Collection Magazine - Issue 1 - Autumn/Winter 22/23 - Magazine - Page 73
—
A man with a plan.
As Executive Head
Chef of the Stafford
Collection’s first
standalone restaurant,
Norma, Giovann Attard
talks passion, pumpkins
and his grand plans for
the future of the brand.
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The first time I met Giovann Attard was the day before Norma
officially opened in September 2019, and there was a palpable
frisson of excitement in the air, not least because columnist
Giles Coren had popped in for a pre-opening lunch. Despite
the hectic workload naturally demanded by a restaurant
opening, not to mention the added pressure of a food critic
to impress, Giovann obligingly stepped out from the kitchen
to talk to me about the restaurant’s offering, and explain a bit
about his journey from his native Malta to Norma.
Fast forward three years and, even despite a pandemic
forcing it to temporarily shut its doors, Norma has firmly
planted itself on the London gastro scene. Inspired by the food
and culture of Sicily, with a particular focus on the Moorish
influences found in the island’s cuisine, the restaurant has
garnered great acclaim, with its emphasis on celebrating the
warmth and charm of old-school Italian hospitality.
When the concept of Norma was first touted, Giovann
was already known to the Stafford Collection, having worked
firstly as a Chef de Partie at The Stafford London hotel when
he first came to the UK from Malta, and then for Café Football,
working his way up the ranks to become Head Chef — the
Café, at that time, being headed up by the Stafford Collection’s
Chief Operating Officer, Stuart Procter.
“When the opportunity to work at Norma came up, it was the
first time since I’d been in London that I was going to cook this
sort of cuisine,” Giovann tells me, from the comfort of Norma’s
dining room, rather than the heat of the kitchen. We’re speaking
over Zoom — not as a consequence of the pandemic, but rather
more due to a lack of alignment in our respective busy diaries.
“Back home, I was always cooking Mediterranean cuisine —
that’s me, and that’s where and how I grew up,” he explains.
