Paolo Lavezzini
Executive Chef
Four Seasons Tenure
- Since 2018
- First Four Seasons Assignment: Executive Chef, Four Seasons Hotel São Paulo (formerly a Four Seasons hotel)
Employment History
- Four Seasons Hotel São Paulo (formerly a Four Seasons hotel); Fasano Hotel, Rio de Janeiro; Enoteca Pinchiorri, Florence; Restaurant Alain Ducasse, Hotel Plaza Athénée, Paris; Le Royal Monceau, Paris; Byron Hotel, Forte dei Marmi, Italy
Birthplace
- Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy
Education
- Diploma in Hotel Service, Istituto Alberghiero di Marina di Massa, Tuscany, Italy
Languages Spoken
- Italian, English, French, Portuguese
“I was always inspired by this property,” says Paolo Lavezzini, rhapsodising on his turn as Executive Chef of Four Seasons Hotel Firenze, where he fashions menus and leads the culinary team for multiple outlets, including the flagship Italian restaurant Il Palagio. “I look at the Hotel as something out of dream – huge, fabulous, and immeasurable – and at what I can do to take guest experience even further.”
Like gleaming forks on fine linens on the tables of Il Palagio, Lavezzini has taken a multi-pronged approach to reshaping the Hotel’s culinary offerings. He uses traditional and simple ingredients yet prepares them lightly, cooking to contemporary perfection and arranging striking presentations of “one or two ingredients on the plate, and that’s it” in unique combinations that blend flavours, consistencies, and textures.
For instance, his six-course Della Gherardesca tasting menu, debuted not long after his 2021 appointment, starts with an aperitivo box of snacks such as juniper tart and red beetroot in flavours and shapes inspired by the Hotel’s private Gherardesca Garden. Then come unexpected selections such as a dessert-like starter of marinated eggplant with pecorino, tomato and rhubarb ice cream; comforting agnolotti stuffed with guinea fowl, Parmigiano Reggiano cream and porcini mushrooms like his grandmother used to make; and…well, let’s not give it all away.
Lavezzini has also refined the atmosphere at Il Palagio, reducing the number of covers to ensure more intimacy for guests, arranging tables with clean white ceramics and porcelain, and changing breads seasonally, with a whole loaf delivered to the table for guests to share in keeping with festive Italian traditions.
Flavour, presentation and atmosphere are just to start, he says. “The stories behind the ingredients we use really add to the experience for our diners.” Rosemary, for instance, has a fascinating history in the region. “Our servers talk it at the table, expressing its importance for our kitchen and the cuisine of Tuscany.”
Having previously spent two-plus years as a sous chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Florence, Lavezzini arrived at the Hotel with a ready list of suppliers, and found a “huge” list waiting for him. “It’s wonderful, because we have many producers who really understand what we’re going for.” He mentions the first supplier he found: the only “natural” egg producer in Italy. The farmer is located just outside of Florence on a route that many guests take to explore Tuscany. “We tell people to look to their left at certain point in the road, and they’ll see the farm. They can go visit – I hope they do.”
Lavezzini also counts himself fortunate to have inherited a “wonderful” culinary team, with 32 in the kitchen cooking for 4 outlets plus in-room dining and a takeaway and delivery service for locals to savour Four Seasons at home. All are young, well trained, and very knowledgeable about seasonality as well as the history of the hotel. Lavezzini can be demanding, but also playful when appropriate, and he tries to connect personably and positively. Either way, leading such talent is liberating, he says: “They know their jobs, the guests, and the markets. It gives me time to focus on all sorts of things.”
Lavezzini was inspired to a culinary career by his grandmother – “just like every Italian chef,” he jokes. Growing up in the gastronomically rich Emilia Romagna region of Italy, his passions were evenly divided between the kitchen and the football field. His father, who coached football teams, encouraged him to make his living on the latter. Sorry, papà: “The kitchen was always my dream.”
With his parent’s support, Lavezzini secured a slot at a prestigious hotel school in Tuscany where he was enlightened that Michelin-starred restaurants were the best route to success. Following school, he focused on hotel restaurants, believing them to be the future of gastronomy. “They have so much more to sell.”
After heading first to the seaside of Tuscany, then to Paris to work in palace hotels, Lavezzini returned to work in Florence side-by-side with legendary Chef Riccardo Monco as part of a team that earned Enoteca Pinchiorri three Michelin stars. Chef Monco remains an inspiration and a friend, he says. “Perhaps the most important lesson he taught was that if there is an issue in your career or your life, you can change it.”
Working in Florence was eye opening in other ways, as Lavezzini excitedly watched the launch of Four Seasons Hotel Firenze in 2008. Seeing the hotel come together in an historic 15th-century Palazzo reinforced impressions of the company he had back in France. “I used to walk past Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris everyday on my way to work. I always told myself, ‘One day, I’m going to work for this company.’”
He finally did in 2018 when, following time at a luxury hotel in Rio de Janeiro, he was appointed opening Executive Chef of Four Seasons former property in Sao Paolo, Brazil. His time showed him the importance of sustainability, a focus for every Four Seasons property, and he remains committed in Florence, venerating and respecting his ingredients, and following the seasons to boost flavour and minimize waste.
Looking ever forward, Lavezzini is excited to have been handed the opportunity to “create a new history” for the Hotel’s culinary operations through small but significant changes. “We joke about this being Four Seasons Hotel Firenze 2.0,” he says. “Our guests are best customers anywhere, and I just want to keep them coming back for more.”
