i. Biography
The Route
Discipline formed at Cap Aureo gives Jeffrey Vella’s later work its clearest through-line: a kitchen practice built around control, timing, refinement, and the full restaurant experience rather than the plate alone. That foundation was extended through collaboration with Gordon Ramsay, the Alain Ducasse group, and Jean Christophe Novelli, placing the craft in contact with several high-profile contemporary gastronomic systems without separating it from its original address. Concept work requires a different kind of authorship: a menu has to define identity while remaining operable. The role of concept and menu curator at Tomassino Restaurant in Zagreb, Croatia, put that demand on Vella’s practice. His current work as chef of Cap Aureo, Grand Park Hotel Rovinj (since 2019) and Executive Chef of Sheraton Zagreb Hotel keeps the range wide: one register focused on gastronomic expression, the other on the larger mechanics of hotel hospitality. “After important experiences with Gordon Ramsay, the Alain Ducasse group, and Jean Christophe Novelli, I immediately began to forge relationships with local artisans, and today they have become friends.” Jeffrey has said.
The Work Today
Seasonality and locality set the operating logic at Cap Aureo Signature Restaurant, where Vella is a Michelin-starred chef working from the region rather than around it. The menu is based on seasonality, locality, and love for the region, with Istria read through coast, inland gardens, markets, producers, and the changing conditions that decide what is ready. Vegetables, seafood, and local proteins are handled through precise technique, with refinement serving ingredient clarity rather than decoration. Vegetable-based cooking is central to the restaurant’s identity. In Vella’s hands, vegetables are not garnish or support; they carry structure, rhythm, depth, and contrast across the meal. The tasting menu runs to about twenty courses and rotates every few weeks according to microclimate and ingredient availability. That rhythm treats seasonality as a working constraint: the menu moves because the region moves. Landscape, seasons, surrounding nature, and an authentic, Istrian-inspired but contemporary approach define the cooking’s reference points. Traditions such as saor, pissaladière, and polenta enter the work through techniques and ingredients discovered among Istrian producers. The treatment is current rather than archival: proportion, texture, and progression may shift, while the connection to place remains readable. The Cap Aureo tasting menus show that range in practice. My Istria is described as a seasonal exploration inspired by the freshest local produce within 50 km. The radius is tight, the focus is exact, and the menu accepts what the region can supply at a given moment. Within that frame, Istria appears through vegetables, seafood, local proteins, culinary memory, and contemporary technique.
Career - Chef — Cap Aureo, Grand Park Hotel Rovinj, Croatia (2019–present) - Executive Chef — Sheraton Zagreb Hotel, Zagreb, Croatia - Collaborator — Gordon Ramsay - Collaborator — Alain Ducasse group - Collaborator — Jean Christophe Novelli - Concept and menu curator — Tomassino Restaurant, Zagreb, Croatia Education: Cap Aureo
Credentials
Jeffrey Vella has received one star for Cap Aureo under Chef Jeffrey Vella’s leadership (2025). Recognition for Cap Aureo under Chef Jeffrey Vella’s leadership includes One Michelin star (2025). The award marks a restaurant direction built on seasonality, locality, and love for the region, with exacting technique applied to an Istrian frame.
FAQ What does Jeffrey Vella do now? Jeffrey Vella is chef at Cap Aureo — Creative. Where did Jeffrey Vella train or study? Jeffrey Vella trained at Cap Aureo. What recognition has Jeffrey Vella received? One Michelin star for Cap Aureo under Chef Jeffrey Vella’s leadership (2025).
