Michele Antonelli has been announced as the winner of the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition 2022-23 Regional Final for Italy, during a special gala evening, staged at the Visconti Pavilion in Milan, a few steps from Mudec (The Milan Museum of Cultures).
The chef from the GastroBi restaurant in Villa Musone, Ancona, impressed the local jury made up of chefs Andrea Aprea, Donato Ascani, Giuseppe Iannotti, Jessica Rosval and Viviana Varese, with his signature dish Gira il cavolfiore (‘Spin the cauliflower’).
The dish is “the synthesis of all my experiences and the strong bond I have with the Marche region and the small producers I get my supplies from,” he explained. The chef wanted to send a strong message against food waste and to raise awareness of greater respect for the human resources that produce the raw material, he said.
Antonelli will now compete against the winners of the 14 other regional finals around the world, during the Grand Finale in Milan later this year. Juror Andrea Aprea will become his mentor.
SPYCA Competition 2022-23 Italy Regional Final: Collateral awards
Three further collateral prizes were also awarded during the evening.
The Fine Dining Lovers Food for Thought Award, voted for by Fine Dining Lovers readers, was won by Katherine Rios, a Peruvian-born chef, for her dish, ‘Migration and integration’. The award is given to the young chef who best represents her or his vision and gastronomic philosophy for the community through a dish that is consistent with the principles that inspire them.
The S.Pellegrino Social Responsibility Award was won by Danilo Vella, sous chef at Imperialino restaurant in Moltrasio, Como, for his dish ‘Come to Sicily with Me’. Judged by the Sustainable Restaurant Association the award recognises the dish that best interprets the principle that food is at its best when it is the result of socially responsible practices.
The Acqua Panna Connection in Gastronomy Award was won by Marco Apicella, chef of the Al Peschereccio restaurant in Vedano Olona, in the province of Varese, for his dish ‘Shades of red snapper, salt crust, Amalfi lemon dashi and snapper oil, terrine; chips with pâté’. The award, voted for by the mentors, goes to the dish that best reflects the balance between the past and the future, as an expression of the traditional gastronomic heritage of the competing chef’s country of origin.