Roberto Toro

At Otto Geleng in Taormina, Sicily, Italy, the Executive Chef role sits on the kitchen’s line of decision, and Roberto Toro uses it to keep the room focused on place, pace, and discipline. The work is anchored in the restaurant’s identity: a menu that reads through the coast, with Otto di Mare as the clearest marker of that brief. Toro has said, “I wanted to return home to my Mediterranean roots and create something important for my homeland.”

Otto Geleng’s kitchen is built around a signature seafood composition, and Otto di Mare shows the structure of that approach: eight varieties of seafood arranged in service of a sea-led idea. In Taormina, with Sicily, Italy as the setting, Roberto Toro’s cooking stays close to the language of the Mediterranean, where clarity matters as much as abundance. That view is reinforced by his own preference for Spaghetti al pomodoro: a dish he describes as simple, one that contains all the elements of the Mediterranean diet. The point is not ornament but balance, with flavor and restraint doing the main work.

Toro’s signature dishes are Otto di Mare and Spaghetti al pomodoro. Otto di Mare defines the restaurant’s seafood profile through eight varieties, while Spaghetti al pomodoro shows the other side of the range: direct, familiar, and grounded in Mediterranean fundamentals. Together they give a clear read on the kitchen’s priorities.

Roberto Toro’s honors include Michelin Star for Otto Geleng. For a kitchen, that kind of recognition sits beside the daily work of consistency, and in this case it marks Otto Geleng under Toro’s leadership as a serious dining room with exacting standards.