Gault&Millau Italy sets January debut after Udine dinner
The French yellow guide publishes its first Italian edition in Turin in early 2027, covering five northern regions. Before that comes a €210 dinner on 16 October cooked by chefs from Monaco and Slovenia.
Gault&Millau Italy will publish its first restaurant guide in January 2027, with the presentation in Turin, and has now fixed its first public outing: a dinner on Friday 16 October at Le Fucine Gourmet in Buttrio, near Udine.
The dinner, titled Principi e Regine: Benvenuta Gault&Millau, pairs Emmanuel Pilon of Le Louis XV – Alain Ducasse à l'Hôtel de Paris in Monaco with Ana Roš of Hiša Franko in Kobarid, Slovenia. Both hold five toques in the guide's foreign editions. It is part of the 27th Ein Prosit festival, which runs from 14 to 18 October with more than 90 chefs, Italia a Tavola reported on 29 September. The guide's own site puts the price at €210 with wine pairing.
Neither restaurant is in Italy, and that is the state of play: no Italian score, list or award has been published so far.
A guide with no scores yet introduces itself with two chefs who cook outside the country.
What Gault&Millau Italy covers first
The first edition is limited to five northern regions: Valle d'Aosta, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy and Trentino-Alto Adige. The company's site now promises the whole country by 2030; when the project was announced in January, Italian reports gave 2031. Around 100 anonymous inspectors are at work. No number of restaurants has been given.
Gault&Millau Italy is led by the Czech entrepreneur Miroslav Lekeš as chief executive, with Daniele Scaglia as general manager and chief inspector, according to Gambero Rosso. Its base is Monforte d'Alba, in the Langhe. The project was shown in May at Turin's Salone del Libro, at the Piedmont region's stand. Il Giornale reported that the guide will be bilingual, Italian and English, with a limited print run and free access online.
Twenty points, five toques, a crowded shelf
Restaurants are marked out of 20. One toque starts at 11 points, two at 13, three at 15, four at 17 and five at 19. The mark takes in the dining room, the drinks list, the atmosphere and the price as well as the plate, a wider brief than Michelin's. A separate category, POP, lists informal places with a review and no score. Six annual prizes are planned: Chef of the Year, Chef of Tomorrow, Young Talent, Chef de Patisserie, Best Sommelier and Pop of the Year.
Italy is not short of guides: Michelin hands out stars there every autumn and Gambero Rosso its forks. The yellow guide, founded in Paris in 1972 by Henri Gault and Christian Millau, has been busy at home too, where it has just named 28 nominees for its 2027 trophies in France.
The first Italian Chef of the Year will be named in Turin in the new year. Until then, the only toques Gault&Millau Italy can show belong to Monaco and Slovenia.
