For Michele Brogioni—who first stepped foot in a professional kitchen at the age of 12—becoming a chef was never a question. “I grew up in a family deeply connected to food,” he says. “My father was a chef and my mother had a great love for cooking.”

The culinarian’s career took off when he was tapped to serve as the chef de cuisine to Italy’s Formula One racing team. Soon after, he was named sous chef at Ristorante Dell’Amorosa in Sinalunga, Italy—and later, chef de cuisine at Il Falconiere, a Michelin-starred restaurant in the Tuscan town of Cortona.