Raffaele Lenzi makes Lake Como even more unique within the walls of Il Sereno: a talent that grows year after year, combining taste and thoughtfulness in every dish.
The hotel
I describe and judge the countries I visit starting with their people; I take the same approach with restaurants, cocktail bars, and hotels. I spent some quality time at the Hotel Il Sereno in Torno on Lake Como, where the team is exceptional. The beauty of this place would remain just a beautiful painting without the welcome that guests receive here, but instead it becomes living, shared beauty and a memory. The same goes for the restaurant Il Sereno al Lago inside.
The eternally young Raffaele Lenzi has been here since it opened (almost a decade ago) and is at the helm of everything. Over time, he has managed to put together a solid, effective team and a menu that is extremely enjoyable and full of substance. Dining while being lulled by the lake will always be wonderful, but doing so with Lenzi's dishes is a whole other story. Welcome to a place where you will feel right at home.
The chef and catering
A talent for sports, travel, and cooking, this is Raffaele Lenzi. Born in Naples in 1984, he cultivated his talent with rigor and curiosity. After his first experiences in England and the United States, he refined his vision in Italy under the guidance of names such as Bruno Barbieri and Elio Sironi, before arriving at the Grand Hotel Villa Feltrinelli alongside Stefano Baiocco, where his passion for the world of vegetables was born. Competitive by nature, a lover of sports—from cycling to weightlifting—and discipline, Lenzi is now corporate chef of the Sereno Hotels group, also overseeing its sister property in the Caribbean, Le Sereno in St. Barths.
But it was on the shores of Lake Como that he found his niche, a place where thoughts become dishes and every dish tells a story: that of an ethical, sustainable, and highly evolved cuisine. In 2017, the award of a Michelin star confirmed (but not definitively) a consistent path that continues to grow season after season. And it does so in a place where the natural beauty of Lake Como meets the elegance of hospitality and the depth of signature cuisine. This is Il Sereno Al Lago, a restaurant inside the luxurious Il Sereno. Here, he has created a gastronomic vision that is both sophisticated and authentic, contemporary yet firmly rooted in Italian tradition and open to influences from his travels and imagination, which take him on journeys through different cultures.
A cuisine with identity that looks to the world: “My cuisine expresses the essence of Italy through a personal and contemporary language,” says Lenzi. And it is precisely this synthesis of roots and openness that is reflected in the dishes: a journey of rhythm and taste where the vegetable world plays an important role, accompanied by multicultural influences and a thoughtful lightness that is never banal. The chef's philosophy is based on knowledge and respectful use of raw ingredients and the continuous search for balance of flavors through successful and often exciting recipes and experiments. The result is a gastronomic offering capable of thrilling with simplicity, which eschews virtuosity for its own sake in order to focus on the essential.
Remember that you are in a hotel, a magical place to enjoy throughout the day. At lunchtime, the experience takes shape on the terrace overlooking the lake. The atmosphere is relaxed, the cuisine straightforward but refined: dishes inspired by Lombardy's regional tradition, designed to accompany a convivial moment without compromising on precision. In the evening, however, the focus shifts to the charming stone dock in Moltrasio, where a true ritual dedicated to haute cuisine comes to life, consisting of measured rhythms, great pleasure, and noteworthy hospitality provided by the wonderful dining room staff. Here, Lenzi expresses himself with complete freedom and clearly enjoys himself, offering dishes that combine technique, aesthetics, and stimulation for the palate in a crescendo throughout the entire dinner.
The menus and dishes
You can choose from three tasting menus, each with its own identity and accompanied by sensible and stimulating drinks selected by young sommelier Francesco Martinello. The “A modo mio” menu is Chef Lenzi's mature and conscious manifesto: essential, personal, and constantly evolving cuisine, where each dish is the result of deep reflection.
Contrasts and contradictions are not obstacles but tools for expressing an original and coherent vision. Here, elegance is combined with daring, and different gastronomic cultures are blended through bold combinations. Vegetables are a constant presence, treated with the same dignity as animal proteins. Alongside this personal journey, Lenzi offers the menu “Omaggio alla Tradizione”, a tribute to the most authentic Italian cuisine. The simplicity served is a conscious return to the essence of taste. Each ingredient is respected and enhanced, without excess or forced reinterpretation. Technique gives way to emotion, memory, and the truth of flavor.
Since 2017, the “Vegetables, tubers, and roots” menu has been a mainstay of Il Sereno Al Lago. More than just a vegetarian option, it reflects Lenzi's taste, as he says he eats 80% vegetables and loves their flavor and versatility, giving a new voice to (his) vegetable cuisine. "It's almost a recurring theme for me to combine flavors that are conceptually polar opposites. Sometimes it's perhaps a little too repetitive, but it's now become something of a trademark for me. For example, the menu features venison marinated in tea served with raw red shrimp. There's also lamb simply cooked on the grill with a pumpkin and fiarielli terrine, served with a shellfish-based sriracha. It might become ‘normal’ for those who come often, but in reality we interpret it in a thousand different ways."
Is there a reason why you are fascinated by this combination of flavors? We ask him. “Perhaps not, because first and foremost I cook what I like to eat.” So where does this pleasure in combining the two worlds come from? "I am very instinctive, personally, so I have never asked myself that question. Lavarello in cassola, for example, is the only dish that I have never taken off the menu in ten years. In its simplicity, it is very complex because it has a lot of ingredients. It has always remained on the menu because I strongly believe that certain fish and meats go well together, and many of them can have a surprising similarity." An instinctive chef, virtuoso and dreamer to say the least, with the face of a boy but the hands of a veteran who puts a high and concentrated dose of thought into his dishes. Like the new fish and meat.
"When I told my chef that I wanted to make a dish called ‘fish and meat,’ he laughed and said, ‘What do we usually make?!’ We've always played around with flavors, but in this case, I didn't want it to be a temporary dish, as is usually the case, but something that could have a lasting life on the menu. I don't know if all my guests will accept it, but I really like it," he says, and we couldn't agree more. His team deserves a chapter of its own: the kitchen staff, whom you can glimpse through a large window overlooking the dining room and whose skills you will taste, and the dining room staff, elegant, smiling, understated, friendly but always poised and, above all, well-trained.
The hotel is closed from mid-November to mid-March, but Lenzi is already busy in the kitchen from mid-January, ensuring that you will be amazed when it reopens. To understand whether a dinner has really impressed you, you will need to think back on it after a couple of months. How many dishes can you remember? I can remember them all. How about you?
Contacts
Il Sereno Al Lago
Via Torrazza, 10, 22020 Torno CO
Phone: 031 547 7800
