Twelve Years, No Shortcuts: A conversation with Executive Chef Marco Corsica, Bocconcino
In a city constantly chasing its next big restaurant opening, staying relevant for more than a decade is no small achievement. Yet, 12 years after opening its doors on Berkeley Street, Bocconcino Mayfair remains an established name on London's Italian dining scene.
At the heart of its kitchen is Executive Chef Marco Corsica, a Naples native with more than 30 years of experience, including time at Cecconi's, Sartoria, Daphne's and alongside Marco Pierre White. Having been part of Bocconcino since its launch in 2014, Marco now oversees the group's three London restaurants, balancing traditional Italian cooking with the evolving expectations of the capital's diners.
But what does it really take to build a restaurant that stands the test of time? From maintaining standards and nurturing talent to navigating rising costs, changing dining habits and the influence of social media, The Knife sits down with Marco to discover the secrets behind Bocconcino's longevity – and why, sometimes, the most important ingredient is knowing when not to change.
Bocconcino has been on Berkeley Street for 12 years, which is quite an achievement in a city that's always chasing its next big restaurant opening. What's the secret to keeping people coming back year after year?
The most important thing is to make sure you're always giving 100% when it comes to quality, service and standards. Of course, things aren't always going to be perfect. There will be issues throughout the day, but you have to do everything you can to accommodate your guests and make sure they have a great experience.
And that doesn't just apply to the kitchen. It starts with the welcome when somebody walks into the restaurant, continues through the service and, of course, comes down to the quality of the food.
For us, using good, fresh ingredients is absolutely essential. We're an Italian restaurant, so we try to source Italian produce wherever possible, whether that's tomatoes, Sicilian prawns, flour or mozzarella. But we also use fantastic British ingredients, such as fish from the English coast and Scottish meat.
It's a combination of things. A restaurant is about the whole experience, not just what's happening in the kitchen. There's a lot of work and effort behind making that experience feel special.
You were part of the team that opened Bocconcino Mayfair in 2014. Looking back at those early days, what did you get right from the beginning, and what have you had to learn or change along the way?
From the very beginning, we wanted to be authentic and original. That was important to us, and it still is today. But London has changed enormously over the past 12 years. I've been working in the city for around 20 years, much of that time in Mayfair, and I've seen how the restaurant scene has evolved.
You have to adapt and follow what's happening around you. You can maintain your authenticity and identity, but you also have to give customers something new and understand what they're looking for.
Today, you have Instagram, TikTok and influencers, which have changed how people discover restaurants and what they expect from them.
The important thing is to evolve without losing what made you successful in the first place.
How do you keep a restaurant feeling fresh and exciting without losing that authentic identity?
First of all, you have to get out and see what's happening around you. You can't just stay in your own restaurant. I like going out for dinner, visiting different parts of London and seeing what other restaurants are doing.
Sometimes somebody else might be doing something better than you, and there's no shame in taking inspiration from that. I'm not talking about copying people, but you can always pick up ideas and learn something new.
You also have to understand your customers. In Mayfair, our clientele changes throughout the week. Monday to Thursday, particularly at lunchtime, it's very corporate and business-focused. At weekends, we see a younger crowd, people looking for brunch or a lively Saturday evening, while Sundays tend to be more family-oriented.
We have two different dining areas, so we can offer different experiences. We've also introduced more tableside service, preparing dishes such as beef tartare and open lasagne in front of guests. That brings a little theatre to the experience and gives people something special to remember.
Trends are always changing, so you have to stay on top of what's happening. But you should never compromise your quality, standards or identity. You just need to find those little differences that make people want to come back again.
You've worked at some of London's most established Italian restaurants. What did those kitchens teach you about building a restaurant that stands the test of time?
I think every kitchen you work in teaches you something, and all those experiences become part of who you are as a chef. You might learn something about organisation, discover a new combination of flavours or pick up a different way of working from somebody you meet.
That's one of the beautiful things about London. It's such a multicultural city, and you're constantly working with people from different backgrounds who bring their own ideas and experiences into the kitchen.
You can even learn something from a young commis chef who's just starting out. They might have very little experience but come up with something you've never seen before. Of course, you need experience yourself. You need to understand the fundamentals and have a solid foundation in cooking, but you should never stop learning.
I think of it like building a wall. Every experience, every person you work with and every new thing you learn adds another brick. Over the years, that's what makes you the chef you are.
Mayfair is home to some of London's most celebrated restaurants, but it's also a neighbourhood where diners have plenty of choice and high expectations. What does it take to build a loyal following here?
It comes back to quality and consistency, both in the food and the service. You need to deliver the same standards every time somebody visits.
You also have to make sure you're charging the right amount for what you're putting on the table. You can't take advantage of people. Of course, certain ingredients are expensive. If somebody orders Dover sole or white truffle, they understand they're going to pay a premium for that. But the quality has to justify the price.
You can't cut corners, and everybody has to play their part. From the waiter and restaurant manager to the commis chef, chef de partie and pastry chef, we're all one big team working towards the same goal. When service starts and you have a team that's been working together for years, it's like a well-oiled machine. Everybody knows what they're doing and moves in the same direction. That's difficult to achieve, but it's incredibly important. And if you want people to stay with you for a long time, you have to treat them well, reward them and help them develop.
You're originally from Naples, and regional Italian cooking has always been at the heart of your career. Which dishes or traditions are absolutely non-negotiable for you, and where do you give yourself room to experiment?
Naturally, I love the food from southern Italy, particularly Naples, where I'm from. But I love food from all over Italy, and I try to represent that diversity when we're developing our menus. We might not change the entire menu every time, but we can introduce different flavours and ingredients from the north, south and the islands. Sometimes we'll take a classic recipe and give it a little twist, but other times I believe it's important to leave it exactly as it is.
Take a traditional saffron risotto with ossobuco. If we're putting that on the menu, we're not going to start changing everything about it. Some dishes should be honoured and respected in the way they were originally created. I'm a little old-fashioned in that respect!
I worked with Marco Pierre White for nearly nine years, and one of the things I learned from him was to let the main ingredient speak for itself. If you're putting sea bass on the menu, make sure the sea bass is the main character. You can add other ingredients around it, but you shouldn't do so much that you lose sight of what the dish is supposed to be about. That's something I've carried with me throughout my career.
Food is only one part of running a successful restaurant. From rising costs to finding good staff and maintaining consistency, what's the biggest challenge facing established restaurants in London today?
At the moment, the biggest challenge is the economy and the rising cost of running a restaurant. Everything is becoming more expensive. Fuel costs affect the price of deliveries and ingredients, and then you have inflation, staff costs, rent and business rates.
People don't always realise how much restaurants are paying for the ingredients they're serving. And we can't simply pass every increase on to the customer.
Even the smaller things add up. If you need to replace plates or glasses, that's another expense, and when you're running a restaurant of this size, the costs can become enormous. It doesn't take long for a business to get into difficulty if it's not bringing in the revenue it needs. If customers stop coming in, you struggle to pay your suppliers, and that has a knock-on effect on the businesses they work with.
So you have to keep promoting yourself and making sure people know you're there. That means using marketing, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms.
A restaurant might have the same name and address for 12 years, but the people behind it inevitably change. How important has building the right team been to Bocconcino's longevity, and what do you look for in a chef who joins your kitchen?
It's vital. If you don't have the right team, you're going nowhere. The first thing I look for is attitude. People have to understand that working in a professional kitchen is a tough job. It means working evenings, weekends and sometimes very long hours. It's not a Monday-to-Friday, nine-to-five job.
But above all, I want people who genuinely want to learn. You need a strong foundation of experienced chefs in a kitchen, but I'm also very happy to take on somebody with little or no experience if they have the right attitude. I'd rather spend more time training somebody properly, even if it takes six months or a year, because if they're willing to learn, they can become an incredibly valuable and loyal member of the team.
A great example is our head chef in Soho. He started working with me around 10 years ago, initially as a kitchen porter, with no real experience of cooking professionally. But I could see that he had potential. He wanted to learn, so we worked together and he continued developing his skills. Now he's running the kitchen in Soho and doing an amazing job. That's incredibly rewarding for me. You're not just teaching somebody how to cook; you're helping them discover a career and a future they might never have imagined for themselves.
Bocconcino has expanded into Soho and Covent Garden, with three restaurants now under your direction. How do you maintain the same standards and sense of identity across all three?
It's difficult because you have to be involved all the time. You can't just assume that because a restaurant is busy, everything is running properly. I always compare it to looking after a plant. You have to water it, trim it and take care of it constantly. You can't just leave it alone and expect it to keep growing.
When I come into the kitchen in the morning, I might remind the kitchen porters about the same things I've told them every day. It's not because I don't think they're doing a good job, I know they are. But the moment you stop paying attention to the little things, people can become comfortable, standards can slip and that's when problems begin.
The same principle applies across all three restaurants. You have to keep looking after the team, maintaining standards and making sure everybody understands what's expected of them. You can never afford to become complacent. The moment you lose that hunger and stop paying attention, things can go wrong very quickly.
Is there a dish you've kept on the menu for years because guests simply won't let you take it off? And, on the flip side, have you ever had to retire a personal favourite because it was time to move on?
Over the past 12 years, I think we've probably covered most of Italy when it comes to classic dishes! But one dish that's been on the menu since day one is our homemade tagliatelle with wild boar ragù. It's a beautiful, rich, classic dish that works throughout the year, whether it's summer, spring, autumn or winter. I honestly can't see us ever taking it off the menu.
We also have dishes such as seafood risotto, veal Milanese and linguine with lobster. They're classics, and they're the dishes people expect to find when they come to Bocconcino.
On the other hand, there are dishes I've tried to introduce that simply haven't worked. One of my personal favourites is Venetian baccalà with polenta. I've tried putting it on the menu a few times, but it just doesn't sell particularly well. It's a dish with a very strong flavour, and it's not to everybody's taste.
You have to remember that you're running a business. You can't cook just for your own ego, you have to cook for your customers. If a dish doesn't sell, it doesn't sell. You have to accept that and move onto something different.
After more than 30 years in professional kitchens, what still excites you about walking into a restaurant every morning? Has your idea of what makes a great restaurant changed since you first started cooking?
I just love the job, it's a passion. When I walk into the kitchen in the morning, there's a particular smell, a particular atmosphere. There's the relationship you have with your colleagues, the laughter, the shouting and sometimes getting upset with each other, only to be laughing together again five minutes later.
It's a fantastic industry, and I think you can only really understand the beauty of it if you've worked in it yourself. And then there's the satisfaction of seeing people enjoy what you've created.
When somebody comes up to you at the end of their meal to say thank you, [that] tells you they've had a wonderful experience, that they loved the food and can't wait to come back – that's what makes it all worthwhile. That's what keeps me coming back every morning.
Finally, if we're sitting down together again in another 12 years, what would you like us to be talking about? What does the next chapter look like for you and Bocconcino?
I'd love to see the business continue growing and becoming even more successful. It would be wonderful to see Bocconcino develop into a brand that's recognised around the world, perhaps with restaurants in places like the Middle East.
Obviously, those aren't decisions I make myself, and I don't know whether that will happen, but if you're asking me what I'd like to see over the next 10 or 12 years, that's certainly something I'd love to be part of.
Italian food is loved all over the world, and I think there's a fantastic opportunity for the brand to continue growing. That would be a wonderful thing to see.
