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Breaking Bread with Chef Vania Ghedini

3 min read

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Belmond Editors

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Letizia Cigliutti

Living and working in Venice means having a constant connection with the wonders of the sea that surrounds this city. For Vania Ghedini, Head Chef at Hotel Cipriani’s ORO Restaurant, it’s also the source of her inspiration in the kitchen.

Oro Head Chef Vania Ghedini, with short dark hair, wearing a branded apron, smiles in a portrait taken in the hotel gardens.

Overlooking Venice’s majestic lagoon at Hotel Cipriani, we sat down with Chef Ghedini inside ORO Restaurant to discover the inspiration behind her culinary ethos. Appointed by the restaurant’s Culinary Creative Director Massimo Bottura, when she was living and working in Marrakesh, Chef Ghedini invited us into her home in Venice – and the kitchen at ORO to uncover the stories behind her signature dishes.

From her childhood in Emilia-Romagna where her grandparent's ran a bakery to the spices used in Moroccan cuisine, these are the elements and ingredients that shape the way she engages with the produce of Venice that endlessly inspires her. With every delivery arriving by water, a lagoon with abundant offerings of exceptional seafood and a special dessert created as an ode to her son, we uncover what cooking means to her.

Wearing black aprons, Head Chef Vania Ghedini and a male chef in a white toque peer through kitchen partition curtains.
A diner digs a spoon into a dainty teacup of Oro's Lagoon dish, with mussels, caviar, blue crab, bottarga and sea fennel.
A waterborne boat carries two crates in its hull, one with zucchinis and flowers, the other with red onions, seen from above.

What were the early inspirations that led to you wanting to become a chef?

My grandparents were bakers and that was my reality growing up. The smell of bread and the dough that my grandfather gave me to touch and play with has always made me connected to the emotion of bringing together the raw materials of food. It’s deeply rooted in me and in my family.

How has motherhood changed your perspective on cooking?

Motherhood changed everything. All these years it was just working and moving forward and it brought me this far. But motherhood made me discover instead that stopping and living in the moment is the most beautiful thing. I see my work with different eyes. The ‘Riso Latte’ dish is dedicated to my child because in it, there are all of the aromas that I could smell in Morocco when I was expecting him.

You’ve said that Venice is endlessly inspiring, how does this come to life in your dishes on the menu at ORO?

Venice was a city of traders – they mostly traded spices – and in my past, there is also Morocco, so it all felt very connected. I wanted this to be felt on the menu. The fish tortello is pure lagoon and represents this territory but at the same time, it has the scent of spices. I want all the fundamental ingredients of Venice to be represented on the menu. All the fragrances and flavours of the sea.

KEEP EXPLORING

Head Chef Vania Ghedini, in black trousers and white shirt, stands on a garden pathway lined with vines and pink roses.

Breaking Bread with Vania Ghedini

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An Olympic sized outdoor pool stretches into the distance. On the far edge are two palms and the Hotel Cipriani’s pink walls

Hotel Cipriani

Venice

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