Andrea Ferrero

“We travelled through Sri Lanka for 10 days and we met great people, we saw great places and we cooked a lot with tea. The quality of the tea, the purity and the vision the family has behind making this tea, the respect with which they treat the leaves of tea, the respect they have for the environment where they grow the tea and the people who work with them in growing that tea. This makes Dilmah a great tea with so much more depth to the product.

The tea helps me to create more flavour and more possibility to engineer a dish. Of course, tea has now become an important ingredient in my dishes because of its quality…like when you want to make a great smoky flavour, it’s specially a great ingredient. I work a lot with Dilmah’s speciality teas like Ceylon Silver Tips and the Sencha green tea.

Through this trip we learnt a lot about Sri Lanka, the challenges the country is facing in developing the economy and what Dilmah does contributes to the overall growth of the country. We also saw how Dilmah looks to the future by conserving the nature which creates this amazing tea – they have such great respect for the environment. It was great experiencing the work of the MJF Foundation in Colombo, to see how they take care of children with special needs and do so much more than just sell a product.

Being in the company of a group of like-minded people, great chefs who are passionate about what they do and sharing ideas with them was a definite highlight. For me being a part of the Chefs & the Teamaker experience was something unique, and inspiring. Inspiration is what we need to passionately pursue what we love doing the most.”

Andrea Ferrero is the Executive Chef of Bulgari Hotel in Milan. A former student of the award-winning Quique Dacosta, Andrea presents a menu based on traditional Mediterranean dishes prepared with creative flair,featuring unusual combinations.

Born in Mondovi, in Piedmont region, Andrea revealed his passion for cooking at a very early age. After he earned a diploma in Hotel Management and Catering at the age of 19, Andrea went abroad to study and to perfect his craft. His food is not simply a new take on traditional recipes, but the result of a personal quest for knowledge.

He gained much experience working in top restaurants around the globe, including the Michelin two- star restaurant Quique Dacosta in Denia, Spain, and the famous Vivaldi Italian restaurant in Dubai,where he honed his skills and perfected his knowledge in the most sophisticated cooking techniques while remaining true to his Italian roots. From 2009 to May 2011, he was the Executive Chef of the Italian restaurant of the Bulgari Resort in Bali. Bulgari Resort guests and international patrons adored his food, which garnered him much success. The superb quality of the raw ingredients, creativity, and sophisticated cooking techniques are the main ingredients of Andrea’s cuisine and he prefers cooking techniques that preserve the organoleptic qualities of the ingredients, do not alter product texture and consistency, and preserve the flavour. His dishes, which are a fine balance between aesthetics and flavour, are a true culinary experience. His recipes are beautiful to behold and their ingredients easy to identify.