Usually, the websites' homepage of starred restaurants are pleasant, minimalist, or at least reassuring. But Marianna Vitale’s restaurant SUD features a homepage that is practically a social manifesto. Vitale – this year’s recipient of the Michelin Award Chef Donna 2020 presented by Veuve Cliquot – explains further: "SUD is a small idea with many words. Love and passion, fury, and fatigue. Anxiety and joy, research, and work. Words that are the bricks with which we have built our way of being in the world: the way of the South.”
From these simple words, you can understand a lot about this southern girl – not unlike last year’s winner, Sicilian chef Martina Caruso. But Vitale comes from Porta Capuana in Napoli, class of 1980, with a decidedly unique history in the Italian restaurant industry. In fact, her father was a professional chef (“who made very authentic dishes over twenty years ago” Vitale underlines) and as a child, she was interested in culinary school. She wasn’t born a chef, though, Vitale says, continuing on: “Because my mother didn’t agree with the idea. At the time, the expectations in the family were different – and that kind of school was only for boys to attend.”
Marianna Vitale (ph credit courtesy of Marianna Vitale press)
Vitale started out as a tour guide
Following her undergraduate education in Spanish Language & Literature studies, Vitale started her first job as a tour guide in 2004. In a language that Neapolitans find rather familiar – following a two-centuries-long Spanish occupation – Vitale would illustrate every ravine of San Gregorio Armeno and Decumani to foreign tourists. But her passion for cooking lived on. And to materialize that passion, Vitale first needed that transformational experience to push her to make the leap – a moment that arrived in 2008, when Vitale was able to work under Lino Scarallo at his famous Palazzo Petrucci for a year. From Scarallo –"a great low-profile worker, who has only one goal: to restore" says Vitale – she learned the basics of simple, local cuisine. Her passion grew, soon leading her to a project of her own, flanked by Pino Esposito, sommelier and Vitale’s husband. In Quarto, an off-the-map town in the Campi Flegrei, Vitale and Esposito opened SUD in May 2009. And in just three years, the Michelin star arrived – and it hasn’t yet left, either.
Spaghettoni 'pizza Margherita', Marianna Vitale signature dish (ph courtesy of Marianna Vitale press)
Creative cuisine for everyone
In reality, this was always Vitale’s destiny – to enhance the products of the territory, knowing the tradition well yet not being overly influenced by it. She defines it as “popular creative cuisine” because "it’s not like the usual revisitation of tradition: Here, tradition is never abandoned, because Neapolitans live their cuisine as a mentality – it’s rooted in us.” Vitale is a naturally great chef because – apart from the already mentioned tutelage under Scarello – she is self-taught. "There is no real figure that has inspired me in that sense – it has always been my desire to become a chef, so I did everything I could to make this dream come true. I have looked a lot at women like me, especially European women in Spain and France, and in the wake of their example, I have learned a lot on my own," she says. Dry pasta and fish are the stars in her cuisine – interpreted in intense, warm, and refined dishes.
Marianna Vitale and her staff at SUD restaurant (ph credit courtesy of Marianna Vitale press)
Angelina: Vitale’s other restaurant
As confirmation of her “democratic” vision for food, Vitale inaugurated a modern Naples diner in 2019 that serves Neapolitan cuisine in a fun and sustainable way. "We named the diner Angelina, after my grandmother – and more than just featuring her recipes, the aspect that has always stayed with me was her way of managing a kitchen with so little money even though she was cooking for so many people in such a large family. For this reason, the menu is created daily and based on very simple ingredients. We also serve take-out, because these are all dishes you can take with you anytime – to eat at home or on the beach. They have a little bit of everything, from pasta dishes and macaroni omelets to rustic pizzas and soups. The list goes on and on.”
Linguine with quinto quarto of calamaretti: another chef Vitale's signature dish (ph courtesy of Marianna Vitale press)
Not her first award
As a part of the fifth edition of Veuve Clicquot’s Atelier des Grandes Dames event – celebrating the champagne maison’s network, which aims to celebrate women's talent in haute cuisine – Vitale was the recipient of the award for “Michelin Chef Donna 2020.” But this isn’t her first accolade: In 2015, she’d already received two awards for “Best Chef in Italy” from L’Espresso and Identità Golose! "I've never felt like a phenomenon – it's very important to have a group like mine. While the awards might make you happy for a moment, more importantly, they give you the motivation to keep going and the understanding that even in a little town like Quarto, among a thousand obstacles, you can do good things,” explains Marianna, who is one of the 43 Italian chefs heading a Michelin-starred restaurant around the globe. (And for the record, there are 168 Michelin-starred chefs total.). Her next goal? Maybe a double Michelin star? "I will never abandon SUD and Angelina, both places I love so much – especially after all the work we put into making it happen. Maybe I’ll be able to work in a bigger (or perhaps smaller) place – maybe I can reduce the cover charges. The only certainty is that I will always try to go forward with the same goals. That part can’t change,” answers the Best Italian Chef of the Year. Certainly one of the most cultured and determined chefs, as well.