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Marco Genna

Marco Genna

Private chef and sommelier, based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

I am Sicilian. I learned to cook at home, from my father, before I learned it anywhere else. Then I went to a hospitality school in Assisi, in Umbria, and after that I spent ten years in kitchens — Umbria, Tuscany, Emilia, back in Sicily, then Amsterdam, Cork, Berlin, London.

I came to Romania and stayed. I reached the final of MasterChef Romania. Today I cook privately in Cluj-Napoca, run live cooking at events, and consult for restaurants that need a menu their kitchen can actually make.

I do not follow many recipes. I follow some, and then I mix in everything else. I like to play, to take a risk, to put flavours together that are not supposed to go together. Living in as many countries as I have makes that easier — and the Balkan and Transylvanian years widened it more than any of the others.

Which is why I do not hand people a fixed card. I write a bespoke menu: built around whoever is eating, on the night they are eating it.

The route

  1. Sicily

    Learned at home

    Grew up in a house where cooking was taught by his father.

  2. Assisi, Umbria

    Hospitality school

    Trained at a hospitality school in Assisi.

  3. Ten years

    Italy and Europe

    Kitchens across Umbria, Tuscany, Emilia and Sicily, then Amsterdam, Cork, Berlin and London.

  4. Romania

    MasterChef finalist

    Reached the final of MasterChef Romania.

  5. Now, Cluj-Napoca

    Private chef and consultant

    Cooks privately, runs events, and consults for restaurants — most recently a three-month engagement building an à la carte menu with full food costing.