Chef's Profile

Giorgio Damasio, Executive Chef

Giorgio Damasio is born in Genoa, Italy, in 1967, the youngest of three children. His mother, an excellent housewife and a talented cook, was frequently busy preparing delicious meals for the multiple events taking place in the family house. This is how Giorgio’s passion developed, while helping his mother in the kitchen. From his mother he learned the secrets of Genovese cuisine, filled with aromatic herbs and spices, and a profound respect for the usage of fresh seasonal ingredients.

Having obtained a doctorate degree with honors in Political Sciences in 1991 from the University of Genoa, he never forgot his first passion and, as soon as he finished his degree, while teaching at the University, he took a course in General Cuisine in the Hospitality Institute.

In 1993, he starts working in the restaurant I Tre Merli, in Genoa, owned by Paolo Secondo, where he starts a second apprenticeship that ends in the famous Hotel Cipriani, in Veneza, property of Orient-Express Hotels, Trains & Cruises. Then he moves on to Reid’s Palace, in Madeira, also owned by the same group, where he works in the hotel’s two restaurants: the Italian restaurant Villa Cliff and the French gourmet restaurant Les Faunes.

In 1998, he travels back to Italy to become part of the kitchen team of Hotel Eden, then managed by one of the most famous Italian chefs, Enrico Derflingher, known by its unique interpretations of the traditional Mediterranean cuisine and also for having been the personal Chef of Princess Diana. The Hotel’s restaurant La Terrazza, under Chef Derflingher’s supervision, had a Michelin star for 9 years and has been considered the Best Restaurant of the Year in Italy several times. 

After this exceptional experience, Giorgio Damasio was once again invited to return to Orient-Express Hotels, Trains & Cruises, also known for having several Michelin star-winners in its hotels, this time to work at the Lapa Palace in Lisbon, where he quickly becomes Chef of the gastronomic Ristorante Hotel Cipriani.

After two and a half years as a Chef of the Ristorante Hotel Cipriani, and now married to Maria do Rosário Baeta, the Portuguese Chef of the restaurant Le Pavillon at the Lapa Palace, which contributed to deepen even more his passion for the Mediterranean, Giorgio Damasio will become the new Executive Chef  at the Lapa Palace, starting this December. 

An unconditional believer in the usage of fresh seasonal ingredients, Giorgio does not intend to follow the trends of the last decade, the fusion creativity, which, in his opinion and using his own words, has caused more confusion than fusion. He prefers to follow the path of the cuisine of flavors, taste and tradition, presented, of course, with creativity and elegance.

Young, creative, enthusiastic and passionate, he promises to bring to Lapa Palace the best that Mediterranean cuisine has to offer.