ORO AT HOTEL CIPRIANI, A BELMOND HOTEL, VENICE
ANNOUNCES NEW HEAD CHEF VANIA GHEDINI WITH CREATIVE CULINARY INSPIRATION BY MASSIMO BOTTURA
28th March 2024 - Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, is proud to announce the arrival of Chef Vania Ghedini who will return to Italy to join the Michelin-starred Oro as Head Chef after a five-year hiatus with the Alajmo brothers at Sesamo in Marrakesh. She will be joined by internationally acclaimed visionary Chef Massimo Bottura as Culinary Creative Director.
Vania will relaunch Oro for the season 2024, introducing exciting new menus that celebrate all the local produce that the area surrounding the hotel and wider region has to offer. The two will work together on the development of the menu, mixing creativity and international influences with the traditions of the cuisine from the Venetian lagoon.
Chef Vania Ghedini says; “My cuisine is the continuity of culinary practices transmitted by great masters, who taught me the value of this art and the importance of culture and knowledge. We will start from these foundations, from the territories where I have lived in recent years, from Venice and the heritage of the lagoon to create authentic and distinctive dishes. These are the values on which we will build a golden experience. ORO...ora!”
“Hotel Cipriani is a perfect movie set that has rightly retained a reputation as the embodiment of enduring Italian luxury and elegance since it first opened over 66 years ago. It’s been a journey of constant evolution melding in part the graceful art of service with exceptional food and drinks over the decades. Restaurant Oro, with its stunning views out over the lagoon, is the present-day epitome of this journey and Vania and I are excited to be part of this latest chapter.” Commented Chef Massimo Bottura.
"Massimo Bottura's creative vision combined with Vania Ghedini's passion for cooking will establish Oro as a gastronomic destination in Venice and the world. I thank them both for accepting this challenge and wish them all the best". Commented Christian Boyens, Vice President & Divisional Leader Southern Europe, Belmond.
Open at 19.30 to 22.30 on Tuesday to Saturday for dinner from May onwards.
Reservations: ororestaurant.cip@belmond.com – +39 041 240 8815
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For further information on Oro at Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, Venice please contact Lotus at belmond@lotusinternational.net | Tel +44 20 7751 5812
For further information on Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, Venice please contact Danilo Quagliozzi, Public Relations Manager at danilo.quagliozzi@belmond.com | Tel +39 342 183 84 88
Follow Oro restaurant on their new Instagram account HERE
Notes to the Editor:
About Vania Ghedini
Vania Ghedini was born in 1987 in Ferrara and spent her childhood among bread, fresh pasta and cakes at the bakery owned by her grandparents, where she discovered her love for cooking. After graduating from Hotel Management School, in 2006 she enrolled in the Advanced Course in Italian Cuisine at ALMA, where she perfected her culinary techniques, learnt to work with raw materials with respect and became familiar with Italy's gastronomic heritage. After finishing her studies and her internship at Rigoletto di Reggiolo, and only after a parenthesis in France for the opening of an Italian restaurant, she returned to ALMA, this time as a teacher, where she stayed until 2015. Then, thanks to her experience as sous chef at Peck in Palazzo Italia during EXPO Milan, Vania was able to get closer to the concepts of historicity and tradition and understand the importance of protecting and passing them on through cooking. At the beginning of 2016, Vania joined the Alajmo Group. After a few months in the brigade of Le Calandre, she spent a period at Grancaffè Quadri in Venice to learn more about the cuisine of the area and then took over AMO Venezia, inside the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, and led its kitchen until 2018. In December of the same year, she followed the Alajmo family to Morocco to take charge of the opening of the Sesamo Restaurant inside one of the world's best hotels, the Royal Mansour Marrakech, where she remained until the end of 2023. The Alajmo experience marked her profoundly in her thinking, in her way of conceiving cuisine as a game, downplaying its canons, playing with them between lightness and taste. In April 2024, she returns to Venice as head chef of the one-Michelin-starred Oro Restaurant inside Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, Venice.
About Massimo Bottura
Massimo Bottura – Chef Patron Osteria Francescana, Founder Food for Soul, UNEP Goodwill Ambassador. A restaurateur and entrepreneur for more than thirty years, Massimo Bottura is one of the most innovative and influential personalities on the world gastronomic scene. In 1995, he opened his restaurant Osteria Francescana in his hometown Modena. The restaurant's numerous awards -three Michelin stars in 2012 and the first place in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2016 and 2018 -helped to assert the chef's reputation globally. Over the years, other projects were born that are now part of the Francescana Group: in Italy, Franceschetta58, Cavallino, Gucci Osteria Firenze and the guesthouse Casa Maria Luigia with the restaurant Al Gatto Verde and around the world, Torno Subito in Dubai and Singapore and Gucci Osteria in Beverly Hills, Tokyo and Seoul. In 2015, together with his wife Lara Gilmore, he founded Food for Soul, a non-profit association and cultural project aimed at combating food waste and social isolation. In recognition of his humanitarian and environmental commitment, in 2020 Bottura was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program and Osteria Francescana was awarded the green Michelin star.
About Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, Venice
Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, Venice has been a Venetian legend since 1958: a haven for discerning travellers, close enough to the city bustle, yet far enough to offer a relaxing escape. A welcome rarity in Venice, the property is a green oasis with its luscious Casanova Gardens and red-clay tennis court, as well as the famous salt-water swimming pool – the biggest in the city. An emblem of vintage allure, Hotel Cipriani is also the starting point of Belmond’s story as the first acquisition in 1976. The 77-rooms hotel is located on Giudecca Island, an exhilarating boat ride away from St Mark’s Square, with sweeping views of the lagoon. Glamorous guests of past and present – from Yves Saint Laurent and Sophia Loren to George Clooney and Madonna, have all enjoyed the privacy of the hotel, whose history is layered with countless stories. Guests can savour a Bellini at Bar Gabbiano, indulge in Michelin-starred cuisine at Oro restaurant, relish in a long sun-drenched lunch at Cip’s Club, or sample the catch of the day at oyster bar and seafood restaurant, Il Porticciolo. The hotel also features a historical ballroom event space, which were formerly used as Granaries during the Serenissima Republic.