Star chef Stefano Baiocco as guest chef in the Ikarus

January 2010 at Restaurant Ikarus: Stefano Baiocco

Exclusive cookery lesson

"Grand Hotel a Villa Feltrinelli", Gargnano, Italy

Do you know of a chef that writes a cookery book without giving away the methods to his readers? Stefano Baiocco is just such a chef and Mise en place is his culinary secret. At first glance you think something is missing, but when you look more closely it turns out to be perfect for anyone wanting to put their own creativity to the test. And last, but not least, this says a great deal about Stefano Baiocco himself.

But before his delicacies filled an entire cookery book, he had to put together the basic ingredients – his training. The Istituto Alberghiero A. Panzini catering school in Senigalla, close to Baiocco's home town, paved the way for a career that would make him famous beyond the borders of Italy. The Italian completed his training with distinction and started his apprenticeship at the Enoteca Pinchiorri restaurant in Florence, where he encountered the art of haute cuisine for the first time and from that point on thought of nothing else. He looked for its maestros and found them in Alain Ducasse and Pierre Gagnaire in Paris. They taught him techniques of which he had previously only dared to drea

Equipped with the requisite French polish, he set about conquering the world. His triumphant culinary march took him from Yokohama, via New York, to Hong Kong, and from there back to Paris and Spain via Oxford. During this time he worked under exceptional chefs such as Raymond Blanc, Pascal Barbot, Joan Roca and Luis Aduriz. On the Costa Brava all roads lead to Spain's chief alchemist, Ferran Adrià. At his restaurant El Bulli, the top chef initiated the young Italian in the mysteries of molecular cuisine. Baiocco ended his round-the-world tour in 2001 and took a post as sous-chef at Rossellini's restaurant in the Palazzo Sasso in Ravello. But was that really the end of his journey?

It continued and led him from the Amalfi coast to his last post for now, in tranquil Gargnano on Lake Garda. The pasta made by Executive Chef Baiocco at Mussolini's former residence, the Villa Feltrinelli, is counted amongst the best in Italy. He approaches the simple things in life with devotion and care. Thus a typical Italian dish becomes a daydream of the past, awakening memories with the different herbs and flavours – a dream from which one only awakens when the final mouthful is consumed. He finds the ingredients for his guests' reveries in his herb garden. The top chef selects the herbs for his next culinary compositions early in the morning, when everyone else is still asleep.

Those who bring the taste-buds alive with simple things are rewarded with one star from the Michelin Guide, and it was obvious to more than Baiocco himself that his first star would not be his last. His former teachers, such as Ferran Adrià, Luis Aduri and Pascal Barbot, believe this is a young man always searching for flavour, beauty and truth.

Baiocco's gift for cookery is unique. He turns home cooking into haute cuisine in a very simple and natural way. The result can be admired in his cookery book Mise en place – 300 pages full of delicious recipes, with no methods, but with quantities. A cookery book aimed at fellow chefs and enthusiastic amateurs who bring a certain amount of basic knowledge and creativity to their cooking.

It's usual for a chef's cooking to be lauded, but in Baiocco's case so is his written work. Mise en place won the World Cookbook Award. Baiocco's "exclusive cookery book", entitled Best Chef Book, is one for which the world has waited, and it is therefore unpredictably unique.