Teresa Buongiorno

At Già Sotto l'Arco, the executive-chef role puts Teresa Buongiorno in charge of the kitchen’s direction and its daily execution. The work reads as measured rather than declarative: a chef building a dining program with control, attention, and a clear attachment to place. In a field where identity is often pushed through novelty, Buongiorno’s approach is steadier, built on fidelity to what the cooking is meant to say.

In Carovigno, Buongiorno’s kitchen centers Puglia through dishes that revisit tradition instead of discarding it. That choice shapes how the food is read: not as a break from the past, but as a working return to it, with the present tense of service running through familiar forms. The result is a kitchen attentive to memory as much as invention, drawing on the region’s culinary vocabulary and keeping it legible. Vegetables are treated as a primary language here, not garnish.

That emphasis gives the menu its structure and pace. Produce sits at the center of the plate, carrying flavor, texture, and intent rather than supporting them from the margins. It is a way of cooking that stays purposeful and readable, where each element has a job and the whole is shaped by restraint as much as imagination. In Buongiorno’s hands, vegetable-forward cuisine is less a label than a working stance, one that asks for attention to nuance, seasonality, and the force of well-chosen ingredients.

Teresa Buongiorno is focused on vegetable-forward creative cooking. The discipline is in the ingredient choice; the range is in how that choice opens tradition to fresh handling. Her signature is not built on display. It comes from a kitchen language defined by balance, clarity, and the ingredient at the center of the plate.

The current executive-chef role and the culinary specialties attached to it form the basis of Buongiorno’s recognition. Her standing is carried by practice rather than embellishment: by what she leads and by the cuisine she has chosen to make her own.