From the Catwalk to the Kitchen: Chef Isaac Carew’s Love Affair With Italian Food

He’s the British boy next door who loves to cook. Model and chef Isaac Carew reveals the Italian dishes and ingredients that he most adores, and why Florence is his new favourite city.

Isaac Carew loves Italian food. “I was trained classically but I would say Italian is my cooking style,” he says. His signature? “Loads of fresh pasta.” 

Isaac has recently returned from sunny Tuscany, where he put that love of pasta to work at the newly opened W Florence for an episode of W Hotels’ "Hotel Tales". Arriving at the jaw-dropping hotel, the 39-year-old British chef, author and model had a mission to chase flavour across the city’s storied streets – but the hotel’s bold design, culinary energy and an impromptu kitchen visit would reshape his stay.

Isaac has been working in kitchens since he was a child, when he used to help his dad and godfather, both chefs, at weekends. After training at culinary school, he cut his teeth working for super-chef Angela Hartnett at London’s The Connaught hotel. “She’s the one who instilled most of my Italian roots of cooking,” he says. By roots, he really does mean the basics. A pasta purist, Isaac’s favourite Italian dish of all is cacio e pepe – the simplest of Rome’s pasta toppings, just finely grated cheese and a kick of pepper wrapped around long ribbons of tonnarelli. “It’s comforting, warm, like a nice hug.”

He’s partial to a carbonara, too – “Obviously a real one – not with cream,” he hastens to say, before the wrath of Italy comes for him – and a simple Margherita pizza, as long as it’s a wafer-thin-crust Roman base rather than the softer, sloppier Neapolitan style. Swap the mozzarella for burrata on top, and his contentment is complete. 

Cannoli, cooking and comebacks

After paying his dues as a chef – he also worked at Cielo in Boca Raton for the Gordon Ramsay Group – Isaac shot to global fame in 2007 as a model, working for the likes of Valentino and Moschino (Italian brands, of course) after he was scouted between shifts. But he couldn’t stay out of the kitchen long, and returned to cooking in 2016, launching a YouTube cooking channel and publishing a cookbook, The Dirty Dishes. Nearly a decade on, that love of Italian food that Hartnett instilled in him has only got stronger. Isaac’s still reminiscing about his food-soaked trip to Florence, where he ate his way through the menu at TRATTO, the new restaurant at the W Florence, which opened in July 2025 – just in time for rooftop summer spritzes (Isaac prefers his with Aperol).

Isaac Carew’s love affair with Italian food has only grown stronger over time as he honed his craft and culinary skills (Photo: Marriott International)

Italian food is famously regional, and Isaac already has his pantheon of favourite foodie areas. Top of his list is Puglia, where he came face to face with Southern Italy’s super-fresh cuisine, including red prawns, which are famously served raw. “I know I’m a chef, but I didn’t actually realise I could eat these raw – I thought they were trying to play some kind of trick on me,” he says. It took just one bite to realise this was no joke. “They’re sweet, delicate, delicious,” he says. 

Second on the list is another southern region: Sicily, famous for its street food, including arancini – fried rice balls oozing with fillings from a classic ragu to ham with bechamel sauce. “I had the best arancini of my life, and also cannoli – they’re incredible,” he enthuses. Then there’s the island’s breakfast of champions: a brioche bun dunked into granita (shaved ice). “It’s really delicious. I actually adore Sicily.”

Discovering "La Bella Firenze"

And now, having made his debut shooting his Hotel Tale for W Hotels, he adores Florence, too. 

The city may be known as the cradle of the Renaissance for its art and literature, but the wider region of Tuscany is one of Italy’s most exciting regions when it comes to food, with a rich gastronomic tradition which also dates back to Renaissance times. The star of the show is usually the humble tomato – the powerful Medici rulers were some of the first in Europe to cook with it. Pulses – including rare beans that used to feature in Roman recipes – are the other staple in Tuscan cuisine, which might explain its ever-increasing popularity in a world focused on more sustainable food. Little wonder Isaac felt at home: “I was basically vegetarian for most of my childhood,” he says. That’s “unless it was a Sunday and then we’d have a massive roast dinner.” 

Florence, renowned for its rustic, hearty and honest flavours, is a city where Isaac Carew feels very much at home (Photo: Marriott International)

W Florence sits a few blocks from the city’s famous Duomo (cathedral) and, perhaps just as tantalisingly for foodies, the Mercato Centrale, Florence’s main market. The famous Italian hospitality shone through when he stepped inside the hotel, he found. “Most of the staff members I met, I felt like I’d known them for about 15 years,” he says. “I felt like I was always coming back home.” Returning ‘home’ is a particular pleasure when you have spectacular views of Florence’s iconic terracotta cathedral dome from the rooftop. “That view is just incredible,” says Isaac. 

W Florence’s TRATTO restaurant is a spin-off for the Michelin-starred Trattoria Contemporanea at Lomazzo, near Lake Como. Like its elder sibling, the menu tends towards inventive Italian; and, perfect for sociable Florence, the pan-Italian dishes are made to be shared. “The menu is amazing,” says Isaac, raving about the spiced beef with pepper sauce starter. Chatting with some of the waiters and chefs amped up that feeling of coming home. “I felt like I’d known them for ages,” he says. Finding yourself in the kitchen with the chefs – a classic W Hotels 'You just had to be there' moment.

Spaghetti and meatballs in a rich tomato sauce, a staple of Italian cuisine, served at the W Florence's TRATTO (Photo: Marriott International)

The idea of a home away from home is particularly compelling for a traveller like Isaac, who has circled the world in search of food that excites him, and is always on the lookout for the best global ingredients. A trip to south-east Asia rocketed Vietnamese food to the top of his list of all-time greats. “The amount of different flavours and combinations of sweet, salty, spicy, tangy… Vietnam is just one of the most incredible places for food,” he says. He was inspired to go there by the late, great Anthony Bourdain, the chef and writer who had a special relationship with Vietnam, and often returned to film there – he famously took Barack Obama for dinner in a Hanoi mom and pop restaurant. 

Next on Isaac’s travel list is Mallorca - Deià, to be precise. And just maybe we’ll see him back in Tuscany. “I collect playing cards, and for each place I go, I try to grab a deck – but I forgot to do that in Florence,” he says. That’s the best kind of excuse to come back for more Tuscan food. See you in TRATTO, Isaac.

W Hotels, part of Marriott Bonvoy’s portfolio of over 30 hotel brands, unveils its Hotel Tales series in Europe and the Middle East. Shot in an editorial-documentary style and released on Instagram, the brand content series captures the spontaneous, unfiltered, “You just had to be there” moments that unfold when travel plans give way to the unexpected energy of W Hotels. Watch the video here. 

Published: October 22, 2025

Last Updated: November 11, 2025