The S.Pellegrino World's Best Restaurants.

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Gualtiero Marchesi

Gualtiero Marchesi, the first Italian chef to win three Michelin stars, is this year's recipient of the S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants Lifetime Achievement award. At 78 years young, Marchesi is by far Italy's most renowned chef, having created a string of award-winning restaurants and the culinary philosophy 'Total Cuisine', as set out in his seminal book, The Marchesi Code.

Total cuisine requires attention to every detail, and when Marchesi opened his first restaurant in Milan in 1977, was something of a revolution. Within six months, Ristorante Gualtiero Marchesi had earned him his first Michelin star and by 1985, the restaurant had three - a first for Italy.

In 2004 he helped launch ALMA, the International School of Italian Cuisine. He was also a founder member of Euro-Toques International, the association of European chefs in 1986, the year he became a "Cavaliere della Republica" (knight of the Italian republic). In 1993, he moved to the hills of Erbusco, where he spends most of his time today.

Marchesi's cooking is influenced by his love of art, most obviously in dishes inspired by paintings and sculptures and his desire to reinterpret the traditional and familiar in a new light. "It is important to respect tradition," he says. "Only then can you move forward." In his recipes, he explains, "I have attempted to bear in mind Goethe's assertion that artists 'are not those that say something new but those who know how to say a well-known thing as if it had never been said before'."

His tireless energy shows no sign of waning: he is currently at work on a new restaurant called Marchesino, to open in Milan within the next 12 months. A full interview with Marchesi will appear in the next issue of Restaurant.

Ristorante Gualtiero Marchesi, Via Vittorio Emanuele 23, 25030 Erbusco, Brescia, Italy +39 0307760562
www.marchesi.it

Click here for full list of Lifetime Achievers