Three Stars in Italy Michelin Three-star Restaurants and the World’s Top Female Chefs. James Paxton
Chef Annie Feolde
One of the big debates among my foodie friends is about which country serves the best cuisine. It’s difficult not to say that the obvious leader is France, with twenty-seven Michelin three-star Restaurants. Constantly coming in second place is Italy, although it only has six Michelin three-star chefs. This total is much less than Japan (26), Germany (9), or Spain and the United States (7 each)!
Seeing Stars in Italy When we actually looked beyond Italy's numbers, we found even more astonishing conclusions. In Rubano, fifty kilometers outside of Venice, we found one of the handsomest (and the youngest) three-star chefs — Massimiliano Alajmo, who creates nouvelle Italian cuisine inspired from traditional dishes. In Brusaporto, just outside Bergamo, the Cerea family runs one of the best seafood restaurants in Italy, Da Vittorio. Enrico & Roberto share the Michelin award.
Another three-star chef is German-born Heinz Beck. Since 1994 he has been known as the magician in the kitchen at La Pergola, cooking authentic Italian dishes in the restaurant of Rome’s Cavalieri Hilton, which was recently rebaptized the Rome Waldorf Astoria.
Michelin's Favorite Female Master Chefs The rest of Italy’s three-star chefs are women...and one of them is actually French!
Enoteca Pinchior Restaurant
The first grande dame of Italian cuisine is the French-born Annie Féolde, chef since 1979 and co-owner with husband Giorgio Pinchiorri of Enotecca Pinchiorri. In 2008 the restaurant was voted 32nd best in the world by Restaurant, the British magazine. Féolde’s French-influenced traditional Tuscan fare won her a third star in the early 1990s. She was the first woman ever to receive a third star, which she quickly (some say unfairly) lost in 1994 just after the opening of her second restaurant in Tokyo. Yet there are other days and other ways: it took her until 2004, but she got that star back.
Féolde cooks an inventive but down-to-earth cuisine, both regional and sophisticated, which pays tribute to all of Italy, but mostly to Tuscany. Don't miss her admirable variation of porchetta, for which she uses quail meat, with the skin, instead of pork. The meat is stuffed with its own liver, seasoned with and served on a purée of peas and rosemary-flavored chickpea croquettes.
Al Sorriso Restaurant
The second grande dame is Luisa Valazza, the first Italian woman to receive a third Michelin star for her restaurant, Al Sorriso. She is a bit more difficult to find, with her hidden location in the Pre-Alps foothills above Lake Maggiore. But for those foodies who are not willing to drive for more than an hour back to Milan after eating, Al Sorriso has eight bedrooms for guests. It is a member of Relais & Chateâux, mainly because of its culinary accolades. Al Sorriso’ssurroundings are charming, and Lake Orta in the summer is a delight — both of which are good reasons to stay more than one night and discover Valazza's exceptional cooking.
What is incredible is that she is a self-taught cuisine master. Valazza, who began in a kitchen the day the chef stormed out of her family hotel, cooks sublime piémontaise food such as rabbit with Alba truffles and beef tenderloin with red Piémont wine.
dal Pescatore Santini
I have never had the opportunity to eat at Nadia Santini’s dal Pescatore in Canneto sull’Oglio, some two hours from the center of Milan. It's mainly because I am a lazy traveler and I hate to drive for more than twenty minutes after a meal, especially given my penchant for superb wines. Plus, dal Pescatore does not have bedrooms, although it’s a member of Relais & Châteaux.
However, one of my best friends just came back from Italy and told me that Santini’s cuisine is out of this world, and that my objections were ridiculous as there is a boutique hotel just fifteen minutes away in the charming little town of Cremona. And for those willing to drive a bit farther, there is Mantova, only forty kilometers away. The Palazzo Ducale is a marvel, and the talented Vera Caffini serves an outstanding fritura of soft water shrimps at her one-star Aquila Negra.
I am definitely going to dal Pescatore, not only for the exceptional Cappello da Prete di Manzo al Barbera e Polenta Gialla Belgrano (shoulder of beef or, literally, ”priests hats,” in Barbera wine with golden Belgrano polenta) but also because I believe we are at a turn in culinary trends. There are now more and more self-taught cooks, which explains the increasing proportion of women, who are going for traditional cuisine revised with today’s ingredients and culinary habits. And the results are simply delicious.
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