Travel + Leisure - India & South Asia
Deeba Rajpal
In a country famous for its mouth-watering food, Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni—Bellagio’s only five-star hotel—crafts a unique culinary experience.
WHAT STARTED as a place to share her passion with the world gradually grew into Deeba Rajpal’s springboard for creativity. Baking still tops her chart, but a decadelong journey in blogging has taught Rajpal that it takes more to engage your audience in this constantly evolving subculture. “Fewer words, impressive images, content that stands out, and a takeaway for the audience,” she explains her mantra. Her blog, Passionate About
Baking (passionateaboutbaking.com), and Instagram (@passionateaboutbaking) are marked by dark, moody, and rustic pictures, along with unabashed use of Indian props and accents. The bakerblogger has also grabbed high-profile food styling projects, including for
Chef Vikas Khanna’s cookbook My First Kitchen, Pentagram’s Teabox, and more. At the moment, Rajpal is busy writing a dessert cookbook.
THE BEST OF INGREDIENTS, innovative cooking techniques, award-winning service, and an everlasting love for tradition make the feasts at Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni unmatchable Italian experiences. Add to this, the hotel’s charming location in the breathtaking village of Bellagio overlooking Lake Como, and you have yourself a dream vacation.
Though the hotel closed its doors owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is now gearing up to get back on its feet and continue preserving the nation’s extraordinary heritage. Come July 4, Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni will reopen, and the restaurants and bars will once again whip up state-of-the-art dishes and drinks. On the menu will be dishes that complement the European summer, conceptualised by Michelin-starred Chef Ettore Bocchia and his team. Expect some of the best local produce—exclusive burrata from a local dairy, fresh fish from the lake, tomatoes from the volcanic region of Mount Vesuvius, pesto prepared with basil from Liguria, a selection of cheeses from Lombardy, the finest of prosciutto, and more. Wine enthusiasts can look forward to the hotel’s stellar wine cellar that features over 400 labels. But no meal at Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni is complete without its decadent desserts, courtesy of pastry chef Manuel Ferrari, who is a huge fan of Domori chocolate and pistachios from Bronte. The legacy of the hotel goes back 150 years—it has played host to big names such as Winston Churchill, Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, the Rothschilds, J F Kennedy, Mary Pickford, Clark Gable, and Al Pacino. This prestigious past, along with the generosity of the Bucher family (owners of the hotel since 1918) and the expertise of Carlo Pierato, restaurant manager and first maître d’hotel, makes Grand Hotel
Villa Serbelloni the finest name in Italian hospitality. villaserbelloni.com