A slice of La Dolce Vita lands at Claridge’s London

The Claridge’s culinary team has invited Tuscan legend, Hotel Il Pellicano, to join them in the kitchen for a one week residency.

Starting Monday, February 17, Chef Michelino Gioia and his team will be plating up signature Italian fare (ravioli with butter and sage; risotto with shrimp; tiramisu), alongside barman Federico Morosi’s (below) own concoctions — his Pelican Martini is a firm favourite with Pellicano guests.

The week-long residency comes ahead of family-owned Il Pellicano’s 60th summer season. It was built in a remote cove on Monte Argentario, on the Tuscan coast, by American socialite Patsy Daszel and British aviator and serviceman Michael Graham, as a sort of testament to their love for one another: Patsy cut out Michael’s picture in a newspaper, the sole survivor of a plane crash in Africa, hoping to meet him. And they did, a few years later, in Pelican Point, California. 

Guests to the property included Charlie Chaplin, Henry Fonda, Gianni Agnelli and Slim Aarons — before Robert Sciò acquired the hotel in 1979. Today his daughter, Marie-Louise, is Creative Director and CEO, and she has carefully moulded Il Pellicano into the kind of hotel that everyone knows the name of, but could rarely perfectly point out on a map or tell you exactly what it’s like inside. It’s a stickler for privacy, attracting the kind of traveller who isn’t there to be seen.

Claridge’s Restaurant opened in 2023, in the hotel’s main dining room, which in recent years was occupied by chefs such as Simon Rogan and Daniel Humm. Its metamorphosis into something quieter and simpler has been a success: The Spectator gave it five stars; Grace Dent waxed lyrical about it in The Guardian. Jo Rodgers included its roast in her list of London Sunday lunch favourites for this very magazine.

It’s fitting, therefore, that it's chosen an equally understated — but not exactly lacking in glamour — establishment for its first kitchen residency of this kind.

Click here www.claridges.co.uk/restaurants-bars/claridges-restaurant/ for more information and to book.