Special Focus

Gucci Osteria Beverly Hills Receives First Michelin Star

Los Angeles restaurant Gucci Osteria Beverly Hills has been awarded a Michelin star in the 2021 edition of the prestigious MICHELIN Guide California. Promoting modern Italian cuisine while embracing local Californian ingredients, Gucci Osteria is led by the young Italian chef Mattia Agazzi, under the guidance of chef Massimo Bottura of three-star Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy.

Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura are a series of contemporary restaurants that share the same values and principles under one Gucci Osteria umbrella. Located in select cities, each celebrates their own varied and unique identity, while sharing a culinary philosophy that rides the wave of the seasons with creativity, elegance, playfulness, and sensuality.

(Images by Gabriele Stabile)

With this philosophy in mind, Agazzi has used his California location to spearhead a new type of cuisine, harnessing the very best in seasonal produce, creating playful interpretations of classic Italian dishes. Recent dishes included Uni Carbonara using sea urchins from the Santa Barbara coast, mixed with egg tagliolini and thinly chopped guanciale-style calamari, and I Love Rock Climbing in which wild morels are brought to the next level, presented side by side with cuts of plump, meaty trout.

Agazzi was appointed head chef for Gucci Osteria BH in 2020, bringing the youthful energy and philosophy of the original Gucci Osteria in Florence to Los Angeles. For a chef that is ingredient-led and whose Italian background provides a foundation for creativity, California and Gucci Osteria BH are a natural home for Agazzi and his approach to food.

“I Love Rock Climbing”

Growing up in Bergamo in the Lombardy region of Northern Italy gave Agazzi a landscape to explore. Close to mountain ranges and deep countryside, Lombardy is a region that has four distinct seasons offering an incredible range of produce, and roots for personal inspiration.

Lombardy was to Agazzi a clean slate, as open as a blank page waiting to be filled with the musings and creations of a talented chef who is also a passionate forager, an ardent angler, and to top it all, a first-class outdoor athlete and daredevil free rock climber. These are the same hobbies that he naturally still pursues in his free time in California.

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