘mama pasta’ following a visit here many years ago when she cooked for Mr Vigilante’s friends.“So 18 of them showed up you know Bermudians, if you’re cooking… And she made fresh pasta in my little kitchen and one-room apartment.“Every other day they wanted to come. They called her ‘mama pasta’. And to this day, some 18 years later, when I see them they are like, ‘Is your mother coming over?’ And I say, ‘Yes, she’s coming over, but she’s not cooking for you!’”This is what he is trying to recreate and have fun with at Maria’s.Opening times: Lunch 11.45am to 2.30pm; drinner starts at 6pm with the last serving at 10.30pm. The restaurant is open Monday to Saturday.