On this balmy, picturesque morning just outside Ocho Rios, chef Pierluigi Ricci has just returned to the Toscanini restaurant from his trip to the market. After exchanging hearty hellos, he offers an apology. “I’m really sorry to say this, but we won’t be having fish on the menu.”

Not that we asked for any, but Toscanini, one of the finest Italian restaurants in Jamaica, prides itself on having fresh items on its very extensive menu.

“The weather hasn’t been great the past few days,” PG, as he’s called, explains. “The fish haven’t been coming in.”

But there is lobster and shrimp and all sorts of meat — in fact, there are over 30 items chalked onto the blackboard menu.

PG takes us inside the restaurant, which seems oddly lofty with its unpretentious charm. It’s a cosy little space, its floors just slightly scuffed, with tons of memorabilia hanging from the walls. The room breathes personality, which is perhaps expected, given the very friendly natures of its owners.

PG, who does the cooking, loves company and loves treating people to good food. He’s skilled with a camera (he was a sports photographer at one point), and he loves music, the Rolling Stones being a particular favourite band.

His sister, Lella Ricci, who runs the business side of Toscanini, arrives a few minutes later and is equally personable. Her skin is sun-baked and her smiles are frequent. She ushers us out onto the patio for a spot of lunch, giving us a chance to marvel at our surroundings. Harmony Hall, where Toscanini is located, is a quaint little masterpiece. The bottom floor’s exterior stonework has a definite grotto-like feel, while the top floor is a showcase for the old-estate style popular when the house was built in the late 19th century.

The setting is almost too perfect — fruit trees and flower plants dot the surrounding lawn; a lazy breeze tickles the tablecloths around us. Lella is thinking of adding a water feature near the entrance, and maybe a pond in the back, with a hammock nearby.

“Wouldn’t that be beautiful?” she asks.

A plate of lovely bruschetta is brought to us. It’s a vivid presentation of ripe-red tomatoes, vivid green basil, fresh garlic and arugula all on roasted focaccia and topped with her signature scotch bonnet pepper-infused olive oil.

It’s exquisite. The fruit, the herbs — their flavours are unmistakable. The tomato is fresh, juicy, and the basil — it’s buoyant and pungent and strongly aromatic; it evokes visions of afternoons in Tuscany and sweeping farms of olive trees. But this isn’t Italy, we remind ourselves. This lovely exotic herb is grown right here in Jamaica.

“We try to source as many fresh ingredients as we can locally,” Lella tells us.

The baby greens and crisp beans, the rosemary, basil and parsley are bought from local producers; she has a roster of fishermen and butchers from whom she sources her meats and fish.

“It has to be fresh,” she says again emphatically, “I tell them all the time, if the animal don’t move, we don’t want it.”

She smiles. We are still raving over the bruschetta.

“It’s good, no?”

We’re about to say yes, before realising it wasn’t a question.

Lella and PG were born to be restaurateurs. Their father, Lino Ricci, was in the restaurant business all their young lives. PG grew up in the kitchen around his father, where he honed his cooking skills. Lella, meanwhile, learned the management aspect of the business by watching Lino work.

“His customers were his friends and his friends were his customers,” she tells us. “He really wanted to look after people.”

After a stint in Italy, the siblings moved back to London and started helping their father with his business — a little pastry shop by the name of Patisserie Valerie.

“We became one of the leading patisseries in England,” Lella says.

But soon the brother and sister duo longed for something different. They had vacationed in the Caribbean in the 80s and had entertained the idea of opening an Italian restaurant in the tropics. In 1995, they settled in Antigua, opening a pizzeria there.

The venture, however, did not prove as satisfying as they had envisioned. They were disenchanted with the experience largely because most of their foods had to be imported.

“What’s the point of coming to the tropics to cook if all your food is from abroad?”

That’s when Lella and PG met Peter and Annabella Proudlock, landlords for the Harmony Hall property (Peter was a customer at their pizzeria). Soon, Jamaica emerged as a possible destination for a new restaurant venture. They travelled to the island in 1997 with no firm plan in mind. A year later, at Harmony Hall, Lella and PG opened Toscanini.

“It’s the food,” Lella says smiling. “Fresh fruits and organic produce brought us to Jamaica.”

A flash of rain has come and gone, but our enthusiasm is far from dampened. A local who provides Lella with fish has arrived with a freshly caught amber jack. (“Aren’t the fishermen here great?”) The cook whips us up a filet in a tasty wine and tomato reduction. Time and time again, the robustly fresh quality of the meats and herbs greatly enhance the tasting experience. The plump lobster meat in the Lobster and Scallion Gratin bursts with the spices in the creamy béchamel sauce; the juices from the rack of lamb nicely absorb the sturdy flavour of the rosemary.

Lella is passionate about food and she respects her customers’ right to have good food.

“People know when food isn’t fresh. People nuh fool nuh more,” she says, betraying the hint of patois that sometimes sneaks into her speech.

“Satisfying my customers,” she continues, “that’s what drives me.”

It seems satisfying one’s customers is the secret to attaining longevity in the restaurant business. Toscanini, a nominee of the Jamaica Observer Food Awards for longevity, is in the midst of its 12th year and business is doing just fine. The economic turndown has had its effects, certainly, but customers are still coming. And throughout its 12 years so far, Toscanini has had its share of high-profile clients. World leaders have dined at these tables, including former Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien and former American president Bill Clinton, along with his wife Hillary.

“Oh, Bill,” Lella says rhapsodically, “he was a force of charisma, that man.”

The Rolling Stones were here, as was famed Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme (“Dr Lecter would probably kill for one of your livers,” he wrote. “I know I would, too.”)

One patron she’ll never forget is celebrity chef Marco Pierre White, who is almost as renowned for his temper as he is for his for his culinary expertise.

“He was sitting right here,” she gestures, “looking intimidating. But I won him over.”

She told him she knew his doctor (which she did) and the two of them hit it off then.

“He told me,” she says, barely containing her excitement, “Toscanini is the jewel in Jamaica’s crown.”

Lella and PG’s restaurant is certainly a bright spot in the country’s restaurant scene. Its name is taken from that of famed Italian composer Arturo Toscanini. Toscanini in the States and elsewhere, was regarded as one of the greatest conductors of his time. Toscanin, in Jamaica should be regarded as one of the finest restaurants on the island today.

— Kedon Willis