Profile | Michelin-trained chef from Italy on how to cook pasta, why ‘happiness comes first’ in the kitchen and the country’s north-south culinary divide
- Luca Marinelli trained at a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Italy, where he learned that ‘if you’re happy then you work better’
- The Italian, head chef of Osteria Marzia, reveals how he learned hospitality at nine years old, and why Hong Kong’s humidity is good for making pasta
“I was born in Varese, in Lombardy, 40km (25 miles) north of Milan. My hometown is a 20-minute drive to the Swiss border. My parents divorced when I was six years old, and I lived with my maternal grandmother during the week and saw my mum on the weekends.
So how did you learn to love food?
“My mother remarried and my stepfather was very passionate about cooking. He was like a father to me – from the south of Italy. He was in the insurance business and practically every night my mum cooked dinner parties at home, for him to entertain his clients.
“This is where I learned hospitality, and at nine years old I started to help my mum by setting the table, and later preparing the ingredients and checking the recipe for her.
“It was her way of preventing me from watching television or playing video games.
“My paternal grandmother was much older, she had been through two wars, and raised a lot of family members. She kept two hams in the fridge – one she served to guests, and a nicer one for us to eat. She raised three generations with the same pasta, the same sauce, very practical.