the instructors

Pietro D'Agostino

36 years of passion that materialize in the popular La Capinera Restaurant on the Taormina seafront, managed together with his sisters Cinzia, wine waitress, and Giorgia, dining room maitre.

His Sicilian cooking is acknowledged on an international scale also thanks to his admission among JRE - Jeunes Restaurateurs d'Europe whose motto "talent and passion" decribes in a couple of words Chef Pietro D'Agostino's characteristiques.

Since he was young, he distinguish himself even abroad cooking for Queen Elizabeth and Brunei's Sultan, until he got his Michelin star that crowns him "imaginative performer of his territory cooking". His courses are delicious arrangements made of ingredients fundamental in the menu of La Capinera Restaurant.

Finally, Congusto Catania and the Chef Pietro D'Agostino cross their own paths: the gastronomic Sicilian culture, simple and genuine, that uses ingredients available all year long, is the link of this job relationship.

Max Mariola

Dal Gambero Rosso Channel per una cucin Congusto!

Lo Chef Max Mariola è come si vede: un vulcano di idee, col sorriso stampato e grande voglia di comunicare. La sua comunicazione però si fonda su profumi e sapori che con la semplicità del gusto ed una cucina lineare trasforma in piatti.

Il mare è il suo elemento naturale e Nettuno, dio delle acque e città natale di Max Mariola, influenza da sempre le sue ricette, prediligendo prodotti poco elaborati, cotture veloci e marinature.

Chef  in divenire, sempre aperto a nuove sfide ed entusiasmi, si lascia ispirare dal quotidiano, dagli impulsi, improvvisando nuovi gusti unendoli alla tecnica ed alla esperienza maturata negli anni. La cucina è più semplice spiegata “a parole sue”, dove contano le mani e i gesti, e il suo tocco è inconfondibile in ogni piatto.

Con la nuova stagione Congusto lo Chef Max Mariola farà parte del team della scuola di cucina a Milano e a Catania con appuntamenti unici da non perdere, dedicati alla cucina tradizionale e a ricette natalizie. Non perdete l'occasione di scoprire il gusto di questo Chef mediatico, dal sapore romano.

Maurizio Bosotti

The Congusto Tales. Thousands of culinary secrets told by Chef Maurizio Bosotti: a chef and a teacher, Maurizio Bosotti always knew what he wanted to do when he grew up, and he has been doing it for fourty years. He started working for the most important restaurants in Milan and abroad when he was very young: his first working experience was with Gualtiero Marchesi,  then for Osteria del Teatro in Piacenza. After that, he went to work in Barbizon, near Paris, at the Hotellerie du Bas Breau; then he became Chef and Patron of the restaurant Al Solito Posto for four years and in the same period he co-founded Jeunes Restaurateur d’Europe. At that time he was teaching in various schools, an adventure that started as a bet and has been going on for over twenty years. Sadler’s QB and finally.. Congusto. A bet won. His technique and almost obsessive precision in the choice of ingredients, which “must be of the highest quality and resulting from the best production process”, characterize his cuisine.  His passion is passed on daily through his teachings and can be described with one simple and direct sentence: “I feel good when I cook”. According to Maurizio Bossotti and Congusto, a chef is not simply the person in charge of the kitchen. Being a chef is a very demanding profession, which absorbs you completely from a very young age.  He incarnates a philosophy of life.

Vincenzo Cipolla

"In order to enchant, pastry chefs don't need to turn into inventors".

This is the personal motto of Vincenzo Cipolla, our chef and Congusto Confectioner.In Vincenzo's opinion, newness can be showed also through traditional recipes, re-elaborated by the Chefs' fantasy and experience. 

Tradition is part of his professional career. It begins in the hotel management school "S.Francesco di Paola" (CS), interchanging periods of learning with periods of training and practice. After his graduation, Vincenzo worked in many confectioneries in North and South Italy, thus achieving a complete vision of the food world, thanks also to many different refresher courses that he attended even in Switzerland. During years, Vincenzo Cipolla collaborates with important masters of the Italian and foreign confectionery and with important companies like Perugina and Callebaut, that introduce him to the wonderful world of chocolate. In 2007 Vincenzo Cipolla goes to Germany together with a staff of confectioners in order to take part to a competition on decoration and patisserie and he classified third. He brings to Congusto his professionalism and ability to convey his enormous passion for confectionery: these characteristiques involve every participant to his classes, who are delighted by the delicious desserts he prepares.

Monica Bianchessi

Cosa dire di me, a parte che a otto anni ho indossato il grembiule di mia madre e cucinato la mia prima torta marmorizzata, trovando la mia strada... che emozione!

Da dieci anni circa lavoro nel settore della ristorazione, cucinando e scrivendo ricette di cucina per riviste e ricettari. Oggi mi potete vedere su Alice tv.

Tra le mie esperienze di lavoro non mancano periodi anche nel catering e come consulente di aziende di produzione nel settore alimentare. Il mio stile rivela l'amore per la semplicità e la freschezza degli ingredienti della cucina mediterranea, proponendo ricette rapide e semplici da eseguire. Quindi che dire... buon appetito a tutti!

Dal 2008 Monica  Bianchessi collabora con Congusto seguendo i corsi dedicati alla pasticceria ed alla cucina del territorio.

Pino Maggiore

He has owned “La Cantina Siciliana” since 1980; he started working for this typical restaurant as a very young employee in charge of the menu, rich of Mediterranean flavors. As time went by, he decided to take his expertise to other regions in northern and southern Italy, then went back to Cantina Siciliana in the early 80s.

For many years Pino Maggiore has been a member of Trapani’s “Slow Food” movement and their “cous-cous” master; from the very beginning of his career one of the fundamental aspects of his cuisine has been the cultural component, as “eating is culture”.

Pino has brought us a gust of Mediterranean flavors and fragrances with his cous cous and fish-cooking courses.

Ferruccio Consolaro Girelli

Molecular Cuisine has captivated Congusto thanks to Ferruccio, a young chef with great experience in Italy and abroad. Ferruccio has recently opened  “The Stork’s Nest”, a restaurant located in Sandrà di Castelnuovo, in the midst of the beautiful Veronese countryside, very close to Lake Garda. A true master of risotto, he debuted at Congusto , not by chance, with a course dedicated solely to risotto, a traditional dish from Veneto. One of his favorite specialties is “risotto all’amarone”, a pleasure to the palate and to the eye, thanks to its beautiful bright red color. Not only is Ferruccio a cookery wizard, he is also creative: he delighted the jury of the first “National Festival of Herbs Cuisine” , he loves the amazement roused by his liquid nitrogen recipes, such as the liquid nitrogen ice cream and mousse, characterized by a very particular consistency.

Stefano Fagioli

Stefano Fagioli’s  eno-gatronomic journey started in Ripalta Cremasca in 1984, when Stefano and his brother took over an old tavern which became “The Trattoria ViaVai”.  

Through the years they have been awarded by the most prestigious  gastronomical guides (the Chiocciola by Slow Food, the “Faccino Radioso” by Massobrio, the “Bib Gourmet” by Michelin, the “Buona Cucina” award by TCI, the “quality price” award by Gambero Rosso) and have always been recommended by many other guides, such as “Gola in tasca”, Espresso, Gambero Rosso, Veronelli, the “Sole 24 Ore” restaurant guide, BMW Italy’s guide, Quattroruote’s hotels and restaurants guide and the Italian Academy of Cuisine.

They have been acknowledged on national newspapers by the best known food critics, such as Gianni Mura, Davide Paolini, Paolo Marchi, Beppe Severgnini, Roberta Schira, Maurizio Bertera and many others.

Stefano’s recipes have been published in “Dal riso ai risotti” by Davide Paolini and Michela Vuga, released by Mondadori and “Sinfonie di sapori” by Roberta Schira, published by Claudio Madoglio Editions. 

Stefano Fagioli has been collaborating with Congusto since 2008. He teaches pastry and territorial cuisine courses.

Chiara Barluzzi

Femininity in the kitchen.

Chiara Barluzzi's cookery adventure seems to start by chance with an unusual training path that, joined to her personal experiences and emotions, creates a personality full of creativity where love for raw food materials is mixed to care for table decoration.

She is graduated in Educational Sciences and, after this step, she immediately followed her passion for cooking based on her philosophy: "What you want to convey through your job, you have to feel it inside otherwise you risk to make technically perfect courses that don't have a soul".

Her career starts side by side  with some Italian Chefs like Giuseppe Capano, Chef and Restaurant Consultant, and with some personalities of the Milanese restaurant industry like Alfredo Zini, working at Il Tronco restaurant in Tuscany.

Her recipes tell about her: she loves choosing by herself raw materials and live flavours ans smells in order to create taste and health on the table. This is a cooking close to the heart.

During her laboratories on cooking and table decoration, you can live again and again her Sicilian and Milanese origins, from where she takes inspiration also for her classes directed to singles.  And then you can also notice her care for decoration of a season table, her taste for beautiful things, colours matching...

She leads classes for Congusto dedicated to regional cooking, table decoration and to singles since 2009.

Carlo Sichel

Coming soon