Pastry chef (and co-chef) at La Credenza in San Maurizio Canavese, 1 Michelin Star, Chiara Patracchini crafts desserts that speak the same language as the savoury menu: precision, measured contrasts, and a palate often sharpened by saline notes. Featured in Gambero Rosso’s 2026 Pastry Chefs & Pastry Shops Guide.
Her start in hospitality wasn’t part of a straight plan: she originally wanted to become a nurse, then changed course at the last moment and enrolled at the Colombatto hospitality school. Alongside classes, she worked from early on in local venues—an environment where, especially for a young woman aiming for the kitchen, carving out space and credibility was anything but automatic.
1998 marks the turning point. While still completing her studies, she met Giovanni Grasso, who was teaching at Colombatto at the time and looking for staff for La Credenza. She did a trial in the brigade and began an apprenticeship built on daily discipline and gradual responsibility, working alongside Grasso and Igor Macchia—first on starters and pasta, then toward a broader grasp of flavour, rhythm, and balance.
From there, her trajectory remained tied to La Credenza—now in San Maurizio Canavese (Turin area), holding one Michelin Star. It also intersected with the wider work of the Credenza Group, whose projects over the years took the team beyond Italy through openings and international ventures.
Her own public summary of the shift toward pastry captures the change of focus: “I didn’t choose pastry; pastry chose me.”
Pastry became a craft developed from inside the kitchen rather than set apart from it. Desserts are conceived as a coherent close to the tasting path—clean lines, acidity, roastiness, spices, fruit and nuts—guided by an approach that avoids excess and looks instead for equilibrium between comfort and tension on the palate.
In parallel came editorial work: for six years, she wrote a dessert-focused column for Sale&Pepe, titled “La Dolce vita di Chiara”, later gathered into a selection of recipes.
Today at La Credenza she works in tandem with Ivan Onorato, in a structure where savoury and sweet are built through constant dialogue. Her style continues to evolve around technique in service of ingredients, with recognition also reflected in specialist publishing: she appears among the pastry chefs in Gambero Rosso’s 2026 Pastry Chefs & Pastry Shops Guide (Gambero Rosso Editore).
