Anna Dente was born on December 25, 1943, in San Cesareo, a hamlet of the town of Zagarolo in the Province of Rome, during one of the American aerial bombing raids that preceded the January 22, 1944 Allied landings at Anzio and Nettuno. San Cesareo was located at the center of a 1600-hectare estate by the same name dedicated to the cultivation of wheat, maize, vines, fruit and vegetables and to the rearing of cattle, sheep and pigs.
From an early age, Anna Dente worked in her parents’ butcher shop and market garden and was instructed in authentic Roman cooking in the kitchens of osterie run by an aunt in Rome. In 1995, after forty years in the butcher shop and market garden, she decided, together with her family, to open a restaurant that would preserve the unique culinary patrimony of the Roman Campagna, including the Castelli Romani and the Castelli Prenestini. Thus was born the Osteria di San Cesario.
Anna Dente, known as “Sora Anna, “ has been called “Queen of the Matriciana” by Stefano Bonilli, of Gambero Rosso “Priestess of Authentic Traditional Roman Cooking”by Bob Noto on the website “Lo Mejor de la Gastronomia,” and “Queen of Roman Cooking”by the great Chef Heinz Beck of “La Pergola” (Three Stars in Michelin, Three Forks in Gambero Rosso) at the Cavalieri Hilton Hotel, Rome.