CHENTANNOS grew out of the wish to bring a piece of Sardinia to Innsbruck.
Barbara Marras is the founder, executive chef and restaurant director of CHENTANNOS in Innsbruck. She developed this gastronomic concept in order to share the authentic cooking and the philosophy of life of her homeland with the people of Tyrol.
Having grown up in Sardinia, Barbara carries within her a deep bond with her homeland and with a food culture shaped by simplicity, respect, community and memory.
For Barbara, cooking means far more than preparing a dish. It means preserving something that belongs to her own history, and passing that knowledge on to the next generations.
Her cooking grows out of inherited gestures, out of the scents of Sardinian houses, out of family tables, out of recipes handed down from one generation to the next, and out of those small secrets one does not learn from books but by watching, listening and living.
Barbara is convinced that traditional cooking does not have to be changed in order to be interesting. It has to be respected, understood and told authentically.
Chent’Annos does not simply come from an idea.
It grows out of the meeting of different people who share one thing: their particular way of feeling Sardinia – not merely as a place, but as something that wants to be preserved, told and shared.
Nicola Loi is Sardinia through and through. He does not need to study or imagine his homeland: he carries it within him.
Nicola will be the voice of our dishes. He will guide our guests beyond what they see on the plate – telling where a recipe comes from, why an ingredient matters, and what story lies behind a scent, a flavour or a tradition.
Because at Chent’Annos we do not simply want to serve food. We want every dish to have a voice of its own – and it will be Nicola’s task to make that voice heard.
Hans Puntel originally comes from Friuli, but for more than twenty-five years Austria has been his home. And yet, somewhere along the way, Sardinia found its way deep into his soul.
His deep bond with the island led him to develop, together with Barbara, what is now becoming Chent’Annos.
As co-founder of the concept, Hans stands for the connection between two worlds: Sardinia and Austria. Two regions that at first glance seem far apart – the Mediterranean on one side, the Alps on the other.
And yet, on closer look, one sees how alike they are:
Barbara, Hans and Nicola bring three different stories to Chent’Annos – but they share the same conviction: traditions stay alive only when they are passed on and shared.
And this is exactly where our journey begins. From Sardinia to the Alps. From one table to the next. From a story told to a story that lives on.
Chent’Annos. Sardinia is not simply served at the table – Sardinia is told, shared and lived.
Barbara brings a part of her own history into every dish. She brings the scents she knows, the gestures she learned, the traditions that have accompanied her, and a knowledge passed on through the hands of many generations.
Her cooking is a homage to Sardinian families and to all those people who kept recipes alive without ever writing them down — to mothers and grandmothers who passed on their knowledge through gesture, taste and example.
Barbara believes that the most authentic cooking is the kind that grows out of love for people. That is exactly the feeling she wants to pass on through her work.
She does not simply want to bring dishes to Innsbruck. She wants to bring a piece of Sardinia to Innsbruck.
Barbara wants everyone who takes a seat at her table to recognise a taste, discover a story, feel an emotion and perhaps, for a moment, sense that they are part of this particular world.
Because for Barbara, cooking becomes far more than a profession when a dish awakens a memory, a table brings people together and a taste speaks of a homeland.
Then cooking becomes memory. Identity. Life.
CHENTANNOS
Il gusto di vivere a lungo.
The taste of living long.
A table, a glass of Cannonau, and a place where no one is in a hurry. A Chent'Annos.
