True blue Italian food from an Italian chef in Kuala Lumpur

Lioce is a cheerful soul who pays tribute to his heritage and experiences with incredible Italian meals.

In many ways, it isn’t all that difficult to see how Giuseppe Lioce ended up becoming a chef. Growing up in his hometown of Bari in south Italy, Lioce spent a considerable amount of time in his grandmother’s restaurant (which was founded in 1925 by his great-grandmother). Under his grandmother’s tutelage, he learnt how to make south Italian pasta like cavatelli and oriechette and quickly fell under the spell of food.

“None of the men in my family are chefs – everyone is involved in different activities – some are producing wine and some are in construction. So everyone thought I would be an architect or something like that. But I really enjoyed working with my grandmother,” says Lioce. When he was 14, Lioce enrolled in a hospitality management school in Bari and took on a series of jobs in restaurants in his hometown.