The Culinary Artist From Italy

A good chef is an artist. Give him a palette of ingredients and he knows exactly how to create a masterpiece. And he carries around with him his palette box or, in this case, spice box plus secret recipes of the simple food cooked in his grandmother’s kitchen. Rojita Tiwari meets Chef Francesco Francavilla who creates masterpieces with locally sourced ingredients in traditional Italian recipes at Vetro, The Oberoi, Mumbai.

- Rojita Tiwari

It’s been two months since he set foot in Mumbai but Chef Francesco Francavilla’s arrival has already created a great buzz. As the newly appointed chef at The Oberoi, Mumbai’s prestigious Italian Restaurant, Vetro, the task at hand is daunting. He has just finished creating the new menu while still getting used to the idea of living in Mumbai. He loves the city but hardly has the time to go around. His aim is to serve his guests the best of Italian food with a twist.

As I settle down for a quick interaction with the chef over lunch on a rainy afternoon, we begin by discussing what’s keeping him busy in a foreign land far away from home. He is charming even when struggling to find the right English word for an ingredient or to frame a sentence correctly. But after spending years working in a variety of kitchens abroad, he manages that challenge well.

Chef Francesco Francavilla’s previous experience includes stints at various Michelin-starred restaurants, as well as delighting Hollywood celebrities with his creations as their personal chef.

Francesco began his career with the Sheraton Hotel as Chef de Partie in Rome, almost immediately after his school diploma from the Tourism Professional Institute in 1994.

A few years later, he managed his first kitchen at a fine dining restaurant at Bonaire in the Netherland Antilles in the Caribbean where he honed his skills in Italian traditional, classic cuisine followed by a stint in Stuttgart Germany in the popular restaurant, Bianco & Nero.

In 2006, he returned to Italy, where he fuelled his interest in modern cooking methods and techniques working with key chefs in Rome like Chef Emeliano Pascucci, the celebrated chef at 3-star Michelin restaurant, La Pergola.