Discover Chef Francesco GASBARRO*

Francesco Gasbarro: Switzerland’s Top Italian Restaurant

Italian 1 star Chef
Restaurant La Bottega, Geneva
Modern, delicious, Italian dishes full of surprises

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Francesco Gasbarro was born in Florence in 1977. Since childhood he has been dealing with catering. His father is a chef in the big CIGA Hotels at the turn of the 70s and 80s. And in the second half of the 80s he opened the first family restaurant in Florence.Growing up in this environment, Francesco soon developed a love for food and catering.He attended the hotel cookery school in Florence between ’92 and ’96, graduating.He began his first experiences in London in the summer of ’96, then decided to return to Italy and begin working with the raw material of his land.

“My cuisine is inspired by the Italian traditionand reinterprets dishes and flavours in a contemporary approach. You find refined dishes which recall the past, combining flavours & fragrance.”

He worked in various restaurants in Florence until 2005, when he decided to open the first restaurant on the outskirts of Chianti. After this adventure in the Tuscan countryside he decides to return to his Florence and to open a restaurant with the family: “La Bottega del Buon Caffè”, by now a reference point for Tuscan restaurants.The restaurant in 2014 was awarded a star by the Michelin guide and Francesco decided to sell everything and leave for Geneva.

We are in May 2015 when LA BOTTEGA opens in Geneva, a restaurant so revolutionary for the city that the Michelin guide rewards him with a star just 5 months after the opening.In March 2016 he opens the second restaurant in the city: OSTERIA DELLA BOTTEGA, now “place to be” in Geneva for Italian cuisine. Here, too, the Michelin guide rewards him with the Bib Gourmand (in 2017).During these years he has participated as a guest chef in many cities around the world, from Tel-Aviv to London to Saigon to Maldives, Barcelona, Mumbai.

Francesco is also a great wine enthusiast and connoisseur, in fact it is he who personally signs the wine lists of his restaurants. He developed a passion for biodynamic and natural wines, in fact respecting the environment and zero waste are fundamental factors in his restaurants.

Italian or French gastronomic traditions are deeply rooted in chef Francesco Gasbarro and has the knowledge of the traditions while in being able to propose them in a more modern but not exaggerated way.

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