For Chef Valerio Braschi, food has never been a professional choice so much as an inherited instinct. Growing up in Sant'Arcangelo di Romagna, he spent his earliest years in his grandmother's kitchen learning, long before any formal training, that the quality of what you put in determines everything that comes out. This principle has followed him from Emilia-Romagna to Rome to Milan, and today extends to every aspect of how he lives, including how he cares for his seven cats – including Somy and Carla.
In 2017, Valerio won the sixth edition of MasterChef Italy - a moment that introduced him to a wide audience, but which he treated from the outset as a starting point. What followed was a deliberate and disciplined progression: working under Bruno Barbieri at Fourghetti, representing Italian cuisine as culinary ambassador in New Delhi, then taking on the role of executive chef at Ristorante 1978 in Rome, where his cooking began to find its own voice.
Today, one of Italy's most exciting and accomplished young chefs, someone who reads an ingredient the way others read a map, understanding its provenance, its quality and what it will and won't do, is based in Milan, where his restaurant The View sits on Piazza del Duomo and was included in the Michelin Guide in October 2025.
Valerio’s cats are a fixture of life off the pass. For a chef whose entire working life is built around the conviction that what something is made of matters, it was perhaps inevitable that the same standard would find its way into what he feeds them every day:
"In the kitchen, I'm always looking for ways to combine things that work together - different textures, different flavours, something that surprises you but makes sense on the plate. I do the same thing for my cats. I mix and match across the Nulo range every day, building combinations that meet their individual nutritional needs.
“For me, eating the same thing every day would be uninspiring and nutritionally limiting. I don't see why it should be any different for a cat. With Nulo, I know exactly what I'm working with - real protein, honest ingredients, real quality. It's the same standard I apply in everything I cook."
