Chef Leonardo Belluzzo Wins Top Six at Italian Cuisine Competition with Lake Garda Lavarello Dish
His name is Leonardo Belluzzo and he works as a chef at the Menapace hotel restaurant in Pai. He is the inventor of a dish based on lavarello that ranked among the top six at the second National Italian Cuisine and Pastry Competition held in Frascati. The thirty-one-year-old from Legnago, recently residing in Caprino, managed to outperform the fierce competition from “over one hundred chefs,” as he himself confirms, and to rank among the top six in Italy with a dish entirely invented around the well-known lake fish. This delicacy is called “Roullade of lavarello on a bruscandoli tartlet” and is served with river shrimp cream and green asparagus tartare. Thanks to its excellent placement at the competition organized by the Associazione professionale cuochi italiani (Italian Professional Chefs Association), the dish has earned a spot in the spotlight — specifically, an entire page on the association’s website.
Challenges and Revelation
Is it impossible to discover the secrets and preparation methods of this Lake Garda fish delicacy? Not at all. Belluzzo, in fact, despite many other chefs being quite secretive — often guarding their recipes only in their heads — not only revealed the ingredients of his invented dish but also shared the process to make it.
All of this can currently be found only on the association’s website, but starting from June, it will also be available in the issue of L’arte in cucina, the official quarterly magazine of the Associazione professionale cuochi italiani.
“By using the lavarello, which is certainly not a refined or rare fish,” explains the chef now operating in the territory of Torres, “I managed to create a dish that represented not only Lake Garda but the entire Veneto at the recent national competition in Frascati.
I am in fact the only person from our region to reach the final stage and to craft one of the top six best Italian dishes.”
A seasoned wandering chef, having cooked in many European countries as well as in the USA, Mexico, Canada, and even Alaska, Belluzzo has worked as a chef and consultant at the Re Teodorico restaurant in Verona, as well as in some venues in Venice and Jesolo.
But now, having gained this prestigious recognition, the honest and straightforward chef from Verona has decided to get a little something off his chest.
“Despite being contacted by the Rai television program Linea Verde,” Belluzzo recounts, “and having already achieved several successes, I found only two people, and no hoteliers or owners of lakeside restaurants or hotels in Verona, willing to sponsor me to participate in the national competition.
No one, in other words, who cared about promoting local products such as the lavarello or Garda oil in a high-level event.
This shows that, likely, for many in the industry such as hoteliers and restaurateurs, it’s still much more important to fill the hotel or restaurant rather than to promote and appreciate the typical products of our area.
All of this, when in fact, the entire Benaco area should be promoted through its local specialties, in order to attract more qualified clientele seeking true Gardaic delicacies.”
We’ll see, now that he has gained national recognition, if Belluzzo can once again be a prophet in his homeland.
