All In One Ultimate Restaurant List Chef Profile: Francesco Mazzei

Chef Patron of L’Anima Francesco Mazzei has moved around a lot in his career. After working at a couple of hotels in Rome he came to London to join the Dorchester, his dream hotel. Subsequent roles took him back to Rome, Milan, Edinburgh and Bangkok; he also worked for Alan Yau at Hakkasan and Yauatcha, and for Chris Corbin and Jeremy King at the now defunct St. Alban. But which was the greatest learning curve? “Hakkasan, as the Chinese style of cooking is so different to the European, and I learned a lot during that period."

He opened L’Anima in 2008, with a menu focusing on food from southern Italy; the restaurant soon became a hit with City workers. L’Anima is up nine places on this year’s list, to number 71.

Mazzei’s favourite place for buying Italian food products is Natoora. At home he still likes to cook Oriental food during the week, but sticks to traditional Italian at the weekends.