Luca Marin

The Climb

Today, Luca Marin is chef of Il Santo Bevitore. Leading a kitchen in Florence carries a specific obligation: place has to remain visible without becoming repetition. In Marin’s case, the route from Treviso to Florence is read through the cooking now on the plate rather than through a catalogue of prior stops. The Veneto remains as background memory; Tuscany sets the working language.

Today

At Il Santo Bevitore, Marin is head chef and cooks in a register best described as modern Florentine cuisine: simple, modern versions of Florentine dishes, grounded in freshness, ingredient quality, skilled cooking, and intelligent combinations. The menu changes with the seasons, using regularly changing produce and giving Tuscan tavern classics a lighter, more refined interpretation. This is a kitchen organized by restraint as much as expression. Seasonal ingredients set the rhythm, and the familiar grammar of Tuscany gives the work its structure. The craft is in making a dish read clearly: clean flavors, controlled textures, and combinations that feel deliberate rather than decorated. Hospitality here also includes the non-drinker. Marin states the standard directly: "People who don’t drink have a right to enjoy themselves just as much as someone who does." In a city where tradition can harden into script, the work at Il Santo Bevitore remains seasonal, Tuscan, and deliberately contemporary. Contemporary, in this context, is not novelty for its own sake. It is a way of treating Florence as a working city rather than a display case, and of handling tavern food as a living form capable of lightness, nuance, and renewal.

Signature

Signature dishes include Risotto with lobster and Calamari stuffed with artichokes and mint. The signatures show a preference for balance over display. Risotto with lobster works in a richer register, but inside Marin’s broader language it is still governed by clarity and control. Calamari stuffed with artichokes and mint uses herbaceous and vegetable-led brightness, showing how a classic idea can be sharpened without being overworked.

In Their Words “Though I’m from the Veneto, our menu is always weighted towards Tuscany, so we’ve got wild boar ravioli, which are served with parmesan foam and a smoked broth seasoned with onions, speck, marrow and leeks.” “People who don’t drink have a right to enjoy themselves just as much as someone who does.”

Recognition

Recognition for this kitchen rests on a defined body of work at Il Santo Bevitore: Modern Tuscan dishes, seasonal Italian produce, and Florentine classics made lighter without losing their tavern roots. The other named dishes extend the same method. Lobster risotto with cauliflower and coffee-scented oil, calamari with artichokes and mint, and pasta with Spilinga ’nduja and Pecorino cheese each use familiar Italian references through freshness, quality, and disciplined combinations rather than excess. The through-line is proportion: the right seasonal ingredient, the right accent, and a Florentine table made more attentive to its own range.