{"id":15415,"date":"2026-08-25T09:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/15415\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T09:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:42:16","slug":"chef-diego-reali-to-open-first-stefania-restaurant-outside-malaysia-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/15415\/","title":{"rendered":"Chef Diego Reali to Open First Stefania Restaurant Outside Malaysia in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Chef Diego Reali is to open the first international location of his Roman-Italian restaurant brand Stefania in Westbourne Grove, West London, this summer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The opening will mark Stefania\u2019s first restaurant outside Malaysia and will introduce a pork-free menu built around four generations of recipes from Reali\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Rome, Reali learned to cook alongside his mother, Stefania Cristofari, and grandmother, who passed down techniques and recipes associated with traditional Roman cooking.<\/p>\n

His family\u2019s hospitality history dates back to 1958, when his great-grandfather opened Hosteria Amedeo, a neighbourhood trattoria near Rome specialising in traditional home-style food.<\/p>\n

Reali said: \u201cEverything I know in the kitchen is because of my mum. She was the one who taught me everything, from basic food skills to how to cook.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I also learnt a lot when I worked abroad. But the basics are still the most important.\u201d<\/p>\n

After working in Italy and internationally, including a period in London earlier in his career, Reali moved to Kuala Lumpur more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n

In December 2024, he opened Stefania Ristorante Italiano at Naza Tower in partnership with Kesavan \u2018KC\u2019 Purusotman, founder of Continuum Hospitality Group.<\/p>\n

The restaurant was created as a tribute to Reali\u2019s mother and the women who influenced his approach to cooking.<\/p>\n

Its menu developed around pasta, rag\u00f9 and meats prepared using a Josper grill.<\/p>\n

The brand expanded in February 2026 with the opening of Stefania Osteria in Damansara Heights, introducing a more casual, family-style format, followed by Stefania Lounge.<\/p>\n

The Westbourne Grove restaurant will retain Stefania\u2019s pork-free approach to Italian dining, with the format designed to make traditional Roman dishes accessible to a wider range of guests and dietary preferences.<\/p>\n

Reali will bring the same family recipes and approach established at Stefania\u2019s Malaysian restaurants to London, focusing on Roman cooking and hospitality influenced by the food he grew up eating.<\/p>\n

The opening represents the next stage in Stefania\u2019s development as Reali brings the brand outside Malaysia for the first time.<\/p>\n

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Chef Diego Reali is to open the first international location of his Roman-Italian restaurant brand Stefania in Westbourne Grove, West London, this summer. The opening will mark Stefania\u2019s first restaurant outside Malaysia and will introduce a pork-free menu built around four generations of recipes from Reali\u2019s family. Born and raised in Rome, Reali learned to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[49,50],"class_list":["post-15415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italian-restaurants","tag-italian-restaurant","tag-italian-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117155494919511185","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}