Corinthia London to Unveil Francesco Mazzei Italian Dining Concept in 2025

September 20, 2024

Thomas Kochs, Managing Director of Corinthia London, is delighted to announce a partnership with celebrated chef Francesco Mazzei to launch an Italian restaurant at the hotel next year, debuting in Summer 2025.

The restaurant will be situated in what is currently The Northall, with specific details of the operation to be confirmed over the coming months. A grand establishment, it is a magnificent direct-access corner site with high ceilings and large windows within the five-star Corinthia London in the heart of Westminster.

Calabrian-born Francesco was raised with a passion for food, often in the family kitchen, and had his first taste of a professional experience working in his uncle’s Gelateria, where he mastered Italian cakes and gelato by the age of nine. Over the last four decades, he has been recognised as one of the great contemporary Italian chefs, having worked in five-star hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East and, in 2019, awarded the OMRI (Order of Merit of the Italian Republic).  In more recent years, Francesco has been in residency in Malta at the Corinthia Palace, bringing a taste of southern Italy to Villa Corinthia, the first and founding property of Corinthia Hotels.

Francesco describes his culinary style as “Mamma’s cooking with a chef’s hands.” His globe-trotting career to date spans his first role in the UK at The Dorchester, working with both Willi Elsener and Henry Brosi, then to Rome at La Terrazza dell’Eden, and back to launch Santini restaurants in both Edinburgh and Milan, then to The Royal Sporting Club in Bangkok.  His professional travels continued as he joined restaurateur Alan Yau as he opened a series of venues in Mumbai and across the UK.  In London, Francesco also worked at Franco’s on Jermyn Street and St Alban with Jeremy King and Chris Corbin, before opening the ultra-stylish L’Anima in the City, followed by three sites with D&D: Sartoria, Mayfair; Radici, Islington; and Fiume at Battersea Power Station.  He also plays a vital advisory role with the Calabrian government to promote their artisan goods in the UK including citrus fruit, bergamot, and n’duja. Francesco has written one cookbook – Mezzogiorno: Southern Italian Cooking (2015), and has appeared on numerous cookery programmes, including Saturday Kitchen, MasterChef, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, The Wine Show, and Italian Hell’s Kitchen.

Commenting on the appointment, Thomas Kochs states: “I am so happy to be able to create a restaurant with Francesco and the team here at the hotel, which will be for Londoners and hotel guests alike. Francesco’s personality and his spectacular Italian food will be irresistible for sure.”

Francesco also enthused about the plans for the new restaurant: “Since my last ventures in London, I had been searching for the right opportunity, so when the prospect to open here at Corinthia London presented itself, I was delighted. It is the perfect location for me to showcase the most beautiful, classic Italian cooking that I am so excited to share. I am also thrilled to be in great company, working alongside the hotel’s other partners, Tom Kerridge and Salvatore Calabrese.”

Corinthia London leads the way with its restaurant and bar offering – including acclaimed chef Tom Kerridge at Kerridge’s Bar & Grill, and drinks supremo, ‘The Maestro’ Salvatore Calabrese at Velvet bar, as well as the Crystal Moon Lounge’s spectacular afternoon tea overseen by Executive Pastry Chef, Yago Doamo.  The hotel’s broader food and beverage operations are directed by Executive Chef, André Garrett, and include The Garden, The Northall Bar, breakfast, room service, and myriad business and special events spaces.

The Northall will remain open until late winter 2024, when it will close for a full refurbishment, to relaunch later next year with Francesco.