Chef Max

Who is Max Mariola?

I was born in Rome and grew up in Nettuno, right on the Mediterranean Sea, in a family where good food has always been a matter of life or death. I owe my love for cooking to them—especially to my mother, Fiorella. I took my first steps as a chef in the 1990s at “Il Castagnone” in Genzano Romano, which at the time was run by Attilio Renzo Gabbarini. Around the same time, I enrolled in a culinary school, where I met Laura Ravaioli — one of my first mentors and a renowned chef, who was then preparing to launch Italy’s first television channel entirely dedicated to food. Laura invited me to work alongside her, and I jumped at the chance. That’s how I ended up in front of the cameras at Gambero Rosso Channel. It was there that I met my true mentor, Fulvio Pierangelini—the chef who, more than anyone else, shaped my vision of cuisine.