Marco grew up in Val d’Aosta, in the Western Alps of northern Italy, where the food is rich, winter means snowboarding, and everyone knows everyone. “Beautiful – but a little too small for me.” On the weekends his family would grill meat on the fire, igniting pyromaniacal tendencies. “I’ve been a pyro all my life. It’s my tag, an untouchable chemical reaction that you can actually watch. Combustion – I love it!”

He first hit the kitchen washing dishes at age 15, then trained as a chef in Chatillon. He was drawn to the concreteness of the profession, the opportunity to travel and support yourself. His mind opened to the discovery that working with food is like working in a lab. You mix and refine, you fuck it up and learn, and the food gets better each time. Chemistry. 

Why is food important to him? “If I don’t eat I die. No really, for me it’s fulfilling. You have to have high standards. I remember walking through the kitchen of a Michelin 3 star restaurant in France. There were 14 people working and you couldn’t hear a fly.

I challenge myself to make things better and combine the past with new information. When people eat my food I want them to experience the balance in the dish, the texture and flavour. But I also want them to feel content. Good food brings happiness all around you.”