Cape Town-based restaurateur Giorgio Nava was one of four international restaurateurs to win at the Grana Padano Italina Cuisine Worldwide Awards 2013 earlier this January.

The awards are designed to honour those who have made “an outstanding contribution to the introduction, spreading and preservation of the Italian food and wine culture in the countries they live in”.

Nava runs several restaurants in the Cape, including 95 Keerom (2011 Eat Out DStvFood Network Italian Restaurant of the Year) and Carne SA (2012 Eat Out DStv Food Network Steakhouse of the Year).

The awards, now in their fourth year, were announced at a ceremony at the Four Seasons in New York on 17 January 2013. The other winners were food photographer Alexander Averin of Russia, US restaurateur Piero Selvaggio, and Tara Tan Kitaoka of Japan/Singapore.

Given that the restaurateur imported his own Romagnola stud bull from Italy to create top-class beef for his restaurants, and has gone to great lengths to get proper mozzarella produced in SA, we reckon it’s well deserved. Bravo Giorgio!

Photographs: Giorgio Nava with top Italian chef, Massimo Bottura at last year's Eat Out DStv Food Network Conference; Giorgio's farm in Nieu Bethesda where free range meat is reared for his restaurants; the interior at Carne; and the legendary butternut ravioli of 95 Keerom.