Federico Zanellato, chef-owner, LuMi, Sydney

My hometown is Este, not far from

Padua, in the Veneto region. It has a beautiful castle that’s nearly a thousand years old, and a little river running through the town. It’s lively in summer with a lot of people having aperitivo around the main piazza, and lots of kids running around and old people chatting.

Whenever I go back I try all the new restaurants – both fine dining and more casual, traditional food. I usually go to Osteria l’Anfora, a trattoria where they serve all the classic dishes such as bigoli made with chicken-liver ragù or sarde in saor, sweet and sour sardines. They serve excellent horse meat.

My wife and I usually visit a few winemakers every year in the Veneto region and Friuli, close to the Slovenian border. Recently, we’ve been to a couple of really good restaurants worth visiting. Ristorante Aga, near Cortina d’Ampezzo, and the Michelin-starred el Coq and la Peca, both in Vicenza, are very special. And for a new style of gourmet pizza, I Tigli, near Verona, is not to be missed.

We always make time to go to Venice, which is less than an hour’s drive from Este. For cicchetti, Osteria Alla Ciurma, Al Merca and I Rusteghi are some of my favourites.

I really miss all the artisanal local produce in Veneto. Things like goose, donkey meat, wild asparagus, baccalà that’s made with Ragno stockfish, the heirloom tardivo radicchio, and cheeses from the north of my region.