“Over time I think I’ve managed to create a Sicilian cuisine that is respectful of tradition, but not tied to it, based above all on the highest quality local products. My kitchen prefers strong flavors. The strong sense of belonging to a land and its history clearly emerges and if I close my eyes I still remember the smells and flavors of the wood-fired bread, the beccafico sardines and the salad of caper leaves that my grandmother Rosa cooked when I was still young. Rosa was a great expert in Sicilian cuisine, I watched her preparing the famous 'maccarruna' by rolling them first under a wire and then putting them to dry on a river cane. From my early age she started to pass all her secrets on to me, which I jealously guard. Simplicity and memories, these are the foundations of my kitchen.”
Territory and Family
My story begins in Siculiana, Sicily. Two factors that have influence me since I was a child: territory and family. I have always loved the land, which is the root of the cultivation of plants and the extraordinary varieties of pasture, capers and other fruits of the Mediterranean scrub, which in the old days would “harvest", as the ancient Sicilians did in the late Bronze Age which integrated a primordial agriculture with the collection of the numerous wild essences the hunt. I have lived many moments in close contact with the land and the sea, in fact, at six years I would go with grandfather Giacomo to pick grapes and I helped great-grandfather Rais to salt the sardines and tuna of the famous Siculiana Marina tuna traps. This game slowly brought me closer to the cooking.
Commitment
I have always tried to put all my efforts into the various stages of my professional life. Once I had finished catering school, I trained in prestigious Italian and international locations, such as the Miramonti Majestic hotel in Cortina, the Baglioni hotel in Florence, the Villa San Michele in Fiesole and in the exclusive Orient-Express train restaurant chain. In 2006, I returned to Sicily becoming first Chef at the Hotel Eremo della Giubiliana to run the opening of Don Eusebio Restaurant. In 2012, I moved to the Hotel Timeo in Taormina, while in March 2013 I worked at the Hotel Villa Ersilia Relais in Soverato. In May 2015, I decided to return to Sicily permanently to open my first restaurant "La Scala" in Agrigento.
