.png)
· Naples · Kathmandu
Our Story
A woman from Naples. A kitchen in Kathmandu. Thirty years of food made from the heart.
Chapter One · The Founder
Annamaria Forgione, from Naples to Nepal
She used to think that life is about the plans we make. Then life showed her it was about the plans that make us.
Around 1986, Annamaria was working at the Italian Embassy in London. When her contract was not renewed, the stress triggered a virus that left her in a wheelchair for months. Her husband, a teacher, became her carer. The doctors said they did not know what was wrong.
Then one Saturday, he came home from a job fair with a question. A school in Kathmandu had offered him a position. Should they go?
She did not think. She just felt joy, for the first time in months. "Yes"
On the 16th of September 1988, Annamaria landed in Kathmandu with her daughter Amaryllis. She stepped off the plane and stopped for a moment. The air was crisp and clear. The mountains were out. She felt, she says, reborn.
.png)
Annamaria, 1994
Chapter Two · The Beginning
Nepal gave her health. And then it gave her an idea.
Recovering slowly in Kathmandu, Annamaria fell in love with the city. Every corner held a small temple, not unlike Italy, where a church waits at the end of every street. She loved the trattorias filled with the smell of spices, the people always busy but always finding time to sit together, to laugh, to stare curiously at the foreign woman walking through their neighbourhood.
She found her community at the Summit Hotel, where Robin and Wendy Marsten ran a place that felt like home. It was Wendy who first suggested it, bring your tomato sauce to the market. Wednesday and Sunday, the hotel vegetable market.
So she did. She found empty Horlicks jars, boiled them to sterilise them, filled them with freshly cooked sauce, and carried them to market. After a few visits, people were already waiting for her.
The Summit Hotel Market, 1993
Two dozen jars. Gone in minutes.
She went home and made more.
Info about the image
January 10, 1995
Eight pizzas and Shaking hands
By 1993 and 1994, the idea had taken hold. Annamaria had met an Italian woman at the Ambassador's residence, a woman who supplied a catalogue of restaurant machinery. The thought nagged at her, day and night.
She had learned to cook from her Aunt Laura in Milan, who was always having friends over for lunch and dinner. She knew food. She knew hospitality. She just needed courage.
She told herself: "If you have passion, courage sure comes."
She found a space in Thamel and ordered three things from the catalogue. A pizza oven. A soft ice cream machine. A coffee machine. Just the essentials.
The name came easily
The mountains were out. The sun was shining. And the two crossed lines in the logo, she stylised them from the shape of two khukuri knives, the curved blades that are a symbol of respect in Nepal.
Fire for the passion, the oven, the warmth.
Ice for the freshness, the mountains, the cold clean air.
Chapter Three · The Long Years
Thirty years in Thamel.
Through fuel shortages, earthquakes, political change, and a pandemic, Fire And Ice stayed open. Not because it was easy, but because the people kept coming and the kitchen kept cooking.
On the 14th of May 2003, a journalist named Malika Browne writing for The Sunday Times of London called Fire And Ice legendary. Eight years after opening day. That word, legendary felt like permission to keep going.
The New York Times listed Fire And Ice among the world's favourite pizzerias, chosen by readers across the globe. Lonely Planet wrote simply: for pizza in Kathmandu, there is really no choice but Fire And Ice.
The restaurant in Thamel still smells the same.
The sauce is the same recipe. Annamaria is still there.
1988
Arrival
Annamaria lands in Kathmandu. Feels reborn.
1993
Market Days
Tomato sauce in Horlicks jars at the Summit Hotel market.
2003
Legendary
The Sunday Times of London prints the word.
2005
Kolkata
A second country. Park Street, an Italian institution.
Chapter Four · A Second Home
Sanepa - a quieter table.
In 2023, Fire And Ice opened a second Kathmandu home - quieter, more local, set inside the International Club at Surendra Bhawan in Sanepa.
She had been looking for something different from Thamel - which she loves, but which is at times busy. She wanted green surroundings. A restaurant that felt part of a neighbourhood's life. Somewhere people could come for a morning coffee, gather for an aperitif before dinner with friends, or simply stay - and enjoy the best pizza.
For those who live nearby, Sanepa is where breakfast happens. For those who have always known Thamel but wanted somewhere calmer - Sanepa is that place. The same kitchen. The same coffee. A quieter neighbourhood, and a different pace.
Chapter Five · The Kitchen
The way we cook
There are two ingredients Annamaria has never compromised on in thirty years. Olive oil, the foundation of how the kitchen works. And milk, the quality that makes the mozzarella right and the ice cream worth eating.
.png)
Local Produce
The soft ice cream is made with DDC milk. Some pizzas carry yak cheese from the mountains. Vegetables come from the valley. Thirty years of cooking with what Nepal does best.
— From Nepal —
Olive Oil
Imported from Italy. The base of the sauces, the meats, the foundation of every dish that leaves the kitchen.
— From Italy —
Mozzarella Fresh
Made through a long-standing manufacturing partnership. Pulled and plated daily. The quality test the kitchen never lets slip.
— Made in Nepal —
Pasta Hand-rolled
Made fresh every day. Tagliatelle, spaghetti, penne. The sauces take their time. The pasta is meant to wait for them.
— In-house —
Illy Coffee
The same Italian brand Annamaria brought to Kathmandu in 1995 and never changed. Freshly ground. Properly pulled.
— Since 1995 —
"Parma ham from Italy. Mascarpone from Italy. And then Nepal DDC milk for the ice cream, yak cheese from the mountains, fresh vegetables from the valley, and thirty years of choosing local wherever local is best.
Fire And Ice has always believed that supporting Nepal means cooking with Nepal. This is not a policy. It is just how Annamaria cooks."
Chapter Seven · What Has Been Said
What has been said about us.
Named among the world's favourite pizzerias by readers across the globe, an expat's treasure, in the last place you'd imagine.
Nepali Times
25th & 30th anniversary profiles
Nepal's leading English newspaper has featured Annamaria's story across two long-form profiles, on the restaurant's 25th and 30th anniversaries.
Lonely Planet
For pizza in Kathmandu, there is really no choice but Fire & Ice.
The Sunday Times,
London
Malika Browne · 14 May 2003
Malika Browne, writing on the Himalayas in May 2003, described Fire And Ice as legendary. Eight years after it opened.
READ ARTICLE →
The Kathmandu Post
Thomas Heaton : 29th August, 2019
Welcome to Kathmandu. Have you tried our Pizza?
