"I was born in a family with a strong food culture and soon became passionate about this fascinating world, by first exploring the family vegetable garden with my grandfather, then savoring my grandmother’s fresh pasta and my mother’s flavorful dishes.
Driven by a great curiosity ,even before entering the Hotel School, I began working in pastry shops in my hometown where I understood and developed my culinary passion.
During my years at school, as many young individuals, I got some jobs in hotels on the coast of Romagna in order to get an idea of how this works in reality and understand the needed steps to become a Chef in the future. I think what I learned first was the great spirit of sacrifice needed to undertake this profession.
Upon graduation from the Hotel School, and thanks to the help of a Chef, I met on my earlier steps of my career, I had the opportunity to move to Tuscany at a very ambitious restaurant project that was ready to open. Here I become acquainted with the Michelin World, professionalism in the kitchen and I always attempted to work on all lines without leaving out any aspect. I truly believe hard work constancy and responsibility is a must in this industry.
Later on I had the opportunity to work at Castello Banfi,with some of the most important Chefs of Italian Cuisine, that allowed me to considerably improve my skills and to be part of a team that achieved a Michelin Star. After this experience and in order to keep moving forward and knowing more about different cultures , I moved to London where after only 5 months we also got the Michelin Star.
This was a magical, but at the same time exhausting, time!
Subsequently, I felt I had to keep travelling to discover new cultures and types of cuisine but at the same time another priority was to go back to Tuscany, my second home. Again, Castello Banfi offered me both opportunities, so the decision was pretty simple.
With the entire team, we have been able to make “La Taverna” an excellent restaurant and a perfect conciliation between traditional and gourmet cuisine and also the perfect location to taste the Castello Banfi wines at lunch time.
In 2013 we decided to open again the restaurant “Sala dei Grappoli”, our fine dining restaurant, where the style is modern interpretation of Tuscan and Italian Mediterranean Cuisine. We thought this was a must in such a wonderful environment and a great added value for the region and of course for the guests staying at our luxury boutique hotel “Il Borgo”.
During that time I become Executive Chef at Castello Banfi, which includes not only our restaurants “La Taverna” and “Sala dei Grappoli” but also the different outlets of “Il Borgo” along with promotions around the world where our guests can enjoy and understand our philosophy not only for the food but also with the wines we produce in our estates of Montalcino and Strevi."
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