Gualtiero Marchesi was the “Maestro,” the father of contemporary Italian cuisine. He was the chef who changed the way people around the world prepare and understand Italian cooking. He has left a long line of followers behind him who have realized their potential through his guidance. During his intense life, packed with events, projects, travel and study, he always believed what the great 19th-century chef Pellegrino Artusi said: “Cooking in itself is a science… which only the best are able to transform into art.” And that’s exactly what Gualtiero Marchesi did.
The beginning
Marchesi was born in Milan on March 19, 1930. His professional training began in St. Moritz and then was refined at a few French restaurants. In 1977 he returned to Italy and opened his restaurant on Via Bonvesin de la Riva, where he was awarded his first Michelin star. A year later he received his second star and, as a first for Italy, he received his third in 1985. His life was marked by countless awards in Italy and abroad; he became Knight of the Republic in 1986 and the same year he received the Ambrogino d’Oro, the greatest recognition awarded by the city of Milan.
His idea of cuisine
For him, the 1980s were a creative forge during which he refined his idea of total cuisine, which also included the table setting and service. His philosophy is based on the assumption that Italian cuisine needs simplicity and ingredients first of all, and then technique and re-elaboration. Although he loved staying in the kitchen, he brought his cuisine to the table in a theatrical fashion, among the guests, by cutting the meat before their eyes, for example. His dishes became works of art or musical scores. Each ingredient has a decisive role in the symphony, it must be clearly recognizable, and to achieve harmony it must stand on its own in the contrast between flavor and texture.
His iconic dishes
Among the innumerable creations by Marchesi, some dishes have truly made the history of the cuisine that developed after him. The most famous is perhaps the Risotto Oro e Zafferano (Risotto Gold and Saffron) with edible gold leaf over the rice, and the Raviolo Aperto (Open Raviolo), two sheets of pasta dough, a plain and a spinach-flavored green one, open-faced, topped with the filling. An ironic surrender to a chef’s constant fear that the ravioli might come apart during cooking. And then the Dripping di Pesce, in 2004, a homage to painter Jackson Pollock and his technique of color dripping. The base is a light mayonnaise enhanced by the white of squid and clams, the red of tomatoes, while the black is obtained by combining mayonnaise with cuttlefish ink and the green by combining mayonnaise with parsley chlorophyll. Then there’s the unforgettable Seppia in Nero, a bright white cuttlefish that stands out against the background of its black ink.
The 1990s: awards and new openings
The entire world was watching him and in 1990, as a confirmation of the role he was playing internationally, he was awarded the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture and Communication Jack Lang. In the 1990s he began thinking about a new model of food service. He opened a bistrot, a brunch-style venue and a café overlooking the roof of the Duomo on the seventh floor of the La Rinascente department store in Milan, and a Gualtiero Marchesi Restaurant inside the Halkin Hotel in London. In 1993 he left Milan for the countryside, in the Franciacorta area, where he opened the Relais & Chateaux L’Albereta of Gualtiero Marchesi. In 1998 he was awarded the prestigious Artusi Prize. He soon got tired of the countryside and at the beginning of the 2000s he was still a whirlwind of initiatives. He flew to Paris and opened the Gualtiero Marchesi Restaurant for the Lotti Hotel in Place Vendôme which received a Michelin star after just one year. The next year he restored the oldest restaurant in Rome, the Hostaria dell’Orso, where he also received a star one year after opening.
ALMA training school
On June 30, 2001 he was conferred an Honorary Degree in Food Science from Rome’s Universitas Sancti Cyrilli. His dream of creating a training school became reality in 2004 when ALMA, The International School of Italian cuisine, opened in Colorno, in the province of Parma. At the school young people from all over the world can learn the techniques and the philosophy of the Maestro, basking in his wake. As the rector of the school, he participated actively in the training of young chefs together with his staff. He then returned to Milan, where in 2008 he opened the Teatro alla Scala Il Marchesino Restaurant, his tribute to music, the family and the city with which he has always felt very closely linked.
The renunciation of Michelin stars
In the same year, satisfied with all the awards he had received over time, he decided he had achieved the greatest degree of satisfaction possible and freely renounced rankings and reviews. He was the first person in history to return his Michelin stars, convinced that “it was a game of one-upmanship, where you went up and down to keep up the good mood and fortunes of the critics.” For his 80th birthday, when most people think of a life of rest and tranquility to enjoy what they have achieved, Gualtiero Marchesi gave life to another project: the Fondazione Gualtiero Marchesi, whose mission is the deepening and dissemination of all the arts, cuisine, music, sculpture and painting. And then many more awards in the following years, in 2011 he was the first person in Italy to receive the gold medal of the Minister for Tourism as Ambassador of Italian cuisine in the world. In December 2012 the Centro Studi Grande Milano awarded him the Grandi Guglie, which is given annually to those who have distinguished themselves in various sectors and who have contributed to making Milan better and a point of reference in the world. Two years later he realized another great project that had been in his heart for a while: he inaugurated the Accademia Marchesi in Via Bonvesin de la Riva 5, an important address in the Maestro’s history, a veritable “back to the future.” A place of study and experimentation, where cooks train and spread the principles of a healthy diet, where cuisine and art in all its manifestations – music, sculpture, painting, architecture, and theater – will contribute to the definition of the good and the beautiful, involving both adults and children.
Many more projects
The Maestro never stopped. On his 85th birthday, the Mayor of Milan Giuliano Pisapia gave him the seal of the city. In the same year, he was appointed Chef Ambassador of Expo 2015 and he brought the Ristorante Marchesi back to Milan inside his Marchesino in piazza della Scala. Marchesi also became the subject of a film; in 2017 a documentary about his life entitled Marchesi: The Great Italian was presented at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2017 he also announced the opening in Varese of a retirement home for chefs, following the example of one created for musicians in Milan. His last award was presented by the Italy-USA Foundation on October 12, 2017. The American award is given to personalities of great renown and of absolute excellence in their fields of interest and activities, who have distinguished themselves for their work and have achieved important results in reinforcing the transatlantic friendship. On December 26 of the same year, the Maestro, who had been ill from some time, passed away in his house in Milan, surrounded by his loved ones – a great loss for all the people who owe their history, their careers and their success to him.
Nowadays, Terrazza Gualtiero Marchesi is the only restaurant in the world to offer the entire menu with the most famous dishes of Marchesi. It is hosted by the Grand Hotel Tremezzo, five-star luxury hotel overlooking Lake Como. The restaurant is supervised by Enrico Dandolo, son-in-law of the Maestro and CEO of the Gualtiero Marchesi Group. In the kitchen, the historic chef Osvaldo Presazzi since 2011, the same chef who met Marchesi when he visited for the first time the Grand Hotel Tremezzo, still now celebrating Marchesi memory.