Gianfranco Vissani

Civitella del Lago 13rd January 1951.

This is the date the story of Gianfranco Vissani started from, the chef from Umbria who stood out for his excellence and art daily offered to those who follow him also on TV.
The training experiences of GV are numerous starting from the Scuola Alberghiera di Stato at Spoleto. Since from the beginning he emerged thanks to his special attitude on cooking but he reached his best success travelling all around the world. This gave him the opportunity to meet other chefs as Ramponi, Rispoli and Giovanni Gavina who are, still today, some of the landmarks on this job. This also helped him to understand that being a chef is wonderful but it also asks a lot of sacrifices and attention!

The two main features that distinguish him are on one hand the deep knowledge of international and “classic” cuisine and, on the other hand, the freshness, the variety of tastes and imagination of different regional cuisines.
After travelling around Italy and the world, on 1974 he decided to come back home and to put into practice all he had learned over the years of heavy but beautiful mess tin.
On 1979, he started to get the firsts awards from the best guides first in Italy and, later, also abroad.

A lot of magazines approached to him; on 1990 he started a cooperation with Repubblica, a newspaper on which “tenere una rubrica di cucina (???)”. His cooking books got many awards and are considered bestsellers in their field. Particularly: “la tradizione regionale nella cucina di Vissani” and “La grande cucina di Gianfranco Vissani”.

They have been followed by “Il vissani” which earned him two important awards: the “Bancarel Vino” and “Gourmand World Cookbook Awards” both in 2003 as best easy recipes book and in 2007 “Vissani a casa tua” where the Italian cousine recipes are reinterpreted from GV.

In 2012 Vissani completed the last work "The other Visscher" a box in three volumes (main courses, second course, desserts), edited by Rai Eri, where the most famous recipes of the regional tradition are revisited with historical, artistic and costume references.

In the path of Gianfranco Vissani was also very important to the work of spreading through television and radio, by which he showed the enormous knowledge that the raw material have at the base of its philosophy in the kitchen.
In 1997 he took part to the TV program Uno Mattina and Uno Mattina Estate, where he obtained an  exceptional audience during its space thanks also to his being gruff and blunt in front of the cameras.
On 30 September 2000 he received an honorary degree by the University of Camerino as "Testimonial Academic Art gastronomic for the Promotion of Local Products".
He took part to the tv show Domenica In 2000-2005, to the Dopofestival Sanremo in 2003, leading an important space on Linea Verde and Linea Verde Orizonti from 2003 to 2006, and to the show called Sabto e Domenica and Sabato e Domenica Estate in 2008 and 2009.

In 2010, he keeps the cooperation with Rai Uno for La prova del Cuoco, a cousine TV show where Gianfranco Vissani is called as judge in a cooking challenge; Also in this role he is always careful to the skills of the participants, interact with them in order to develop a sort of cooking school where competitors are corrected when they fail.

On 11 November 2009, during the presentation of the Duemilavini edited by Bibenda Editore, Elsa Mazzolini crowns Gianfranco Vissani as new president of the prestigious and important, Accademia Nazionale Italcuochi.
In 2010/2011, he still collaborates with Rai Uno and La prova del Cuoco and also leads the Linea Verde Orizzonti.

2011 he leads a TV program Ti ci porto io on La7; in 2012 the same program become a daily strip with a special episode on Sunday for lunch.
Currently Gianfranco Vissani, after over 45 years of experience on his shoulders, is still searching for perfection which in his subconscious already knows he cannot find because it belongs to the goals of those who think they have arrived.

A message to future generations who embark on this path: every product has its own story and every man has his own interpretation ... Gianfranco Vissani has just begun!