Chapter II · The Story
Forty years of cooking, travel and wild ideas, told in the first person. No résumé: a timeline to walk through horizontally, one stop at a time.
It starts in 1978
The timeline
Seven stops, four continents, one single obsession: never to be bored.
Scroll
Zafferana Etnea · Catania
At twenty I find myself in the historic hotel of Zafferana Etnea, on the mountain above Catania. I learn the trade beside older chefs… and it's already not enough: I overhaul the operation and, on the panoramic terrace, open the hotel's first Brazilian restaurant. My very first fusion gambles.
The sacrifice cost dearly. The view didn't: that one was free.
Acireale · Sicily
I go back to my Acireale and invent a concept all my own. The Risotteria Acese is born: an instant hit. Then «Le Follie dell'Opera», inside a former bus depot. And finally Villa Paradiso dell'Etna: 14,000 m² of madness, with a skating rink, two pizzerias and a 300-seat restaurant.
Say no to an idea? I never managed it.
Fortaleza · Brazil
Too much of everything, maybe too much exposure. So I leave it all and fly to Brazil. Fortaleza wins me over. I open «La Pannocchia», an Italian restaurant downtown. My fellow Italians ask: «Chef, and where do we sleep?». I rent a villa with a pool and — without realising it — invent the area's first bed & breakfast.
A hotel born by accident. Usually the best kind.
Dakar · Kenya · the stones
I fall for precious stones and shut myself in a bank for six months to study gemmology: eight hours a day. I come out a certified appraiser and trade stones between Brazil and Italy. In between, Club Med calls me to Dakar, and for a year I'm the chef of a luxury casino in Kenya.
Rest? Never heard the word.
Malta · St. Julian's
I move back towards Europe. In Malta I take over «La Dolce Vita», a refined fish restaurant in St. Julian's: the Mediterranean takes the lead again, between the freshest fish and sunsets over the harbour.
I'd missed the sea. And you could taste it on the plate.
Florence · Pisa · Elba
Back in Italy, the Uappala chain hands me several kitchens at once: I become supervisor of many restaurants across Florence, Pisa and the island of Elba. I coordinate brigades, menus and standards — Tuscany becomes my training ground in organisation.
A single kitchen? Too easy. They gave me plenty.
Armenia · Qatar · Marriott
I set off around the world again, this time with Marriott: first Armenia, then Qatar, where I stay ten years and watch a desert become a metropolis, all the way to the 2022 World Cup. At the Marriott Marquis I lead the restaurant «Cucina». I'm named Best Italian Chef in the Middle East and Ambassador of Italian cuisine.
Ten years in the Gulf. And a risotto that travelled the world.
The new chapter
The story isn't over: it has only changed continent. I split my time between Mexico and Venice — and I'm already dreaming up the next gamble.
See what I'm doing nowFifty years of kitchens are also fifty years of encounters. Faces that sat at my table, from one side of the world to the other.
