Bella Vedere

When the Apocalypse arrives, it would seem anyone stranded at Bella Vedere will be set for survival. Its woven-vine bordered garden bursts with produce, the spoils of which are displayed inside on a wide wooden table - a pile of red tomatoes, a splay of artichoke flowers. The aroma of baking hits as soon as you enter the olive-hued abode, and beyond a corridor of comestibles and freshly baked cakes is a fish-bowl 'country house' kitchen. It's busy with cooks clanging copper pots, keeping up with the plates of goat braised with tomatoes, cinnamon and white wine; paccheri (pasta tubes) filled with sardines, olives and capers; pork loin spiedino (skewers) with pinenut, garlic and currant soffrito, which are whisked to lunchtime crowds by waistcoated staff. Dinner on Saturday night remains the famed domain of chef Gary Cooper, who creates a set menu based on what he can get his gardening gloves on.