The Alajmo family has given the world one of the most amazing restaurants ever existed – Le Calandre. Chef Patron Massimiliano Alajmo is the fifth generation of chefs and restaurateurs, and he took his family up to the absolute top of all gastronomic heights. Culinary geniuses like Massimiliano walk on their own path and they have a level of creativity and inventiveness most of us only can dream about. It is a privilege for the world’s food lovers to be able to share his vision during a meal at one of the finest restaurants on the planet.

Sarmeola di Rubano is a small town in the northeast of Italy close to Padua. Just next to the main road, a big sign will indicate that you have arrived at one of the world’s most prominent gastronomic destinations. The restaurant shares its premises with the Alajmo family’s Hotel Il Maccaroni and the Il Calandrino bar for casual dining and beverages. The property had a major refurbishment in 2010. Le Calandre’s dining room and the custom-made glasses, tableware and cutlery create the same feelings as the Chef’s cuisine which make it a perfect match.

Massimiliano Alajmo manages the kitchen and his brother Raffaele is the Chief Executive Officer since what once was just a restaurant has grown into a business of several restaurants, a gourmet food shop, a café and a design label to mention it in short. Raffaele Alajmo used to be the restaurant manager, but that role is nowadays handled by Andrea Coppetta Calzavara.

Chef Massimiliano started to spend time in his mother’s, Rita Chimetto’s, kitchen when he was a young boy. Rita is the fourth generation of chefs and restaurateurs so Massimiliano was born straight into the best possible circumstances to become a great chef. After his exam at the School of Hotel Management in Pietro d’Abano the young Chef took on his first professional restaurant job in Italian Moena. But it did not take long before he moved to France to work with two of the most prominent chefs of France – Marc Veyrat and Michel Guérard. After shorter sessions spent in their kitchens Chef Massimiliano returned to his parents restaurant Le Calandre where he became the Executive Chef in 1994. The same year his parents, Rita and Erminio Alajmo, who originally founded Le Calandre in 1981, left the restaurant and started up the business at the family’s La Montecchia.

Massimiliano Alajmo just proceeds from strength to strength on his endless culinary journey and it is obvious that we have still not seen the culinary peak of this wonderchef despite the fact what he has already accomplished. Everything he touches becomes gastronomic religion for all your senses. His constant return to the essence with careful attention to the ingredients results in a cuisine which is up-to-date and makes you feel more alive and authentic than ever before. It is easy to write a book about this amazing chef and his family’s restaurant, but simply make a reservation and have the first chew on any of Massimiliano’s risotto dishes and you will understand.

Written by Andy