Chef at Votavota in Marina di Ragusa, Giuseppe Causarano along with his colleague Antonio Colombo helped earn the first Michelin star in the 2024 Guide (awarded in November 2023) thanks to a contemporary seafood cuisine that combines the daily catch of the Sicilian Channel with the herbs of the Hyblean plateau.
Born in 1984, Causarano began cooking at thirteen in Modica trattorias, later polishing his craft in starred kitchens such as Casa Grugno and Hotel Metropole in Taormina under Andreas Zangerl. At twenty-three he became sous-chef at Fattoria delle Torri; as executive at Locanda Gulfi he delved into light smoking techniques and the valorisation of “humble” fish.
In 2017, together with pastry-chef partner Antonio Colombo, he opened Votavota on Lungomare Andrea Doria—the name recalls the fishermen who “vòta-vòta” haul their nets ashore. The open kitchen is a lab for seawater cures, cold marinades and fish-bone dashi; the wine list, built with small Etna growers, favours volcanic whites and skin-contact natives.
The restaurant gained its Michelin star in November 2023 and retained it in 2025. Causarano sums up his philosophy as “sea, charcoal and memory”: every morning he selects fish at Donnalucata, dry-ages amberjack and tuna, pairs heritage citrus such as femminello lemons and reworks traditional dishes—fried moray, scaccia stuffed with cuttlefish—using algal fermentations and carob-wood embers.
From 2016 to 2019 he launched “Votavota Lab,” a summer pop-up on Sampieri beach focused on sand cooking and zero-kilometre menus, while four-hands dinners take him from Milan to Barcelona.
