Carlo Cracco: combining heart and mind

Every chef has their own personal philosophy of cuisine, and that of Carlo Cracco revolves around three fundamental concepts: challenge, research, and synthesis.  For the chef, it is not diversity that should be emphasised when bringing flavours together but the new tastes that emerge as a result—their uniqueness.

Experience, observation, and knowledge of the world are all determining factors in the cuisine of Carlo Cracco. But how did his career and his in-depth research into taste evolve?

To answer that question, we need to go back to 1986 when, at only 21 years of age, Chef Cracco met his mentor in Milan, Gualtiero Marchesi—the first Italian chef ever to be awarded three Michelin stars. It was the beginning of a turning point that led to his role as Executive Chef of the restaurant Cracco-Peck, which quickly became one of the most popular restaurants in Milan and earned two Michelin stars.

In 2004, Cracco became a Lavazza Chef Ambassador. His culinary art came together with Lavazza Coffee Design, a project by the Lavazza Training Center that examines classic coffee-house concepts and reinvents them, sometimes ironically. The Coffee Lens is a product of this collaboration, and it consists of actual contact lenses made of coffee—a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the sense of sight, because the eye too has its part to play here. The base of coffee and kappa gelatine (a gelling agent made from seaweed) is processed at a constant 80 degrees and then placed in the designated containers. The design phase also dedicated particular attention to the hydration of the product, just like it would with real contact lenses.

Here, you can enjoy Kafa Forest Coffee, a 100% Arabica single origin that grows spontaneously in the eponymous Ethiopian forest. It is an exclusive, limited-production coffee dedicated to those in search of something unique and special.

But Cracco is not content as a chef alone, and in 2020 he and his wife, Rosa Fanti, opened Vistamare, a farm in Santarcangelo di Romagna (RN) where crops are transformed into fruit juices, oil, wine, and sweets. A selection of special products that carry his signature and enrich the offering in his first online shop: Craccoexpress.

In July 2021, he launched his spectacular new restaurant: Cracco Portofino—a true voyage among the scents and flavours of the regional tradition of Liguria, reinterpreting it with contemporary flair. In this space, suspended between dreams and reality, facing out onto the Gulf of Tigullio, every small gesture towards his guests becomes a truly special occasion, even the coffee ritual at the end of the meal.

As the chef himself says, the coffee ritual is the most important moment because it represents “the grand finale”, which finds its greatest expression here in the specialty blend Cocoa Reloaded 1895 by Lavazza Coffee Designers, which blends the most disparate taste notes with its refined notes of chocolate, cinnamon spice, and orange marmalade. According to Chef Cracco, this specialty blend can only be brewed with the moka pot. This traditional extraction method, in addition to maintaining a certain charm, highlights the importance of every detail in the preparation, offering a bona fide sensorial experience—a voyage commencing from the moment in which the air is filled with the aroma of a coffee rich in flavour and character.

The chef is always ready for a change of scenery, trying out authentic experiences.