On the final day of Masters of the Table at Celini, we met Chef Vittorio Lepore just before service began. The menu, he told us, was deeply personal. “It reflects who I am, where I come from, and the journey that has shaped me as a chef,” says the Bari-born chef who now leads the kitchen at Verso, Grand Hyatt Abu Dhabi.

He’s here in the city for the launch of Masters of the Table 2026, a year-long culinary series by Grand Hyatt Mumbai that spotlights globally celebrated chefs across its signature restaurants. The opening chapter, L’Essenza d’Italia, offered an elevated, modern expression of Italian cuisine, rooted in heritage, travel, and thoughtful technique. It spelled the story of Italy, but also of many things beyond it, including the international journeys that took him from Florence to Copenhagen, Oxfordshire to Beijing, thus carrying a distinctly global sensibility. Michelin-trained, he has honed his craft in some of the world’s most celebrated kitchens, including Noma in Copenhagen and Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in England.  However, at its core, his cuisine remains rooted in Apulian tradition, elevated through modern technique and ingredient-led storytelling, reflecting an evolving, contemporary expression of Italian cuisine shaped by travel, curiosity, and craft.