Giancarlo Perbellini

Giancarlo Perbellini’s cooking is shaped by pastry-shop discipline, Italian dining-room grammar, French kitchen rigor, New York scale, and a return to Verona. Tradition is treated as material to be measured, edited, and carried forward without losing its line. His first work in the family pastry shop gave him an early respect for weight, sequence, temperature, and repetition. The early kitchen years that followed at Marconi, Desco, 12 Apostoli in Verona, and San Domenico in Imola added the service habits and table language of Italian hospitality. His training at Traillevent in Paris and under chef Bernard Pacaud at Ambroisie brought French rigor, balance, and dish structure into the same frame as his Italian foundation. La Terrasse in Juan-les-Pins added another register to that formation. Perbellini also took part in the launch of a restaurant for a noted industrial brand in New York from 2012, widening the field without changing the central problem of how to keep tradition legible while pushing it toward a modern expression. In 1989, he opened restaurant of Perbellini in Isola Rizza, a move that made authorship in a regional address explicit. He is now chef patron of Casa Perbellini 12 Apostoli in Verona, bringing apprenticeship, travel, recognition, and Verona back into one working frame. At Casa Perbellini 12 Apostoli, history is not presented as a fixed exhibit. It is part of the working material of the house, shaping atmosphere, service rhythm, guest comfort, and the challenge of making an old room feel usable now. Perbellini has described the return as coming back to a beloved place after having seen almost all of it, and has linked that return to gratitude. He has also said that lightness is essential to the future, so the guest can experience the charm of the historic place in a light, unoppressive way rather than as one of the labelled restaurants of the past. In his view, lightness is not only about reducing weight on the plate. It is about how refinement is delivered, with enough ease for history to be felt without making the guest carry it. His signature dishes include The sesame wafer, Il mio wafer... tartàre di branzino, caprino, liquirizia, Mille e Millefoglie, Risotto all’Amarone, scampi e peperoni dolci, Anatra laccata al lime, and patata affumicata e jus al pepe nero. These dishes show a kitchen working with contrast rather than excess, using wafer and tartàre, branzino with caprino and liquirizia, millefeuille language, risotto with scampi and sweet peppers, and duck with lime, smoked potato, and black pepper jus. Memory is not copied flat. It is adjusted through texture, acidity, bitterness, sweetness, smoke, and sauce. Perbellini received a first Michelin star for restaurant Perbellini in 1996, followed by a second Michelin star for the same restaurant in 2002. The sequence reflects sustained execution at the address, alongside a career defined by pastry discipline, Italian and French formation, international exposure, and a continued return to Verona.