Giorgio Locatelli was born on 6 April 1963 (some sources say 7 April) in Corgeno, a small village in the comune of Vergiate on Lake Comabbio, Lombardy, Italy. He was raised around the family’s Michelin-starred restaurant, La Cinzianella, which gave him an early appreciation for food and cooking.

He moved to London in 1983 at age 20, training under Anton Edelmann at the Savoy Hotel, before spending time in Switzerland and Paris, working under chefs including Joël Robuchon. He returned to London in the mid-1990s, working at Olivo and then Zafferano, where he earned his first Michelin star in 1999.

In 2002 he opened his own restaurant, Locanda Locatelli, in Marylebone, which held a Michelin star for over two decades until its closure in January 2025. He and his wife Plaxy later opened Locatelli at the National Gallery in partnership with Searcys.

He has presented several BBC food and travel programmes, become a longtime judge on MasterChef Italia, and in 2026 joined BBC’s Celebrity MasterChef UK as a judge alongside Grace Dent. He lives in Camden, north London, with his wife and their family.