Marco Assaggia
Marco Corradi, known as Marco Assaggia, is a personal chef with 15.2K followers on Instagram, who’s won over fashion enthusiasts (and more) with his eccentric uniforms. Read on, and get to know him up close and personal!
As your Instagram bio reads, your mother passed on her love for cooking to you. How do you take after your father?
My father and I are very different. For too many years, we misunderstood each other. Now we have such a beautiful relationship: we found each other again, and sometimes, I bring him with me to events. Seeing him proud is priceless. Each and every person loves in their own way and, even if that may not be how you’d like to be loved, it doesn’t make it any less worthy. That was his biggest teaching so far.
My way of cooking is very traditional. Textures and flavours are full and enveloping, and on a visual level I draw inspiration from the Surrealist movement and the maximalist movement of the 70’s and 80’s.
Before pursuing a career as a personal chef, you lived in many different countries. What did you bring of those experiences into your kitchen?
I remember them as wonderful life experiences, but on a cooking level they were quite traumatic. Especially the one I had in London, where I spent most of my time abroad. In fact, I’m devoted to Italian cuisine.
You made yourself known and appreciated for both your cooking and eccentric style, which has broken down the stereotype of the uptight chef. How’d you describe your relationship with fashion?
Well, I enjoy fashion when it’s free from diktats and canons. Visually speaking, I think fashion and cooking are a perfect match, and they both give room to creativity. Being dyslexic, I learned to make any expressive form that doesn’t have to do with speaking my own.
Marco Assaggia is the chef with an eccentric style we all know. What can you tell us about Marco Corradi and his life in Mantua?
I lead a very calm life. I like to spend my free time with my loved ones. As I get to meet a lot of people for work, in my private life I almost turn into a sociopath (Laughs, E.D.).
Before pursuing a career as a personal chef, you lived in many different countries. What did you bring of those experiences into your kitchen?
I remember them as wonderful life experiences, but on a cooking level they were quite traumatic. Especially the one I had in London, where I spent most of my time abroad. In fact, I’m devoted to Italian cuisine.
You made yourself known and appreciated for both your cooking and eccentric style, which has broken down the stereotype of the uptight chef. How’d you describe your relationship with fashion?
Well, I enjoy fashion when it’s free from diktats and canons. Visually speaking, I think fashion and cooking are a perfect match, and they both give room to creativity. Being dyslexic, I learned to make any expressive form that doesn’t have to do with speaking my own.
Marco Assaggia is the chef with an eccentric style we all know. What can you tell us about Marco Corradi and his life in Mantua?
I lead a very calm life. I like to spend my free time with my loved ones. As I get to meet a lot of people for work, in my private life I almost turn into a sociopath (Laughs, E.D.).
Well, I enjoy fashion when it’s free from diktats and canons. Visually speaking, I think fashion and cooking are a perfect match, and they both give room to creativity.
Going back to cooking, your dishes are a feast for the eyes. What would you say to those who believe presentation has won over substance in today’s cuisine?
I’d say they’re not entirely wrong. My way of cooking is very traditional. Textures and flavours are full and enveloping, and on a visual level I draw inspiration from the Surrealist movement and the maximalist movement of the 70’s and 80’s. Therefore, my dishes are very far away from what’s considered ‘avant-garde’ by culinary institutions. I think my modernity lies in that.
When dressing the table, you like to mix and match different colours, styles and dining sets. What’s the object you’re mostly attached to?
It’s an antique Ginori dining set portraying a lobster. It captures the essence of Salvador Dalì’s tables!
Credits: Photo 01: Federica Bottoli , Photo Strip: Courtesy of Ginori 1735
Going back to cooking, your dishes are a feast for the eyes. What would you say to those who believe presentation has won over substance in today’s cuisine?
I’d say they’re not entirely wrong. My way of cooking is very traditional. Textures and flavours are full and enveloping, and on a visual level I draw inspiration from the Surrealist movement and the maximalist movement of the 70’s and 80’s. Therefore, my dishes are very far away from what’s considered ‘avant-garde’ by culinary institutions. I think my modernity lies in that.
When dressing the table, you like to mix and match different colours, styles and dining sets. What’s the object you’re mostly attached to?
It’s an antique Ginori dining set portraying a lobster. It captures the essence of Salvador Dalì’s tables!
Credits: Photo 01: Federica Bottoli , Photo Strip: Courtesy of Ginori 1735