He calls his culinary art "simple natural cuisine"; his signature dish is an Insalata.
However, “simple” for Stefano Baiocco looks like this: The salad consists of one specimen each of all 120-150 different herbs from the restaurant garden—grown in-house, arranged with surgical precision, and to be ordered the day before so the leaves and blossoms can be freshly picked in the morning.
Baiocco places great emphasis on perfection in every detail at his two-star restaurant in the fairytale-like, historic “Villa Feltrinelli” directly on the shores of Lake Garda. 16 chefs work here for 36 guests, conducted by a culinary virtuoso whose creations have made fans of prominent guests like Naomi Campbell as well as gourmets and food critics alike.
Baiocco’s homemade pasta dishes are among the finest in Italy. Now 51, he learned to cook from the best in the business: with Alain Ducasse and Pierre Gagnaire in Paris and in Spain at Ferran Adrià’s legendary “elBulli”.
The Italian also worked in starred establishments in New York, Hong Kong, and Oxford before fulfilling his dream of haute cuisine at Lake Garda with “Feltrinelli”. There, Baiocco composes dishes from 52 different tomato varieties or combines roasted cucumbers with oysters and kiwi juice.
Those who wish to gain insight into how to prepare such creations can draw inspiration from his cookbook “Mise en Place”, which received the World Cookbook Award in 2008.
