Roberto Petza

 Roberto Petza

Roberto Petza

From carpentry to cooking, Roberto Petza's culinary prowess has finally found a home in a remote village on the island of Sardinia. His dedication to self-sufficiency and a passion for the area's ingredients means people travel far and wide to taste his cuisine.

Being one of six brothers, the son of a policeman and growing up in San Gavino Monreale in Cagliari, Sardinia meant Roberto Petza had to work incredibly hard to get to where he is today. The island has traditionally been quite a poor area – especially during the 1970s when Roberto was a child – and while it was a tradition (and necessity) for families to grow their own vegetables, the idea of fine dining was more associated with the affluent north of Italy. However, Roberto still remembers helping his father plant and grow onions, and their aroma still has a nostalgic quality for the chef today.

From an early age, it wasn’t the kitchen that called to Roberto, but the workshop; he was always creating or building things whenever he could. His mother enrolled him into a master school for carpentry so he could develop his hobby into a career, but Roberto soon realised he wanted to use his hands to make food rather than furniture and secretly started attending catering college.

After graduating with a diploma in hotel management, Roberto realised he couldn’t stay in Sardinia if he wanted to gain the best experience in the kitchen. He also yearned to see new things and learn something different, which prompted him to leave his home island and travel. He jumped from kitchen to kitchen across Europe, earning his stripes in the restaurants of Paris, London, Zurich, Corsica and even the Isle of Man. It wasn’t until 1998 that Roberto returned home to his native village and opened S’Apposentu, his very first restaurant. It soon won critical acclaim, but four years later he decided to move the restaurant to the nearby city of Cagliari to make it more accessible. It became a huge success, with traditional tasting food made with local ingredients. It was awarded a Michelin star just a few years later.

Roberto soon became incredibly passionate about Sardinian food, and wanted the rest of the world to know just how special it was. In March 2005, he opened a second restaurant, Lisboa; a bistro dedicated to researching and spreading awareness of Sardinian ingredients. It specifically documents local herbs, such as the saffron cultivated in San Gavino Monreale, and is responsible for keeping the soul and spirit of Sardinian cuisine alive today.

His two restaurants were well established and succeeding, but everything changed for Roberto in 2009, when he was helping a documentary crew film housewives making pasta in the remote Sardinina village of Siddi. The mayor asked him if he would like to open a restaurant in the area, which was once home to a huge pastificio (pasta factory). At first Roberto declined, but eventually changed his mind when he saw how much history surrounded the remote village. One year later and S’Apposentu was moved again, taking residence in an Art Nouveau mansion built in the 1900s for the owners of the derelict pasta factory. It retained its Michelin star, and Roberto uses it as his base to continually champion Sardinian ingredients and cuisine. The awards kept coming, and in 2014 Roberto won a Lavazza Prime award for serving some of the best espresso coffee in the country.