‘AGRIGASTRONOMY’
Born in the seaside town of Viareggio, Cristiano Tomei, a self-taught chef, grew up helping with family meals featuring sand-dwelling clams in Viareggio & wild asparagus from the hills between Lucca & the sea. Always produce oriented, he traveled with surfer friends, but would leave them in the waves to explore markets, taverns, & gourmet restaurants in the Basque Country, Cuba, Peru, Madagascar, & India. Now, he cultivates his own garden in Lucca & uses his own produce and wild plants he forages on the coast to create spectacular flavours.
Cristiano Tomei is a joyous person and so is his food. You can taste joy with every bite. The Italian journalist Carlo Passera wrote: “Cristiano Tomei is one of the best chefs in our country. He represents a sort of model of what the Italian creative cuisine of the future could be – should be: a spectacular match of territory, tradition & opening to foreign influences, perhaps presented in a simple way.