From Etna, since 1978

Claudio Trovato

Chef. For almost fifty years I have staged Italian hospitality — from Etna to the Persian Gulf, from Mexico to Venice.

The Dishes · The matter
The Story · 1978 → today
Now · The new chapter

Cooking as theatre Sicily → the world

The dining room is a stage. The plate, the scene.

I never cooked to fill a plate: I cooked to fill an evening. It's what I did at twenty on Etna, and it's what I still do today — to welcome someone and make them remember the night they came to my table.

— Claudio Trovato

The chef in his white jacket, hands in his pockets, among the palms of Villa Michelangelo. Black and white. — Villa Michelangelo. The same jacket, everywhere in the world.

Sicilian roots,
eyes on the world.

For over forty years I have believed in a cuisine that doesn't merely feed: it welcomes, it tells a story, it sets a scene. Every dish begins with the finest ingredient — always — and with the gesture that turns it into a moment to remember.

From Etna to Brazil, from the Persian Gulf to the heart of Mexico, I have carried the same conviction everywhere: Italian hospitality is an art, and it deserves a stage worthy of it.

«I cook in Italian, with a Sicilian accent. And it is understood in every language.»

The chef laughs with guests at a gala dinner, under the lights of an elegant terrace.

The best part of this craft isn't the plate. It's the face of the person receiving it.

At the table A special dinner, somewhere in the world. To me the dining room has always been a stage: the difference between eating and being hosted lies entirely here.

Three chapters