Maradona Youssef and his Meze, a bridge between Italy and Lebanon. Photo provided by the chef.
"Cooking is an act of attention and generosity," says Maradona Youssef at the outset, when we meet him during one of his visits to Lebanon. "A bridge between people." The chef — named after the famed Argentine soccer champion, his father’s idol — calmly explains his philosophy of life, which is, even more, a part of his DNA. But this sentence also sums up his journey: from northern Lebanon to Italy, from lecture halls to professional kitchens, from a childhood in a country marked by instability to a culinary identity rooted in his past and present. Today, the chef is known for his 2016 appearance on "MasterChef Italy," for Meze, his restaurant in Milan opened in 2022, and for the delicious links he forges between Italian and Lebanese cuisine. Yet his story is not one of sudden success, but rather a slow...
"Cooking is an act of attention and generosity," says Maradona Youssef at the outset, when we meet him during one of his visits to Lebanon. "A bridge between people." The chef — named after the famed Argentine soccer champion, his father’s idol — calmly explains his philosophy of life, which is, even more, a part of his DNA. But this sentence also sums up his journey:...
