Michele Rizzo

The Place Rizzo’s cooking is rooted in a movement between inland and coast. He has described an earlier success with typical cuisine tied to the gastronomic traditions of the Pollino inland area, then a turn toward fish shaped by where he grew up: "After the small success of typical cuisine closely tied to the gastronomic traditions of the Pollino inland area, it came naturally to me to work with fish, having grown up in a seaside town like Trebisacce." That sentence gives the kitchen its geography: Pollino on one side, Trebisacce and the sea on the other. In Rende, his work draws from regional ingredients without treating them as museum pieces. The cooking is described as light, nuanced, seasonal, and based on contemporary technique with attention to detail.

The Method The method at Agorà favors local raw materials, minimal intervention, and a precise visual language. Nothing in that approach asks fish to become heavy; the menu focuses mainly on preparations that keep the dishes light and modern, with clarity rather than excess. Rizzo is especially known for fish cookery that uses cheeks, belly, liver, and other parts described as the “fifth quarter” of fish. In that choice, the work becomes less about luxury cuts alone and more about reading the whole animal: texture, fat, delicacy, and the parts often left outside the usual idea of seafood cooking. His memberships in the European Union of Chefs and Ambassadors of Taste place him within professional circles devoted to contemporary cooking and Italian gastronomic culture. The plate remains the central proof: regional raw material, seasonal timing, and technique used with enough control that the ingredient still speaks first.

The Range One dish brings his map into sharp focus: Ionian langoustine with white bean from Pollino and Pollino truffle, described as linking the taste of the sea with the scent of the land. Rizzo has put it plainly: "We managed to link the flavor of the sea to the scent of the land." Tonno Agorà is listed as a signature dish, while Cappuccino di mare is another dish he has presented. Together, they show a cook drawn to seafood not as a narrow category, but as a field of textures, temperatures, and regional memory.