Celebrating 20 years of culinary excellence at Lancashire’s La Locanda Italian restaurant

La Locanda owners Chef Maurizio Bocchi with his wife Cinzia will be celebrating in their adopted home of Gisburn.

Head chef and Lancashire Taste Ambassador Maurizio was born and grew up on the banks of Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. Here a young Maurizio cultivated his passion for good food and traditional ingredients – foraging for chestnuts and mushrooms on woodland walks with his grandmother, and helping his mother, who every morning would knead the flour from the local mill and collect eggs from the hen house to prepare fresh pasta for lunch.

The young couple moved to Lancashire in 1996 where Maurizio had the opportunity to further his education at Myerscough College in Garstang and advance his career at Carlo’s in Colne.

With the ultimate dream of owning their own restaurant, a walk in Whalley past an estate agent window would be where they first spotted their La Locanda. After extensive renovations, Maurizio and Cinzia opened La Locanda’s doors in 2003.

Today, its menu of handcrafted, authentic dishes showcase wonderful Lancashire produce along with the very best Italy has to offer.

Chef Maurizio said: “For 20 years, my promise has been to create and serve a menu of Italian dishes passed down through generations to allow our lovely customers to immerse themselves into a truly Italian mealtime experience; giving a flavour of the culture, heritage, tradition and hospitality of the place we are so proud to call our home.”