Massimo Mantarro

Modesty, kindness and passion are the most characterising traits of Massimo Mantarro, deus ex machina at hotel San Domenico in Taormina and two-starred chef in the annexed restaurant Principe Cerami. A narrator and master of the new Sicilian cuisine, with his talent he gives harmony to his dishes and to the privileged guests who can taste them.

Sicilian, born in Caltabiano, Catania, in 1971, he completed catering school in Giarre. His most significant experiences in his training as chef include Etoile in Venice and École Lenôtre in Paris. He then works at hotel Villa S. Andrea in Taormina, and later goes north, to restaurant Del Cambio in Torino, and to Don Alfonso in Campania. He finally returns to Sicily, at Mulinazzo in Palermo and at Duomo in Ragusa Ibla. He thus acquires a rich gastronomic culture which he interprets with impeccable mastery in a personal cuisine where simplicity, territory, tradition and elegance are his engine resulting in preparations set in real edible paintings.

There are few chefs as humble and rich in spirit as him. The sea close to the earth and the echoes f the active volcano appear in his dishes like sublime good forces.

A creative and elegant artisan, he’s a refined interpreter of the surrounding territory, letting autochthonous raw materials speak, respecting their seasonality. Innovating in tradition is his leitmotiv: he’s a well-deserved member of the new Sicilian cuisine, filled with history, culture, taste and beauty. The recipe that best represents him? Risotto al calamaro, we’d say: very fine cubes of calamari, creamed as with risotto, with a sauce of basil and squid ink, covered with a silver leaf. Haute cuisine synthesis.