Napoli celebrates its first Serie A title. Under the same sky, in the merchant streets of Montesanto, a stone’s throw from La Pignasecca market, Francesco Palumbo’s story begins.
May 1987: Napoli wins its first Serie A title, and Francesco is born into two families of merchants in Montesanto, a stone’s throw from La Pignasecca, one of the oldest markets in the city.
1987
Between football and shopping deliveries for the family shop, cooking becomes the dream. He trains at the hotel school in Bagnoli.
’00sFour seasons in the kitchens of the Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria, above the Bay of Naples.
4 seasonsSicily, Veneto, Sardinia, Lazio… the kitchens of Italy, one region at a time.
On the road
Chef-patron Igor Tymchyshyn hires him at Orrery: the start of a London career. Three years later, the Baglioni Hotel calls, and he answers “Presente!”, working with Chef Raffaele Lauriola.
2013
The world stops. Francesco rolls up his sleeves and starts Italian Touch in Surrey: a social page that quickly becomes a following.
2020
A dark kitchen on Hackney Road. The rest of the story, in his words, “I would like us to write together, you and I.”
2024
“And here we are. The rest of the story I would like us to write together, you and I, in the sign of a future that is better for everyone.”
— Francesco Palumbo