Fabio Trabocchi is meticulous about his cooking - from the sourcing of ingredients to the butchering of meat to the Italian traditions that are the foundation of his dishes. This attention to detail is, in turn, evident in his extensive knowledge of Italy's culinary heritage, skillful techniques and creative imagination. As a result, Chef Trabocchi has received considerable acclaim for his talents. However, while honored by the attention and awards, Fabio sees things differently. To him, he is only as good as his last dish, and his accomplishments are equal testimony to the skill and talent of his culinary team.

Fabio's passion for cooking grew organically beside his father and grandparents growing up in Italy's Le Marche region. First exposed to the wonders of fresh, seasonal ingredients and his homeland's culinary traditions on his family's farm, a young Fabio was frequently dispatched to the local butcher, baker, vegetable stand and fishmonger to buy ingredients - all of whom guided him to the best products with a wink or a nod. Fabio's grandmothers, in turn, taught him the ways of preparation, a responsibility he took very seriously, practicing relentlessly until he got things right. By the age of eight, he was very comfortable in the kitchen, which explains his decision to pursue culinary school in his early teens and his progression of apprenticeships in kitchens throughout the region. By age 16, he was working in the kitchen of a three-star Michelin restaurant, Gaultiero Marchesi, and at 18, he was responsible for the entire kitchen staff at the Michelin one-star Navalge Moena. By age 20, he was Chef de Cuisine at the exclusive club Byblos in the seaside town of Rimini.

In addition to his passion for food, Fabio's passion for travel was another inspiration for his career choice. This passion was fed through a series of moves after leaving Rimini: He ventured to Moscow to open an Italian dinner club, next to Washington, DC, to serve as Chef at Bice Ristorante, and then to Marbella, Spain, where he opened another Bice in the five-star Puente Romano Hotel. From Spain, he moved to London to open Grissini at the Park Hyatt Hotel, a sister restaurant to the Grissini at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong. While still in London, Fabio began to showcase his own culinary style at the celebrated Floriana, where he won the Carlton Award for London's Best Young Chef in 1999. The acclaim, in turn, earned him the attention of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC, which invited him to design his own kitchen and create the vision and concept for Maestro in the Ritz-Carlton Tyson's Corner in McLean, VA. It was while at Maestro, where he created a study in the evolution of Italian cuisine, he launched into a new stratosphere of the American dining scene. In 2002, he was named Food & Wine's Best New Chef, Chef of the Year in 2005 by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, and the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef - Mid-Atlantic in 2006. As the restaurant's chef de cuisine, he also earned a series of four-star reviews from the Washington Post.

Describing his style as very bold, Trabocchi's culinary philosophy is steeped in regional Italian traditions. "I'm part of a generation of Italian chefs who are not set in the past," he says. "It is important to respect our traditions, but also to bring them up to modern tastes through presentation and technique." Trabocchi celebrates his personal culinary heritage in his first cookbook, Cucina of Le Marche (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2006), co-authored with Peter Kaminsky.

Trabocchi shares his philosophy with his cooks, many of whom followed him from Maestro in Washington, DC, to Fiamma in New York. He demands the same level of quality and precision as he demands of himself and his dishes. As explained by both Nicholas Stefanelli, Fiamma's Chef de Cuisine, and Tom Wellings, Fiamma's Pastry Chef, "Fabio can see quality in a person or an ingredient; he knows how to draw it out even when you, yourself, don't realize it's there."