Simone ZANONI

Chef : Le George - Four Seasons Hotel George V Whether at the George V or in his shop in Paris, Italian chef Simone Zanoni brilliantly reimagines Mediterranean recipes. Read more here about his background and his upcoming pasta project.

Presentation

Born in Salò, Italy, Simone Zanoni was introduced to cooking at a young age: “Coming from a modest family, if we wanted to eat well, the only way was to grow our own food. ” He studied at the Istituto Alberghiero, the hospitality school in Idro, while working in a kitchen on Lake Garda starting at age fifteen.

He moved to London in 1996 to improve his English. There, he worked at the trattoria Le Mediterraneo, then at Le Cochonnet, a wine bar serving Italian-French cuisine. After a year, he began taking evening classes at Le Cordon Bleu in addition to his day job.

The Gordon Ramsay Years

In 1998, he saw a classified ad for a commis position at Aubergine, Gordon Ramsay’s London restaurant. Demoted to dishwasher, he worked his way up to the position of “rotating” sous chef at several of the group’s restaurants: Amarylis, Petrus, and Claridge’s.

After a stint in Italy, he returned to London to run the kitchen at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant in London. He was 27 at the time. Sixteen-hour workdays, four hours of sleep… “It was a grueling pace. After four years, I told Gordon I couldn’t keep going like that.” Gordon then put him in charge of the Gordon Ramsay restaurant at the Trianon Palace in Versailles. He stayed there for seven years, while also creating the menu for the kosher fine-dining restaurant Le Rafaël in Paris.

Chef at The George

In 2016, a headhunter informed him that a position was opening up at Le George. “I had a meeting with the director, José Silva, and I was really impressed by him. I thought to myself, ‘He can help me grow.’” Since then, Simone Zanoni has been serving Italian cuisine there that reflects his commitment to thoughtful gastronomy and a responsible approach.

His next project? Making high-quality pasta accessible to everyone with affordable prices through a “fast & good” concept. In the meantime, his products can be found at Casa Zanoni, a fine-food shop in Paris’s 11th arrondissement.