Michael Hanna

The Philosophy Hanna was born in Memphis, Tennessee to a Sicilian-Southern family, an origin that gives his cooking a clear personal grammar without needing to be overexplained. The food carries that double inheritance in a direct way: Sicilian inspiration, Southern proximity, and a preference for pleasure that does not have to announce itself too loudly. His own language for the work is plainspoken. “It all speaks for itself; word of mouth is the best marketing.” That sentence fits a chef-owner whose public identity is tied less to performance than to repetition: the act of making something good enough, often enough, that people carry it to one another.

In Practice Before St. Vito Focacceria, Hanna cooked at The Catbird Seat in Nashville, Tennessee. That role places him within one of the city’s serious restaurant kitchens before he built a place of his own around a more personal, Sicilian-inspired expression. At St. Vito, the work is described through composed, playful dishes and the house’s fluffy, fontina-stuffed pizza. The defining texture is not incidental; it is part of how the cooking communicates, with structure below, air inside, cheese at the center, and freshness on top. Hanna is precise about the object itself. “The key to a perfect sfincione, in regards to how we make it, is a crunchy bottom, soft and airy wide crumb, gooey fontina cheese bite, and fresh toppings.” The sentence reads almost like a cutaway drawing of the slice: bottom, crumb, cheese, topping, each element carrying its share of the pleasure.

In Their Words “When the dough is perfectly stretched and fermented the result is heaven-like.” Hanna’s description makes fermentation feel less like a technical aside than the quiet hinge of the dish, the point where patience turns into texture. His clearest instruction may also be the hardest to improve on: “Just make really good consistent food.” In that view, craft is not a slogan; it is the repeated choice to make the next batch as carefully as the last one.

Signature

Michael's signature dishes include Sfincione.