Meet Our Chefs
Martina Vignoli
Martina’s love for cooking has carried her to work in the kitchen at the Grande Halte, a mountain refuge set high up on the Alpe Sewi; at King Alberto, nestled in the Rosengarten basin in the dolomites of South Tyrol; and later back down to the Southern Tuscan seaside, where she learned to prepare macrobiotic foods and began practicing yoga.
Eventually her work brought her back to Florence where she worked for years with the Canova Restaurant. Since 2011 Martina has been working as an independent chef, often in service to groups of a more holistic sort, including those studying shamanism, meditation, and spirituality.
For Martina, the kitchen is a sacred and creative pace, where she prefers cooking naturally, healthy, and with high-quality seasonal products, to bring her clients physical and emotional refreshment.
Lucia Reino
Lucia knows that eating the food you grow nurtures the body and the soul, which is why she came back to countryside living in vibrant Chianti, surrounded by gardens, vineyards and olive groves. Here she organically farms seasonal fruits, vegetables, and herbs to use in her kitchen. She loves to collect and process her own olive oil and forage in nearby forests and fields for wild delicacies, so that she can experiment with new recipes, using all of her harvested goodies, building on her knowledge from many years in the Florentine restaurant industry.
For Lucia good ingredients are the key to cooking magic – and even a simple dish is delicious when made with fresh food, cultivated with mindfulness.
Giulia Peyronel
Giulia was born forty years ago in Turin, where she initially studied and graduated in musicology, but then discovered that she’d much rather spend her peeling potatoes and preparing mouthwatering meals.
She worked for many years in both "Bistrònomie" and in the "Gastronomia Vegetariana", and catered with Cuochivolanti. She also cooked for Cultural Association Maurice while in Turin.
Eventually business and love then brought her to Florence, where she was head chef for Cirkoloco, a kitchen and bar whose profits supported a local social project in mental wellness.
Giulia now resides in the hills of Chianti, perfecting her olive oil production and healthy porridges for her newborn baby.