Over the past three decades, London-based chef Francesco Mazzei has established himself as a leading global ambassador of Southern Italian cuisine with a special focus on his home region of Calabria.

Now, through an exclusive collaboration with Corinthia Palace, Mazzei will be bringing his expertise and love for Calabrian cooking to Malta with a residency that starts in June and runs until December 2023.

“I’m coming back to my Mediterranean home. When I first arrived in Malta yesterday, I took a walk around Valletta - the smell of the sea in the air - it brings me back home, to Calabria, I feel like I have gone full circle, and the food I create here will reflect that,” he said.

Calabria is a stretch of coastline that straddles both the Ionian and Tyrrhenian seas, with sun-ripened hilltop towns, and a culture and history that is proudly and profoundly its own.

This land, Mazzei says, is home to some of Italy’s finest produce and culinary traditions and this is what he has dedicated much of his career to promoting.

In 2015 Mazzei published his first cookbook, a semi-autobiographical work titled, Mezzogiorno Southern Italian Cooking, which cast a spotlight on the cuisine of his home region.

Just five years later he was awarded an Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by the President of Italy, for his work with the Calabrian regional authorities, consulting on how to promote their artisan foodstuffs outside the country.

Renowned Chef Francesco Mazzei will be cooking up a storm of Italian classics with a contemporary twist at Villa Corinthia in Attard. Photo: Corinthia Group

“I think a lot of Maltese may be familiar with southern Italian cooking – given how close they are to Italy, but not many will necessarily be familiar with Calabrian cuisine,” he said.

So, what is Calabrian cooking all about? According to Mazzei, to understand that you first need to know a little bit about the region.

The Calabria that Mazzei describes is the home of sleepy rural villages and rugged mountain ranges. A place where you can pick Porcini mushrooms 2,000 metres up a mountainside in the morning and haggle for fish at a seaside market just in time for lunch a few hours later.

It’s a place where children, suntanned nut-brown from the long summer days, cannonball into the sea and where, within splashing distance, lazing Italian bodies of their parents lay splayed out on the hot rocks like melting caramel for hours on end.

This is where Mazzei, 49, was born and raised and where he periodically returns - his car filled with fresh farm produce, like sweet Tropea onions, musky bergamot oranges, subtly smoky red peppers, and delicate liquorice root – all staples of the Calabrian pantry. Not to mention ‘Nduja – the spicy, spreadable pork sausage, which Mazzei has been championing for decades.

Mazzei says his philosophy is no frills, honest cooking. When you’re working with ingredients as vibrant as he is, the chef says, you can leave the bells and whistles in the magician’s hat.

“This is what we will be doing in Malta. Excellent food, but that is accessible and not prohibitive. We want people to come for the full experience or just a plate of pasta and a couple of glasses of wine. Mostly, we want people to have a good time, after all, that’s what it’s all about.”

Throughout the rest of the year, the chef and his culinary team will be using a blend of carefully sourced local ingredients and the finest Calabrian produce to create a menu that introduces diners to this region’s unique gastronomy.

“I will be bringing these ingredients to Malta, but I will also be using what is available here to really showcase this style of cooking through Malta and its produce – there is some amazing stuff available here and I want to show it in a different light.”

Throughout the six months, Mazzei will also be partnering up with leading global suppliers for unique pop-up collaborations and events that will offer diners a rare opportunity to sample some exceptional global produce.

From menus paired with the wines of some wonderful Italian producers to a feast of seasonal truffles, these events are not to be missed.

Mazzei had his first taste of a professional culinary experience at his uncle’s gelateria where he started learning about Italian cakes and gelato at the tender age of nine.

His first professional restaurant role was at a local fish restaurant in Calabria, aged 18, in 1992.

To gain more experience, he moved to Rome and joined The Grand Hotel, followed by a transfer to London, working celebrated hotel, The Dorchester. After a brief return to Italy and the Michelin-starred Eden Terrazza, Mazzei came back to the UK to Santini restaurants in London, Edinburgh, and Milan.

He is the chef behind celebrated London restaurants like L’Anima, Fiume, and Sartoria and is a regular fixture on BBC shows such as MasterChef and Saturday Kitchen, Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy on CNN, and the Italian Hell’s Kitchen.

The food at one of his most recent restaurants was received with critical acclaim, with The Guardian food critic Jay Rayner describing it as “the simple done boisterously well” while another was described as “one of the most satisfying meals you can eat in London”.

Read more about Francesco Mazzei at Villa Corinthia or book a table at the link below.

https://www.corinthia.com/palace-hotel-and-spa/francesco-mazzei-at-villa-corinthia/