Chef
Michele Zambanini
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- Cernobbio, Italy
i. Biography
In Cernobbio, the work begins with raw materials: pasta and ravioli made strictly by hand each day, seafood handled with restraint, and textures protected rather than forced into novelty. Since 2011, Michele Zambanini has been Executive Chef of Villa d’Este in Cernobbio, Italy, with a kitchen language built on Italian tradition, refined technique and meticulous ingredient quality.
The Place The role reaches beyond one service. Zambanini is Group Executive Chef at Villa d’Este Group, chef running the kitchen at La Veranda - Villa d’Este, and Executive Chef at Veranda Restaurant in Cernobbio, Italy. The same address gives the work its frame: a classical Italian program that is disciplined, consistent and not experimental. There is a quiet clarity to that position. Rather than making novelty the point, the kitchen turns toward research into raw materials and respect for the product. The result is food that reads through ingredient, texture and temperature before gesture.
The Method At Veranda, the method starts with careful research of raw materials, then asks technique to stay in service of the product. Italian tradition remains the base, but modern-kitchen methods are used where they protect textures and flavours rather than distort them. Handwork is not treated as nostalgia. Pasta and ravioli are prepared strictly by hand every day, a daily discipline that puts dough, filling and timing at the center of the brigade’s routine. That same kitchen also serves off-the-menu dishes created ad hoc, including vegetarian, vegan, coeliac and other intolerance-friendly dishes. At La Veranda, Zambanini’s cooking has been noted as elegant and especially strong in seafood. A cited example is risotto with borage, perch and black garlic: a dish built around fish, herbaceous green material and the dark sweetness of fermented garlic, with the rice carrying the structure.
The Range Recognition for the restaurant has followed the same classical line. La Veranda - Villa d’Este received a Michelin Plate in 2025. Opinionated About Dining listed it at #292 in its Classical in Europe ranking in 2024, after a Recommended recognition in 2023. Other Opinionated About Dining placements for the restaurant include #341 in its Classical ranking, #7 in its Lombardy ranking and #63 in its Italy ranking. Taken together, those citations place the Cernobbio kitchen within a European conversation about classical cooking: measured, product-led, and judged through consistency rather than spectacle. For Zambanini, range does not mean abandoning the grammar of the house. It means seafood can sit beside handmade pasta; a guest with an intolerance can receive an ad hoc dish; and a risotto of borage, perch and black garlic can carry both regional quiet and technical control.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Michele
Where does Michele Zambanini work?
Michele Zambanini has been Executive Chef of Villa d’Este in Cernobbio, Italy, since 2011, and also serves as Group Executive Chef at Villa d’Este Group while running the kitchen at La Veranda - Villa d’Este.
What style or method defines Michele Zambanini's work?
His cooking combines research into raw materials, respect for the product, Italian tradition, refined technique, daily handmade pasta and ravioli, and modern-kitchen methods that do not distort textures and flavours.
What are Michele Zambanini's signature releases or dishes?
A cited signature dish is risotto with borage, perch and black garlic, an example of the seafood cooking in which his elegant work at La Veranda excels.
