Meet the 5 chefs who will compete to represent Italy at Chef Balfegó 2024

The Italian semi-final, which will be held on 30 September at Officine Farneto in Rome, already has the five candidates who will compete to represent the country in the 7th edition of the competition: Andrea Politano, from Il Cenacolo Osteria restaurant; Giuliano Fusaro, from Terrazza Duomo 21; Dennis Bernabei from INEO; Leo Viola, from A Spurcacciun-a restaurant and Luca Pessina, from The Sanctuary.

During the morning of the event, the chefs will have to prepare and present two recipes with Balfegó bluefin tuna, one using loin and the other with a part of their choice. The exceptional jury that will evaluate their creations will be made up of Paolo Casagrande, from Lasarte*** restaurant, Francesco Apreda, from Idylio by Apreda* and Riccardo Monco, from Enoteca Pinchiorri *** restaurant.

The chef with the highest score will be Italy’s representative in the grand final of the 7th edition of Chef Balfegó, to be held on 28 October in Madrid. In addition to the honour of participating in the final, the winner of the semi-final will receive a €1,000 cash prize.

In the international final in Madrid, the Italian winner will be up against 7 other chefs:

• Cristóbal Muñoz, Ambivium* (Peñafiel, Valladolid)
• Lander Cornago, Arzak*** (San Sebastian)
• Pablo Zuazu, Via Veneto* (Barcelona)
• Paula Gutiérrez, Víctor Gutiérrez* (Salamanca)
• Rui Silva, Euskalduna Studio* (Porto, Portugal)
• Brandon de Bruin, De Kromme Dissel* (Heelsum, The Netherlands)
• And the representative of Germany that we will discover very soon

Very soon we will know the winner of Chef Balfegó 2024, who, in addition to winning the title, will receive multiple prizes such as a trip to Japan for 2 people, €6,000 in cash and a set of Japanese knives, among others.

Sponsors who accompany us

Once again, at Chef Balfegó we have first class partners who make the whole event possible. On this occasion, we are accompanied by: TheFork, Fagor Professional, Le Nouveau Chef, Caviaroli, Porto Muiños, Minami Cuchillos Japoneses, Gin Raw, Acqua Filette and Gancedo.