01
2003–2015
Learning the craft
Four years in Modena taught me persistence. Years in other kitchens led to my own restaurant outside Pienza: twenty-eight covers, fully booked eight months ahead. It was everything I had worked for.
Giulia Ferretti
She spent sixteen years cooking for as many people as possible. She now cooks for eight - in five places, with people who know things she doesn’t.
How this happened
A chef’s path from relentless service to a smaller, more deliberate way of teaching.
How this happened
A chef’s path from relentless service to a smaller, more deliberate way of teaching.
01
2003–2015
Learning the craft
Four years in Modena taught me persistence. Years in other kitchens led to my own restaurant outside Pienza: twenty-eight covers, fully booked eight months ahead. It was everything I had worked for.
02
2019–2023
Begin again
I closed the restaurant at its best. Service had pushed teaching out of my life. Four years restoring Podere Sant’Elena gave me a way back, a farmhouse, a workbench, and room for eight.
02
2019–2023
Begin again
I closed the restaurant at its best. Service had pushed teaching out of my life. Four years restoring Podere Sant’Elena gave me a way back, a farmhouse, a workbench, and room for eight.
03
2023–Today
Five places. Still eight.
The first immersion began in Tuscany. Then I met regional specialists who could teach what I couldn’t. Now we teach side by side across five places. Eight people, always. Every application still comes to me.
03
2023–Today
Five places. Still eight.
The first immersion began in Tuscany. Then I met regional specialists who could teach what I couldn’t. Now we teach side by side across five places. Eight people, always. Every application still comes to me.
01
2003–2015
Learning the craft
Four years in Modena taught me persistence. Years in other kitchens led to my own restaurant outside Pienza: twenty-eight covers, fully booked eight months ahead. It was everything I had worked for.
02
2019–2023
Begin again
I closed the restaurant at its best. Service had pushed teaching out of my life. Four years restoring Podere Sant’Elena gave me a way back, a farmhouse, a workbench, and room for eight.
03
2023–Today
Five places. Still eight.
The first immersion began in Tuscany. Then I met regional specialists who could teach what I couldn’t. Now we teach side by side across five places. Eight people, always. Every application still comes to me.
Where this has been mentioned:
Where this has been mentioned:
The Eight-Person Principle
“I’m not interested in serving four hundred people badly. I’m interested in eight people who will still be cooking differently in ten years.”
Giulia Ferretti
The Eight-Person Principle
“I’m not interested in serving four hundred people badly. I’m interested in eight people who will still be cooking differently in ten years.”
Giulia Ferretti
If any of this sounds like what you’ve been looking for
Every table is application-only, and she reads every application herself, regardless of which region it’s for.
If any of this sounds like what you’ve been looking for
Every table is application-only, and she reads every application herself, regardless of which region it’s for.