Meet Mattia Agazzi, the younger and bold Head Chef of Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura Beverly Hills who’s cooking up a storm within the culinary world. And a lot, very impressively, he’s gained his first Michelin star with an strategy that mixes Italian honest, creativity, and the easiest, seasonal components. Agazzi tells us extra about his heritage, his inspirations, and his strategy to Michelin star dishes.
How did you get into the trade?
I’ve been interested by cooking since I used to be a baby. After faculty, I began working on the three-Michelin-starred Da Vittorio, with chef Enrico Cerea. 4 years later, I traveled world wide, to achieve extra expertise. Amongst the locations I’ve labored in, I significantly keep in mind Joël Robuchon’s restaurant in London and the St. Hubertus in the Dolomites. Even when for a shorter time, I’ve additionally had very formative experiences with Romain Meder in Paris at Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athenée, and at Yellow, a vegan restaurant in Sydney, the place I used to be launched to an entire new world of creativity with greens together with fermentation. Finally, I returned to Italy, however I used to be about to depart once more for one more expertise once I obtained an electronic mail from Osteria Francescana, the place I had despatched my resume months earlier than. I didn’t assume twice: the day after, I used to be driving proper to Modena. After a interval at Osteria Francescana, Massimo Bottura supplied me the position of sous chef for Karime Lopez at Gucci Osteria Florence. As the brand new restaurant right here in Beverly Hills started to take form, they proposed this unimaginable alternative to me.
Who or what’s your largest inspiration as a chef?
I grew up in an surroundings the place meals has at all times been an enormous a part of my life, and the place household time additionally meant time spent across the desk. A humble household, however I might say that I strongly felt the instance set by my mother and father, who’ve at all times labored laborious all day lengthy. Concerning my cooking type, I attempt to develop my concepts in a private means, permitting the on a regular basis experiences and travels to affect me.
How would you sum up the look, really feel, and style of Gucci Osteria?
The ambiance at Gucci Osteria Beverly Hills is intimate and comfy. We would like friends to really feel relaxed on the highest flooring terrace of the Gucci constructing overlooking Rodeo Drive. Close to the style, it’s about experiencing our Italian delicacies set inside the unimaginable Californian environment. In relation to the style of Gucci Osteria, I might say it tastes like Italian meals, with out being fully conventional. The truth that we, sadly, don’t have entry to all of the merchandise we’re used to having in an Italian kitchen, it’s made us strengthen and develop our cooking type. We discover methods to create dishes that characteristic a sure nostalgia for typical Italian recipes whereas utilizing the best components in California. Our Uni Carbonara is a superb instance the place we reinterpret the standard carbonara, utilizing the best contemporary seafood within the space.
How do you strategy a menu and dishes?
We use the best American and Italian produce sourced by means of native markets, that we playfully intertwine by means of our personal tales and desires. It’s additionally the results of nice and galvanizing teamwork. It’s essential for us to convey our feelings with a playful twist. The enjoyable aspect of the method might at instances be fairly a problem, however, as soon as efficiently achieved, may end up in the best satisfaction. With only a pinch of creativeness, we are able to journey wherever on this planet by means of meals.
That are the signature dishes there?
A should is ‘Risotto camouflaged as pizza’, probably the most enjoyable with a curious story behind it. With this dish, we carry collectively two very recognizable Italian flavors: pizza and risotto. I named it this fashion as a result of it tastes extra like pizza than the pizza itself and since it’s a reference to Massimo Bottura, who joked with me: “Come on Mattia, prepare – fast! – we’re going to Beverly Hills to open a pizzeria!”. Clearly, preserving me at midnight – it was something however a pizzeria! It turned out to be Gucci Osteria that we had been going to open. One other to say is certainly ‘Coming from the Hills’ “I Love Rock Climbing”, native white trout, hazelnuts, and mushrooms. In Beverly Hills, the fish is just unimaginable: the standard, the variability…for this recipe, I’ve added an Asian contact. As well as, because the title already reveals, it inherently talks of my type and my passions.
What are your favourite dishes on the menu at the moment?
I might say the SoCal Spaghetto Splashworks is for certain considered one of my favorites! The dish jogs my memory of my first expertise in a Michelin star restaurant with my mother and father at Gualtiero Marchesi’s, the place they actually showcased the native seafood in a spectacular means.
What’s developing for 2022?
Final yr was unimaginable: after the reopening, we earned our Michelin star, due to the unimaginable group we have now constructed. For 2022, we wish, in fact, to maintain up the great work and proceed to arrange new dishes. My thoughts and my coronary heart are in a steady inventive state!
See extra on gucciosteria.com.
