In the year of the Olympics, he won gold Vania Ghedini becoming Head Chef at the restaurant fine dining of the iconic Hotel Cipriani, a Belmond Hotel, to Venice. And the sporting comparison is not by chance because – perhaps not everyone knows that – Ghedini was a chef competitive swimming champion. However, he decides to leave the swimming pools for the kitchens because «when I put something in my head, there is nothing that can be done to make me change my mind», she says smiling, but above all because «I feel in the right place in the kitchen, like a piece of a puzzle when it finds its position.” The short hair that runs upwards, the hands with the short and well-kept nails of someone who works, the lively and attentive eyes always in motion, Vania goes from table to table with her sincere smile to greet the diners who have had the lucky like me to try the debut menu.
Chef Vania Ghedini (ph Letizia Cigliutti).
The news had arrived a couple of months ago, there was great anticipation to find out who would take his place Riccardo Canella who left ORO after two years to move to the South of Fat Sultan. As with the chef at NOMA in Copenhagen, Vania also receives the summons while she is abroad. You have been working at the Sesamo restaurant by Alajmo inside the restaurant for five years now Royal Mansour in Marrakech and the idea of returning home grows stronger every day, especially after marriage and the arrival of a child. Yes, because Vania received her offer last December, while she was 8 months pregnant – a courageous offer from her estate at this particular moment in her life, well done. Not only that: the proposal also includes collaboration with one of her legends, the visionary Massimo Bottura. «When they contacted me, I didn’t want to believe it. All together, all beautiful, but all at the same time. At first I hesitated, but I understood that it was an opportunity not to be missed and, with the help of my husband and those around me, I would make it.” Now Sam is 4 months old and grows curious next to his mother in the kitchen, already showing a lot of interest in food – who can blame him. On the fly he organizes the international move, taking with him her husband, two cats and a dog: Vania enthusiastically launches herself into the new Venetian adventure. In reality, she had already worked in the lagoon city, always with the Alajmo al Paintings as well as to Squarethen he had also opened for them at Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Like a circle that closes, she returns to Venice, from where she left for Marrakech.
The Venice of Vania and Massimo
Within a very short time, chef Ghedini thinks of the new menu, which he must respect the territory and its local ingredientsbut also to show originality in order to maintain the Michelin star earned in 2015 by Davide Bisetto. After the main mentors Luciano Tona hey Alajmo brothersVania finds herself facing the mission with the creative direction of the volcanic Massimo Bottura. They had crossed paths at the Fifty Best Middle East and North Africa in Abu Dhabi in 2022, then the name of the young woman from Ferrara began to circulate, and she is the right-hand woman of the three-starred chef, Enrico Vignoli, to suggest the ideal novelty for the ORO of Venice. Author of The Atlas of Chefs with Marco Bolasco, Vignoli knows the national and international culinary scene well, and as a good “sports director” as he likes to define himself, he indicates an excellent player ready to join the team. With spring not yet starting and with an extra child, Vania goes to Modena to cook a complete menu for her legend, a day to remember: «I came and went from the kitchen bringing the dishes to Massimo and he was enthusiastic about them, while I couldn’t believe it and kept wondering why he liked them so much! and she makes the gesture with her hands open next to her head to mimic Bottura when she expresses her enthusiasm for her, like “boom my head is going to explode”, I don’t know if you know.
«According to Maximus, tradition should not be seen in a melancholic light, but it always has to be something to work on, to think about and that’s what I do every day. I worked on traditional Venetian cuisine, adding my creativity and my experience – for example the Venetian liver has become like a Mars, the liver is served like a chocolate with peanuts,” explains Vania, which is easily found in the dishes through spices such as cumin to give new flavor to the Veneto. Her fear was that she would inadvertently propose something that was too similar to the cuisine of Massimiliano Alajmo, instead what emerged was a gastronomic picture that at times looks more like a portrait. Bottura and Vania collaborate for the perfect success of the culinary experience at ORO in uno continuous exchange of opinions and opinions: «Massimo is a sidekicka support, that someone who is next to me, who is living the experience on my own two feet. All of his criticism is constructive, it is never unnecessarily negative. It gives you an idea, launches a provocation, and then you find yourself with a thought to elaborate. It’s very inspiring.”
From the swimming pool to the kitchen
Vania Ghedini began her journey at 14 years old, she was hungry to build her own kitchen and she did it in a complex way. From Sundays in her grandmother’s bakery in Portomaggiore to the internship at Rigoletto in Reggiolo in the province of Reggio Emilia from Gianni D’Amatomoving on to the three years of teaching in Alma (“Many kids who graduated from my courses have become great chefs, like Chiara Pavan or Alessandro Cabona”), then from the experience Peck (“I have never worked so much as during the Christmas holidays on Milanese gastronomy, but it is also one of the experiences I have loved most. They have a priceless treasure of classic Italian cuisine recipes”), to the failed adventure of the open restaurant in Paris when he was “too young” until the fundamental stages with great chefs like Massimiliano Alajmo or Luciano Tona (executive for years at Maison Troisgros) or Expo 2015 at the Italian Pavilion, everything (not necessarily in this order) fills Vania’s pockets with knowledge and flavors. Having worked for many years in a restaurant inside a luxury resort like Sesamo in Morocco adds knowledge that is certainly relevant to the experience at ORO, part of the magnificent Hotel Cipriani, a Belmond hotel. Vania is frank, genuine, straight, passionate – just like her cooking.
How do you eat at Vania Ghedini all’ORO?
«I’m a big sweet tooth and I hope that it was evident from tonight’s dinner. I like enjoyable cuisine, not too philosophical. I don’t want to burden the customer, who must enjoy the dish. The philosophy, the thought, belong to the chef in the kitchen, while the customer must receive something already thought out and simple, easy to understand, not too conceptual. I like one cuisine of substance, you don’t find wacky cuisine here”, explains Vania. A thought that goes very well with the philosophy of complex simplicity that has always been behind the name Cipriani.
