Daniele Volpi, Executive Chef

The product of a Danish mother and an Italian father, Daniele Volpi was raised in Denmark but spent two months every year in his father’s hometown of Cremona, Italy.  He has cooking in his blood, having grown up in his father’s restaurant, Ristorante San Giovanni, in the family’s hometown of Aalborg, Denmark. Daniele got his start peeling potatoes and onions after school, and quickly developed a passion for cooking.  By age 13 he was already making pizzas for the restaurant. At 15, deciding it was time to make a career out of his passion, Daniele signed on as a cook trainee at the Hotel Scheelsminde and Hotel Rold Stor Kro in Denmark, followed by the completion of a 4 year culinary degree and stints at the Michelin one star Restautionen in Copenhagen and Restaurant Marie Louise, under Michel Michaud, in Odense.

After perfecting his classic French and Danish skills, it was time to get back to his Italian cooking roots.  In 2002, Daniele moved In Italy, where he spent a year cooking at The Palazzo Ravizza in Siena, and two years in Sicily at the award-winning Ristorante Bye Bye Blues in the resort town of Mondello outside of Palermo.

Back in San Francisco, Daniele was most recently Sous Chef at Vivande Porte Via, under Master Chef Carlo Middione, and prior to that, served as the executive chef at Trader Vic´s.  Daniele says that growing up with Danish and Italian traditions was a gift because the distinctly different styles, techniques and ingredients inherent in each has given him a broad base of experience in both the precision and passion of cooking.