Solaika Marrocco

She’s crazy about tomatoes, a very “southern” passion. She attended Santa Cesarea’s catering school, near Lecce, the same school as Antonio Guida. One of her favourite female chefs has shocking pink hair and the determination of a panzer: «Cristina Bowerman is the emblem of the contemporary chef, who doesn’t keep to the kitchen, but has an increasingly active social role». She has black hair and eyes, like Nolche olives. She would do the grocery shopping and she cooked even as a child, and the place where she really feels free is the kitchen: «A paradox, I know, since my freedom is only a few square metres within four walls».

This is Solaika Marrocco, born in 1995 in Gallipoli, at the helm of the brigade of Primo Restaurant in Lecce. She’s the youngest Ambasciatrice del gusto . Her palmares includes the gold medal at the Premio Birra Moretti Gran Cru 2017, which she conquered with the famous Turcinieddi glazed with beer, onion jam with oranges, critmi in tempura and hop infusion, and since 2018 she has a place in the atelier of the Gran dame Veuve Cliquot.

Her gaze shines with ambition and lucidity, and with the knowledge that she had no masters, which makes her profession even harder. But this same status gives her great freedom of movement. «It’s hard to find people who believe in you, I’m aware of this. This is why I’m grateful to Silvia and Marco», that is to say patrons Silvia Antonazzo and Marco Borelli, both in the dining room and cellar at number 47 in Via Reggimento Fanteria.

Like the most roaring millennials wearing a toque, cooking is for Solaika Marrocco a perfect mix of egotism and care: «I’m very ambitious, it’s true. But I chose this career because I have a natural inclination to look after other people, and I found my way of doing so». Her way includes homely affection, madeleine-ingredients, and well-measured contemporary notes.