We have met Chef Picano during a wine tasting, while Chef Picano was looking for authentic white Etna wines. He has felt in love with our Millesulmare and immediately suggested to include it in the menu of the Roma-Quito flight for Pope Francis ‘apostolic trip to South America of in July.
Over the years Chef Picano has cooked for many important persons, but he has clearly remained a man of full naturalness and simplicity.
He was born in London 1966, his parents were from Cassino, in Italy, but they have left their home town to go to London to follow their dreams.
Chef Picano’s father was a chef specialised in patisserie and his grandfather also was a chef: so Picano has the passion for cooking in his DNA!
But his passion for cooking grew even more by looking at his father preparing extraordinary pastries; he has been fascinated by his style in organizing big and prestigious events, and in managing the kitchens he was responsible of.
He become Chef at the Hotel Keeping and Ealing’s Catering school of London. After, he has worked for few prestigious hotels in London (Ritz, Dorchester House, Les Ambassadeurs) and for Diplomat ,the famous restaurant.
He came back to Italy to open of various important restaurants and hotels and in 1998 he joined Alitalia as Chef in charge of design of on board services.
Despite the big changes and the issues that our airline company has had since, Chef Picano has always remained fully attached to and passionate about his job.
He is fascinated by the continuous research of perfection and by challenges to ensure at 30,000 feet of altitude a product worth of the Italian cookery culture.
Chef Picano is a lover of simple dishes, based on absolutely genuine raw materials.
He loves to revisit traditional recipes. He loves pasta that it is emblem of Italian cookery, he fought from years to teach to foreign chefs the right cooking and the perfect service of an ingredient that has multiple shapes and almost infinite versatility and recipes.
As Chef Picano says: The supposedly simplest dish is the hardest to cook at perfection!
We want to take the opportunity to thank Chef Picano to have appreciated and selected our Millesulmare, and to have included a little bit of Etna’s pureness in a simple, but very prestigious menu.