25 April 2026
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“As a Southern Italian woman, I was destined to follow a certain path, be a certain way, and I always rebelled against that,” says Chef Cristina Bowerman as she recounts her many past lives. There was a brief stint as an attorney, then a corporate gig with a San Francisco company owning 16 high-end restaurants — though she never set foot in any of their kitchens — before the Puglia native discovered that creativity was her superpower. She became a successful graphic designer in Austin, Texas, where she also started a family.
Throughout this flurry of existences, Bowerman was cooking up a storm for her loved ones on weekends — until it dawned on her that her creativity could be better expressed through food than via a computer screen. At 40, after training at Le Cordon Bleu, she reluctantly left Austin for Rome (though she still considers Austin home and flies out there every month) to take on her current incarnation: chef at Glass Hostaria — the festive Trastevere district’s first real restaurant — which earned a MICHELIN Star in 2010. “It was completely unexpected,” she recalls. “Everyone had warned me I would never get a Star because I didn’t have tablecloths and my style was crazy. And I used to answer, ‘Who cares? I like it this way.’”
Yet despite such recognition, Bowerman admits she “sometimes still feels neglected” when male colleagues receive greater kudos for copying the initiatives she’s launched in Rome — such as obtaining plastic-free certification, the fermentation trend, offering a vegetarian tasting menu or house-made mocktail pairings. Yet one could argue that Bowerman, whose motto is “Women, Ecology and Innovation,” is Italian gastronomy’s pink-haired Vivienne Westwood: so inherently pioneering that some take it for granted.
What do you miss most about Rome when you’re over in Texas?
As my dad used to say, “Morning has gold in its mouth,” so my favorite thing to do in Rome is to wake up early and walk around some of its sights, like the Castel Sant’Angelo or the Victoriano. You have no idea how many pictures I have of the Victoriano at 6 a.m. It’s also stunning at night, of course, but in the morning, it has a completely different charm. Plus, it’s the quiet before the storm in the city — before people get up, and you can’t see much because you’re distracted by buses and other things. Speaking of distraction, I sometimes think that Rome is a city that can be a little unfocused, gastronomically speaking.How so?
It falls into that cliché of the cacio e pepe and the carbonara that just makes me want to kill myself. People are always asking me, “Where can I eat the best all’ amatriciana?” I’m like “Nowhere! At home!” It’s easy to scream at the entire world that we’ve got the best pasta, yet Rome has a lot more to offer. There are some very cool restaurants here providing creative cuisine inspired by Italian tradition, which is much more my style.
Tell us about some of them.
You don’t mind if I mostly talk about women chefs? That’s my thing — I always want to support women. There’s a young woman I’ve taken under my wing named Anastasia Paris, who’s the owner of Futura in the Monti district. She’s an emerging talent with a strong foundation, doing traditional Italian food in a modern way. What does that mean? Like my cuisine, it’s “contaminated,” it has an extra element and is influenced by other cultures, which I think is an unstoppable process. I believe that whether it’s food or architecture, the infiltration of other cultures can’t be stopped; we are too mobile to think we can block ourselves within our little walls or cities and say, “You can’t come in.”
Also worth checking out is Pro Loco (which translates as “In Favor of Locals”), whose self-taught chef, Elizabeth, uses only products from Lazio. Another restaurant I highly recommend is La Ciambella (“The Donut”), which got that name because it’s on via Arco Bella Ciambella and lies across from an ancient sculpture of Jesus’ mother with a “donut” (i.e. a halo) behind her head. It’s an upscale spot run by a married couple: Francesca Ciucci, who has a casual osteria background, is the chef, and Mirka Guberti, one of Italy’s top sommeliers, curates their very interesting wine list.
Over in Fiumicino, there’s Pascucci al Porticciolo, which is basically by the sea. So you smell the sea salt as you eat, which takes me home because I grew up in Bari, and it was a one-and-a-half-minute walk to the beach. Chef Gianfranco Pascucci is a very good chef and a very good person, too. I admire the fact that he hasn’t compromised his style to please his customers, as can sadly often happen in this business.
Your secret place in Rome to stock up on gourmet treats?
Drogheria Innocenzi in Trastevere. It’s a food emporium run by a very old man, Giancarlo Innocenzi, who is married to an Indian woman, Kumsitha. He’s always perfectly dressed every day and has this equally impeccable posture. They sell incredible stuff: the best balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and they’ve got an insane selection of old-fashioned candies from when I was growing up: the honey ones, the little sugar ones, the sperlari (nougat). I get them for guests at Glass Hostaria, and they grab them by the handful as they’re leaving the restaurant. So every day I need to go out to Innocenzi and get more, which is a pleasure because they’re so very lovely there.
Finally, what does Rome taste like?
Rome tastes like history and memories. Here, you're surrounded by history — you can walk into a church and see a Velázquez, a Rembrandt or Michelangelo’s Moses, like the one at San Pietro in Vincoli. When I first moved to Rome 20 years ago, I used to walk to the restaurant and stop at this church to try to memorize every detail of that sculpture. You can’t do that in any other city in the world.
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Main image: Cristina Bowerman, chef at Glass Hostaria, has spent her career challenging conventions in Rome’s dining scene, bringing a fiercely personal, innovation-led approach that has helped redefine contemporary Italian cuisine. © Carlo Roberti
