Chef Marco Marinelli, from a young age, already knew about his Job. In fact, during his childhood, he showed a strong attraction for cooking and, in particular, preparing the typical food of his land. A passion most likely transmitted by his maternal grandmother, born in Bari, an area with a healthy food and wine tradition.
The flavours of Southern Italy are the strong points of the delicious food that Chef Marinelli proposes to his guests. The smells, the taste and the expressiveness of typical Sunday lunches, of fresh homemade pasta, are still alive in his memory, a timeless ritual that accompanies his culinary art every day.
Strong of his passion, Marinelli chooses to complete his studies in the “Hotellerie school”. This is the starting point of his professional path that will lead him to be one of the most appreciated and qualified chefs in Italy and beyond. From Emilia Romagna to the Côte d’Azur, Switzerland, Poland, the Caribbean and Bermuda Islands… all around the World.
The kitchen for him represents a real code, almost a lifestyle, which allows satisfying the primary need to eat also being able to transmit emotions, through the ingredients, it is possible to stimulate the five senses.
Cooking? It is a form of art, says the famous chef. It is a real passion that allows him to express his “I” through everything that Mother Nature gives us to live, transforming it, but without changing the raw material and maintaining the taste and its Mediterranean matrix.
His strong personality makes Marco Marinelli a top chef: the sea and the catch are his passion. He is also popular with his “so-called” dishes of land; he is very attentive to cooking techniques and can find the right balance between tradition and innovation, thanks to many experiences abroad.
Its dishes can be tasted at the Masseria del Sale di Manduria, an evocative 18th-century “Masseria” where animals and men with loads of salt in transit stopped, today a lunar landscape of salt slabs where flamingos and seagulls bivouac.
In fact, after so much wandering around in 2018, Chef Marinelli decided to embark on this new adventure, overseeing the kitchen of this famous farm. Chef Marco Marinelli, class ’79, has made a lot of roads, but what sets him apart is the humility of never feeling like he’s arrived.
Marco loves to experiment without neglecting tradition, and this is perhaps the reason why his dishes have never disappointed anyone.
Article edited by Stefania Abbruzzo