“There is always something to learn,” says Marco Fossati – and coming from a culinarian of his calibre, that’s saying something. Appointed Executive Chef at Four Seasons Hotel Silicon Valley at East Palo Alto in fall 2010, Fossati arrived with two decades’ experience earned across Europe, the U.S. and the Middle East. He made sixteen stops altogether – from private clubs to the first Michelin-starred Italian restaurant in Paris – none longer than two years and most focused on the cuisine of his youth. “I’m in love with Italian cuisine, but every kitchen is a new experience: the culture, the mentality, the way things are prepared. There is always something to learn.”

Like many Four Seasons chefs who hail from Italy, Fossati’s career path began with cooking Sunday dinners at his grandparents’ side. His grandfather, who took care of the appetisers, had been Executive Chef of the Rex, a renowned Italian cruise liner featured in the Hollywood classic Dodsworth (1936) and later sunk by the Royal Air Force during World War II. His grandmother handled the main dishes: just a half-dozen or so, each simply prepared, such as chicken in white wine. “To this day, I don’t mind rising early to cook,” says Fossati, fondly. “Sleep is unnecessary if I’m making people happy.”

Though he considers himself shy, Fossati is an engaging conversationalist. “I make a real effort to talk to guests,” he says, estimating that half of the people who pull up a seat at Quattro take his recommendations rather than look at the menu. They’re rewarded with northern Italian-inspired fare created from the freshest seasonal ingredients. “It doesn’t matter if the peak lasts one week or two, that’s when we’re going to use it,” he insists, explaining how pumpkin gives way to Alba truffles in the early fall, spring is the time for suckling pig, and fall and winter are best for a 1-kilo (2.2-pound) T-bone steak for two.

Whatever the time of year, Fossati keeps things simple and lets individual flavours carry each dish. He favours techniques his grandparents wouldn’t recognise, such as sous vide, the slow-cook, vacuum bag method he mastered years ago on a work-exchange visit to Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong. Quattro’s sous vide osso bucco, he notes, “is so moist you can cut it with a teaspoon.”

Now right at home in Palo Alto, Fossati is enamoured of Northern California’s seaside climate, abundance of product and serious embrace of good food. Why, there’s even an ocean just minutes away – the perfect playground to test his advanced diving skills. Just don’t expect to find Fossati in his scuba gear soon. “I must admit, I’m a little timid,” he says. “I’ve heard too many stories of Great White Sharks off the California coast.”