Restaurant manager and front-of-house professional at Maxi (Hotel Capo La Gala, Vico Equense), she built her career between leading wine cellars and Michelin-level brigades. The MICHELIN Service Award 2026 (MICHELIN Guide, presented on 19 November 2025 in Parma) acknowledges a clear idea: hospitality is made of precision, listening, and lasting memories.
Rooted in the Sorrento Coast area, she trained at the “Francesco De Gennaro” Hospitality Institute in Vico Equense, graduating in 1999. During a work placement at Don Alfonso 1890, she shaped a principle that would remain central to her approach: wine is not a list to recite, but a story to share with the guest.
Alongside her early professional steps, she pursued long-term study, completing the three levels of AIS – Associazione Italiana Sommelier between 1999 and 2009. The Don Alfonso years became a training ground in method and sensibility, particularly alongside Maurizio Cerio, a key influence she credits for teaching her that “wine isn’t served: it’s shared.”
In 2003 she took a decisive turn north to Le Calandre (Rubano, Padua). Starting as second sommelier, she progressed to head sommelier, refining her work through producer visits, structured tastings, and the daily discipline of building pairings and managing a serious wine program.
In 2007 she moved to Piedmont, joining Combal.Zero (Davide Scabin), where the dining room must sustain intense rhythms, creativity, events, and an international clientele. Here she sharpened a vision of service as a cultural language: accuracy and timing, care for mise en place, and the ability to “read” the guest without letting the protocol become rigid.
In 2009 she returned to Don Alfonso 1890 with a broader toolkit: not only cellar and pairings, but also the ability to direct a team—coordination, on-the-job training, and pressure management.
The core chapter opens in April 2011, when the Acampora family entrusted her with the dining room at Maxi, within Hotel Capo La Gala (Vico Equense). From head sommelier to restaurant manager, she brings together cellar strategy, welcome rituals, team organisation, and guest relations. The day-to-day is made of briefings, standards, service cadence, and a constant aim to make each table feel expected—never simply “served.”
The MICHELIN Service Award 2026, instituted by the MICHELIN Guide and offered by Intrecci – Alta Formazione di Sala, was presented at the Teatro Regio in Parma during the MICHELIN Guide Italy 2026 ceremony (19 November 2025). The public recognition centres on her contribution at Maxi and on an idea of hospitality built on care, listening, and consistency—an FOH style that balances empathy with operational discipline.
Today, wine remains a central language in her work—but always as a tool: to accompany, to lighten the pace, to amplify the kitchen’s message, and to give coherence to the experience. Fluent in English and French, she describes the dining room as an orchestration of micro-gestures: the glance that anticipates a need, the calibrated suggestion, the step back when discretion is required, and the step forward when the guest asks for guidance.
