Chef Mario Traina

I have grown with true genuine food my whole life and decided to share the beauty of a true table with any new friend I can come across in life. The table is a moment which should clean up all issues around and between us. Simple food, authentic traditions, heartpicked ingredients are the way.

I grew up embedded in the aura of fried eggplants in the summer and roasted artichokes in the winter. My grandmothers never followed recipes — they followed instinct, seasons, and love. That is where I learned everything that matters about food. Every ingredient I use is chosen by hand: artisanal pasta from producers I know by name, extra virgin olive oil from groves I have visited since childhood, ricotta dried by the wind, tomatoes still warm from the sun. Nothing is approximate.

I graduated at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Piedmont, studying food culture at many levels, and today I serve as Ambassador for the University itself. I also work as an educator at a private foundation for disadvantaged kids from the neighbourhoods of Catania, who strive to gain new opportunities in a complex world. These amazing youths are my brigade and they are a key ingredient of the services we offer.

Whether you are two or twenty, what I offer is simple: an honest table, real food, and the feeling of being welcomed into something genuine.