Maya Trocciola
The promise of traditional and authentic Italian cooking has found its home in Palma de Mallorca. Two years ago, rosticceria L’Arancina opened its doors in the former fishing neighbourhood of Santa Catalina; it was launched thanks to the vision and passion of Naples-born Maya Trocciola who has let her passion for cooking take root on the island. It’s the story of how a dream became a culinary destination that today attracts both local residents and visitors in search of the most authentic ‒ and least-known ‒ flavours of southern Italy.
Trocciola, born in Naples and with Mallorca in her heart, describes how she came to the island on holiday by chance 18 years ago and it ended up becoming her home. Her passion for food and nostalgia for the cooking of her homeland proved to be a turning point: “The idea for L’Arancina came from my own intuition. I realised that an important piece was missing from the mosaic of food offered on the island: an authentic Italian rosticceria. It didn’t exist here yet,” Trocciola recalls. And although several years went by before Maya could make her dream come true, L’Arancina has been serving delicious Sicilian and Neapolitan arancini to customers ever since it did. It also has other popular Italian dishes, such as lasagne and spaghetti bolognese, among many others.
The story of Trocciola and L’Arancina is a tale of how her love for food and the island became one. “When I came to Mallorca, I was treated like a queen, and I fell in love with the place. Now, I’m not sure if I’m more Italian or Mallorcan,” she confesses with a laugh. This love is expressed in each arancini that she serves in her restaurant, where you’ll find traditional flavours such as cuttlefish, and pesto, and also innovations inspired by fusing flavours with typical Mallorcan ingredients, such as sobrassada, a nod to her adoptive land. “Just like pasta, arancini are really versatile and you can use any ingredient, so the possibilities for innovating are practically endless,” Trocciola explains.
The first ‒ and only ‒ rosticceria in Mallorca
L’Arancina represents a small slice of Italy in Mallorca and is the only rosticceria on the island. It’s a new culinary concept for Mallorcans, and arancini are the star dish: crunchy balls of breaded and fried rice that are stuffed with flavours that evoke Sicilian and Neapolitan tradition, drawing the best out of each type of food.
However, when L’Arancina first opened, few Mallorcans had ever heard of a ‘rosticceria’. For those who don’t know, a rosticceria is much more than a restaurant; it’s a space where fast food is prepared with the quality and flavour of home-made dishes, and food can be taken away or eaten at the restaurant. Arancini are a great example. Originally from Sicily, having evolved from Arab times, they are a delicacy that encapsulates the historic fusion of different cultures in each delicious bite. At first, “people came for the well-known dishes, like the pasta or sliced pizza, but once they tried our arancini they fell in love,” Trocciola recounts. They were so successful that other restaurants even started to put arancini on their menus. L’Arancina has naturally evolved over time, and now goes far beyond what it first set out to do. It has recently started a new stage as a supplier of arancini for other restaurant businesses, expanding the essence of Italian “zero-waste cooking” beyond the walls of L’Arancina.
Plans for its own production lab are already under way, and L’Arancina is both a place to taste the true essence of food from southern Italy and a creative centre where these recipes are developed and perfected so they can then be shared across the island. Trocciola proudly elaborates: “Nothing we do here goes onto the menu until I’ve tasted and approved it. It’s a standard I learned from my mother, and I won’t accept anything less.”
The experience at L’Arancina goes far beyond good food: kindness is the hallmark of the house. “We stand out for the quality of our service; our customers are treated like family and always say how happy they feel here,” Maya reveals. This human warmth is an integral part of the L’Arancina experience and is an important as its famous arancini.
We stand out for the quality of our service; our customers are treated like family and always say how happy they feel here
Maya has seen her business grow over the past two years and now, to add to the Santa Catalina branch, L’Arancina is expanding to Cala Mayor and Magaluf, and she also has ambitious plans to take her products to the mainland. The Calle Fábrica and Magaluf branches will be take-aways, while Cala Mayor will be the largest L’Arancina restaurant with room for 180 customers. It will also be a pizzeria. According to Trocciola, the key to success is “constancy and quality”. It sounds like a simple recipe but involves a great deal of dedication and a true love of cooking, which Maya learned at home when she was young, “like all Italians”.
Along the path to becoming an entrepreneur, Trocciola has never forgotten the importance of knowing how to adapt to each situation and working hard to overcome each challenge in her way. One thing is for certain: in an ever-changing sector like hospitality, maintaining the high levels of quality and customer service that set L’Arancina apart requires great passion and iron will power. We’re convinced that the success story of L’Arancina is far from finished, and that each new chapter will be full of delicious flavours.
