Gianfranco Chiarini
Italian chef, entrepreneur and television presenter
Biography
Gianfranco Chiarini (born in Ferrara in 1966) is an Italian chef who has combined a classical culinary training with a long international career in luxury hotels, fine-dining restaurants and food companies. His style, which he describes as Italian fusion haute cuisine, draws on the years he spent working in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
He grew up between Italy, Venezuela and the United States, in a family of Italian-Colombian origin. Before devoting himself fully to cooking, he sang in pubs and clubs, and with the band Barranco Mix he gained a following across Spanish-speaking countries. In 1986 he began culinary studies in Caracas, then trained in Pittsburgh and at Le Cordon Bleu Paris, worked under Alain Dutournier at Carré des Feuillants, and spent time in kitchens in Rome and Ferrara. From the early 2000s he worked in the Middle East, Kuwait, Ethiopia and Turkey, consulting for hotels and filming television cooking programmes.
Since 2011 he has worked mainly as a corporate culinary consultant for food ingredient companies in Germany, focusing on food research and development. His written work includes the trilogy The New Renaissance of Italian Fusion Cuisine, begun in 2011.
Key contributions
- The New Renaissance of Italian Fusion Cuisine, a book trilogy proposing an Italian cooking open to influences from other continents.
- Italian fusion cuisine, a style that combines Italian techniques with ingredients and methods from Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
- Ferrara Il Gioiello Culinario Nascosto, a book devoted to the food of his native city.
- Ancient Techniques - Modern Looks, a work on ancient cooking techniques presented with contemporary plating.