From pharmaceutical chemist to food creator: Giovanni Mele’s journey toward Maredizione

In the vast — and often chaotic — landscape of Neapolitan food creators, few voices resonate with the authenticity and straightforwardness of Giovanni Mele, known on Instagram as @jovaebbasta. Far from the glossy clichés of “food porn,” Mele has built a solid community by focusing on substance: a genuine love for cooking and the ability to narrate food not just as something to photograph, but as a cultural and social experience.

But the real magic happens when digital storytelling meets tangible ingredients. This is where his ambitious collaboration with Macelleria di Mare comes in — a local institution in seafood processing. From this partnership was born, in Cardito, Maredizione – Trattoria di Mare: a concept that aims to redefine the standards of seafood dining. It’s not a simple marketing operation, but a fusion between Giovanni’s modern, communicative vision and the technical excellence of those who treat the sea with artisanal respect.

Hi Giovanni, welcome to InItaly. It’s a pleasure to have you here to talk about your journey and this new project, Maredizione.
How did the project come to life?

This project was born from about a year of collaboration with Macelleria di Mare, which began with a conversation with the owner, Leonardo De Luca.

I wanted to express myself in a way that went beyond social media. The barrier of a phone, a screen, a keyboard no longer gives me the same spark.

Interacting with people online is nice — it connects you with Americans, Swedes, Italians — but it doesn’t give you the same emotion as seeing someone taste a dish and either enjoy it or make a face. A like, a clap, an emoji… they’re sterile.

During this year of collaboration, we organized one or two events a month where I would come in as an external cook and work with a brigade of young chefs, sometimes with ideas completely different from mine. The idea was to offer an evening outside the daily menu, with reinterpretations or entirely new dishes.

We worked incredibly well together. It was a fruitful collaboration, personally too, because it allowed me to grow a lot.

You went from being a pharmaceutical chemist to a food creator. What pushed you to take this path? Were you already passionate about cooking?

Yes. Cooking is my second life — it’s as if I were Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where Mr. Hyde is the chemist and Dr. Jekyll is the cook.

They were two parallel lines that never met… until they did. Cooking has been part of my life since I was a child. I was lucky to have a close family where any excuse was good enough to sit at the table together. My parents made me travel a lot: food tourism and cultural visits were the foundation of our trips. At home, we would travel just to eat. That shaped my second personality, and eventually the two paths crossed.

Earlier we said that Maredizione is not just a marketing operation. Can you explain what this new challenge really consists of?

What I see in today’s restaurant scene — especially after having run a pizza blog — is a huge problem: people focus too much on aesthetics, on premium products, on creating dishes that look good on social media. But do dishes still smell like they used to?
For example, I’ve always wondered: does today’s margherita pizza smell like it did ten or fifteen years ago? I used to smell a margherita or a marinara from across the dining room.

The challenge is this: I don’t just want people to eat well — I want them to fall in love with what they’re eating. I want them to smell what they’re eating. They must eat not only with their eyes and palate, but with their nose — with all five senses. It all starts from the desire to bring back dishes from our Italian culinary tradition, not just Neapolitan, from the 1980s.

The 80s, despite being criticized, were years when cuisine opened up to new paradigms that are now returning. As a chemist, I can say molecular cuisine will never come back. But an 80s-style shrimp risotto — even with cream — is a dish people will always love. We start from the 80s and then reinterpret them with our own vision.

Social media were your launchpad. After Maredizione, besides strengthening your online presence, will you also prioritize human, face‑to‑face interaction?

Absolutely yes — for me, it’s essential. Human connection is what distinguishes us from any other species, and thanks to it, work becomes something beautiful. As long as I don’t perceive cooking as “work,” I go in and have fun. Just like when I was in the university research lab. When it became something I had to do, I stopped enjoying it.

Have you brought the know‑how you gained from studying chemistry into your cooking?

Yes. My passion for chemistry is always there, and it helps me every day in the kitchen. Essential oil extraction, steam distillation, melting points… instead of taking refresher courses, I already have that foundation.

Which dish is closest to a chemistry experiment you’ve done?

I’d say genovese, because of its long cooking time, which for me must start at controlled temperatures.

We begin by cooking it covered with water, because that water softens the onions and supports the three‑hour cooking process. But once the water evaporates, we remove the lid and add fish broth and tuna reduction.

This way, even though the water evaporates, all the essential oils, aromas, and tuna flavor remain on the onions. The onions are already cooked — they just need to absorb the fish flavor.

What challenges await you in the future?

Definitely not rushing and not taking steps bigger than I can handle. I’m a very cautious person — I thought about opening a restaurant for years before actually doing it. And I won’t overlook details, because for me they make the difference. You can eat a great genovese anywhere, but the texture of the tuna must make the difference.

To achieve that, you need consolidation: my goal is to start well, correct, consolidate, improve. The main phases of an experiment — that’s my background. I’m not interested in opening a second, third, or fourth restaurant, not now. Maybe one day? Who knows. But this restaurant must become a fortress: people must come here because they feel good, they ate well, they smelled the food, and they felt at home.

Thank you very much for being with us. We hope Macelleria di Mare and Maredizione will move toward a successful future.