Chef Enrico Bartolini is the most decorated Michelin starred chef in Italy’s history. He will be the next featured chef of Deer Valley Resort’s Taste of Luxury series, planning to tell a story of his Italy through food. Credit: Photo courtesy of Deer Valley Resort
Deer Valley Resort will soon host a rare visit from one of Italy’s most celebrated chefs, Enrico Bartolini. The chef, awarded with 14 Michelin stars for his restaurants across Italy, will headline the resort’s Taste of Luxury series from Jan. 9 through 11, bringing his distinct vision of contemporary Italian cuisine to the Wasatch Mountains.
The event will include two evenings of VIP receptions and four-course dinners at Empire Canyon Lodge, followed by a hands-on masterclass at The Lodges at Deer Valley.
Bartolini’s arrival marks a continuation of the resort’s collaboration with top international chefs, designed to give Park City locals and visitors a chance to taste top chefs from around the world.
For Bartolini, the opportunity represents more than just another stop on a busy calendar.
“We are very proud to be invited to this event, and this is my first time in this town. I think all the towns in the world are very big, because I was born in a very small town, 3,500 people,” he said. “I’m a very curious person, and I’m very curious to discover this town.”
Born in Tuscany, he began his culinary journey surrounded by farms and rustic flavors like bread, olive oil, steak and beans that define the region.
“Then at the age of 18 years old, I started to travel, and I discovered the gastronomy, the luxury, the many people, many friends around the world,” he said.
That pursuit eventually carried him to Paris, where he was introduced to the world of haute cuisine, the French style of “high cooking.”
“I discovered … how to study and become very confident with every topic, how to choose the best quality of the ingredients, how to respect the winemakers. And I started to live in another way, and that was the beginning of my new career,” Bartolini said.
Now based in Milan, Bartolini leads his flagship restaurant, Mudec, which holds three Michelin stars. Despite his international acclaim, he described his operations as small: Mudec, in Milan’s Museum of Cultures, only has nine tables.
When it comes to a culinary philosophy, Bartolini explains on his website a dedication to the past, and an evolution toward the future.
“I am not a child of contemporary Italian cuisine, but its peer: we grew up together,” he wrote. “Every day, chefs across the world create dishes their mentors could never have imagined, yet none of these would be possible without the culinary philosophy and wisdom of those who came before them. … One moves forward by stepping back.”
He referenced a book from the 16th century he once found full of modern recipes that used ingredients and techniques more common now, but weren’t as accepted in the time.
“We are not discovering anything new. We are evolving and transforming and giving personal interpretations of ingredients and recipes,” he said. “If these recipes become popular and people will love and someone will do every day, (they) will become traditional and we’ll be part of the history and the character of the country.”
Bottoni is a style of raviolli named for shirt buttons, filled with lemon and oil, served with a fish soup and topped with octopus. Bartolini said he will teach this dish during the Taste of Luxury cooking class at Deer Valley Resort. Credit: Photo courtesy of Deer Valley Resort
Like many decorated Italian chefs, Bartolini described a childhood surrounded by cooking.
“When she cooked, Aunt Emilia, who took care of me, would tie me to her waist. I remember her. I remember the pots. I was almost 4 years old, and she would still hold me close to her chest with a kitchen towel, like a sling,” he wrote. “As a budding cook, I was on the front line. I took the splashes of sauces, the heat from the oven, but I could see everything from just the right height.”
That introduction to cooking set the tone for his life in restaurants. Now with 11 fine-dining restaurants, Bartolini insists on individuality for each one.
“In every restaurant, we have different talents, different chefs and different ingredients, territory and culture,” he said. “If you travel from New York to Tuscany, I want you to find my Tuscany. If you travel to Venice, I want you to find my Venice. So I never repeat the recipes. I love to have different messages, and I love to speak about the talent and territory for each restaurant, different projects.”
To manage so many locations, Bartolini requires a dedicated team. The Michelin Guide awarded him the Mentorship Chef Award in 2022 for his success with development.
“I have many young chefs around me who are driving his project. I support them, but every of them maintain the concentration and the creativity on the project, and they realize they are ambitious with the achievement of Michelin stars,” he said. “I think this is the main reason they recognize me like a mentor. But more important is to involve young people. I learn how to say welcome to them, how to explain, how to introduce themselves in our job, in our industry, and after their experience with us, become responsible in our industry.”
For the Deer Valley dinners, Bartolini plans to serve recipes that reflect his history as a chef, his “oldest” dishes that have continued to evolve. Beyond the food, Bartolini said guests can expect intentionality in everything from the plating to the atmosphere.
“We play in the kitchen, so the flavor needs to be perfect, but if we do a great job, it needs to be beautiful, too. The smell needs to be wonderful. The plate we choose needs to be connected with the recipes and the atmosphere, too. It’s a little bit an obsession, the result,” he added with a laugh. “In the end, if the colors, the smell, the flavors are well coordinated, I think people are more happy.”
Bartolini said he is constantly evolving his dishes, like this beet and gorgonzola risotto that he created in 2005 with the opening of his first restaurant. Now, it is sprayed with the perfume of walnuts to add to the overall experience of the dish. Credit: Photo courtesy of Deer Valley Resort
Bartolini’s master class on Jan. 11 will dive deeper into his process as he guides participants through two dishes that showcase his technical precision and Italian heritage. One, a ravioli called bottoni, is aptly named for their shape of buttons. Filled with lemon and oil, they are served in a traditional fish soup from Tuscany and topped with octopus. The other dish will be Bartolini’s first recipe from 2005, a beet and gorgonzola risotto, which is now served with the perfume of walnut, a newer addition.
More than teaching a recipe, Bartolini said he hopes to leave guests with a skill they can take home.
“I’m ambitious to share some technique, not only the recipe, but to prepare a risotto means, when you finish the master class, I want you to be able to make risotto for everybody with your flavors, because I want to give you my technique, and then you are a teacher of risotto in your house,” he said.
Tickets for the dinners and Bartolini’s masterclass are available at deervalley.com/things-to-do/activities/taste-of-luxury-series/chef-enrico-bartolini, starting at $285 per person for dinner, $325 for the class. The chef promised that guests can expect nothing but authenticity, and that he is excited to meet new people — and perhaps make some time to ski.
“I will present myself, but not with the ego. Myself means I love to take connection with these people,” he said. “My language is food. With my recipes, I want to arrive to the heart of all the guests.”
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