Home > View & Discuss > Restaurateur Guy Grossi gets local and seasonal

Restaurateur Guy Grossi gets local and seasonal

Speaker(s): Guy Grossi

  • Date recorded: 24 Jul 2012

  • Duration: 5:51

'Running a place like this is like running a really big household, times a hundred.'

- Guy Grossi

About this video

What’s the secret to success in Melbourne’s busy restaurant scene?

Culinary legend Guy Grossi of Florentino fame reveals the passion and inspiration involved in managing his Grossi Restaurants, a process he likens to running a really big household – times a hundred!

His food philosophy combines pride in his Italian heritage and love of Australia’s fresh produce and relaxed lifestyle. The result is food that’s less structured and formal; more natural and earthy.

Guy also shares some of the history behind Florentino, one of Melbourne’s oldest restaurants, which opened as Café Denat in 1918.

This interview is one of a series of videos commissioned for our Gusto! A culinary history of Victoria exhibition. To view pictures from this exhibition, visit our online gallery.

Speakers

Guy Grossi was born in Melbourne, and completed an apprenticeship in commercial cooking at the Box Hill Institute.

He worked in a number of restaurants before he and his wife opened Quadri in Armadale, and later Caffe Grossi with his father Pietro.  

In 1999 Guy purchased an Italian restaurant, The Florentino. His current restaurants are Mirka at Tolarno Hotel, Grossi Trattoria and Wine Bar in Bangkok, Grossi Florentino, Ombra Salumi Bar and Merchant Osteria Veneta.