Matteo Grandi

COOK

Matteo Grandi, born in 1990, fascinated by food from an early age, learned the secrets of regional cuisine from his paternal grandmother. After graduating he decided to open up to the world, starting his adventure in Shanghai as sous-chef of the Italian restaurant Da Marco. The meeting with the Frenchman Jean-Claude Fugier, collaborator of Paul Bocuse and for twelve years with Alain Ducasse, was decisive. For six years following him in various restaurants of the Park Hyatt chain, first in China, in Shanghai, then in Kuwait and finally in India, Matteo formed character and personality, as well as honing a technique of the highest quality and performance level. In 2012 he returned to Italy to realize his idea of cuisine, strongly Italian and balanced but also eclectic, the synthesis of a varied and transversal path, first founding the Degusto restaurant in San Bonifacio, then, in 2020, moving to Vicenza, in Piazza of the Lords, under the banner of “Matteo Grandi in Basilica”, the landing point of full maturity.

As recently stated by the editors of the Michelin Guide, his cuisine is a cuisine of ideas, words and dishes: everything has a very specific place in the gastronomic world of the young chef, who reels off his beliefs with experienced confidence.
Cuisine must be healthy, not just good – he maintains placidly but determinedly. Therefore, little fat and space for flavours, generally few and very distinct in the dishes, without excesses or smudging. Many tastings have revealed to us a precise, sometimes sophisticated technique, not however used to be original at any cost or to amaze with empty artifices, but to make the dish better and tastier. An obvious thing – you might think – but you know how much the desire to personalize dishes, to have them leave the kitchen signed, ready to be photographed rather than consumed, sometimes makes us forget that we go to a restaurant first and foremost to eat! »