Andrea Ossola, Four Seasons Hotel
Andrea Ossola has joined the Four Seasons Hotel Houston as executive chef. In this capacity, he oversees the award-winning kitchen at Quattro, Houston's only Mobil Four-Star restaurant and widely considered one of the premier fine dining destinations in the city. Ossola is the first Italian-born chef to helm the stove at Quattro, which features a menu of inspired contemporary Italian cuisine that focuses on the creative use of local and seasonal ingredients. It also features an antipasto bar and Sunday brunch that can only be described as legendary. Ossala's first full menu will debut in March.
Formerly, Ossola was executive sous chef at the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica, which he joined in 2004 following a career that has taken him around the globe with stints in Germany, Dubai, Morocco and India. At the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica, Ossola oversaw five restaurants with cuisine ranging from Brazilian barbecue and seafood to a high end steakhouse - all of which was presented in ultra-contemporary style. Of his extensive international travels, Ossola says, "Through my journeys, work experience and food adventures, I've been lucky to learn many new techniques and gain an array of culinary skills. For me, food is about flavor, simplicity and fine wine."
Raised in a small town near Milan and the Swiss border, Ossola developed an unusually early interest in cooking, a fact made clear when he traded in his toys for pots and pans at the tender age of three. Born to a cook for a mother - she still prepares regional homemade food in the small Italian town where he grew up - Ossola secured his first job in a local restaurant at the age of 15. His passion and dedication quickly caught the eye of the owner, who sent the would-be chef to Hotel Bellavista in Balerna, Switzerland for an apprenticeship.
Following the thee-year program in which Ossola worked in the restaurant four days a week learning classic French cooking techniques and attended traditional classes in a local school one day a week, he received his Certificate of Cooking.
Upon the completion of his internship, Ossola immediately sought and procured a position at Restaurant Al Faro, a renowned fish outpost in Lugano, Switzerland. Although seafood was new territory for Ossola, he had the opportunity to work with the best catches from the Mediterranean and North Atlantic and soon became an expert in Spanish lobster, crawfish and a variety of oysters. At Al Faro, he also gained invaluable experience at the grill and pasta stations, further giving him a well-rounded culinary foundation that would lay the groundwork for his career.
In 1991, Ossola moved to Serpiano, Switzerland and Kurhotel Serpiano in the role of commis de cuisine. There his focus was fresh game from hunters, a bounty of vegetables and wild mushrooms, providing another year of specialization and success that culminated in his promotion to chef de partie tournant. It was in this role, that he learned the ins and outs of managing a kitchen from top to bottom - from buying ingredients and writing menus to catering and maximizing productivity.
In 1995, Ossola took a position at the signature Italian restaurant at the Hyatt Regency Cologne in Germany before transferring to Focaccia at the Hyatt Regency Dubai in 1997. Focaccia was one of the most renowned restaurants in the region at the time, and the menu reflected a blend of Italian, French and Spanish influences. After two years in Dubai, Ossola took another high profile position at the Hyatt Regency Casablanca in Morocco and also began an intensive calendar of exploration with travels to Singapore, Jakarta and Bangkok, before landing at The Leela Goa, a five-star beach resort in South India.
In addition to Italian and English, the multilingual chef, speaks fluently in Spanish, French and German plus some conversational Hindu and Arabic. At Four Seasons Hotel Houston, he is already developing a following for his cuisine that seamlessly blends the classics with the innovative while infusing his love for and vast knowledge of international cultures and flavors.
While the majority of ingredients Ossola uses are still the same ones he grew up with, he aims to deconstruct what most people know as Italian by adjusting the flavors and presentation and incorporating something unexpected, an example being his roasted eggplant caviar. In Texas, he is also thrilled to have access to a wealth of premium beef and lamb, organic pork, farm-raised chicken, fresh fish and a wide variety of vegetables.
"Houstonians are very open to trying to new things," he says. "And Quattro gives me literally a world of opportunity and experience to experiment and show what I can do."
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