Francesco Mazzei
Chef Patron at D&D’s Sartoria on Savile Rowe in Mayfair. Owner of Radici and Fiume
- Francesco’s first restaurant L’Anima, opened in London in 2008 with a menu inspired by traditional cooking from Calabria, Puglia, Sicily and Sardinia.
In 2015, Francesco took up a position as Chef Patron at D&D’s Sartoria on Savile Rowe in Mayfair.
- 2017 Francesco opened his restaurant Radici showcasing simple Calabrian cooking in a relaxed and rustic Islington site. Francesco’s most recent opening (also in 2017), Fiume in Battersea, is inspired by southern Italian flavours from the coastal regions and islands off Italy, a modern Italian restaurant overlooking the Thames.
- From an early age, Francesco had his first taste of the professional kitchen working in his uncle’s Gelateria where he had mastered Italian cakes and gelato by the age of nine.
- After having attended catering college in Calabria, Francesco moved to Rome in 1992 where he worked in the Grand Hotel until 1996 as a Sous Chef. Next was The Dorchester in Mayfair, London, cooking under Willi Elsener and Henri Brosi for 4 years as Executive Sous Chef.
- Francesco returned to Rome to work at the Michelin-starred Eden Terazza. He then moved on to open restaurants all over the world, between 2004 – 2007 including the Santini Restaurants in London, Edinburgh and Milan, Anda with Alan Yau on Baker Street, Hakkasan, Istanbul and Miami and Yauatcha. Franco’s on Jermyn Street and Chris Corbin and Jeremy King’s St Albans.
- Francesco went on to release his first cookbook Mezzogiorno: Francesco Mazzei Recipes from Southern Italy and became a regular feature on BBC shows including Saturday Kitchen, MasterChef, The James Martin Show and on the Italian edition of Hell’s Kitchen with Carlo Cracco.