The Best Chef New Entry Award – Riccardo Camanini

Riccardo Camanini was born in 1973, Bergamasco. He has in his curriculum the Albereta of Erbusco with Gualtiero Marchesi, Le Manoir aux Quat Saison with Raimond Blanc, La Grande Cascade in Paris, with Jean Louis, which is like saying Alain Ducasse, and the Villa Fiordaliso, Michelin star in Gardone Riviera, interspersed with incursions in various cuisines around Europe. Then in 2014 at Lido 84, again at Gardone Riviera, after 6 months from the opening gets the first Michelin star.

Where mountains meet the lake

The town of Gardone Riviera, located in the western part of Lake Garda, is like a huge, luxuriant garden. In fact, Gardone is situated at the beginning of the stunning ″Lemon Trees Riviera″, surrounded by camphor trees and oleanders, bougainvillea, and olive trees.

This part of Northern Italy where mountains meet the lake provides Riccardo with a beautifully rich range of ingredients: the raw mountain milk which is used to produce the Fior di latte ice cream, Bagòss cheese for the tortellini, Stracchino cheese and sardines for the risotto, eel, olive oil, lemons, and Wisteria flowers for desserts.

A sincere passion for hospitality

Riccardo’s vision of gastronomy allies the exquisite refinement with a sincere passion for hospitality. His cuisine evokes antique flavours. It is a journey through the interiors of Riccardo’s youth and as perfumed as the warm zabaglione which accompanies his Torta delle rose. In each dish, technique obeys to an extremely strong poetic approach: thus, the respect for the produce is always combined with the most imaginative outburst, like in the silvan symphony played by the Rice, fermented black garlic and red fruits or the ″Transalpine Romanity″ embodied by the Cacio e pepe cooked in a pig’s bladder.