Chef Sentenced to 3 Months in Jail After Serving Wedding Guests Food Infected with Norovirus
An Italian court handed down a prison sentence of two months and 20 days with a conditional suspension to chef Marco Sacco, 59, and his restaurant manager Raffaella Marchetti for culpable negligence and trading harmful foodstuffs, according to U.K. newspaper The Sunday Times, Irish Star and Italian news outlet La Repubblica.
The court also ordered them to pay over $21,000 (€20,000) in damages to the couple, their guests and to cover legal fees, per the The Sunday Times.
The ruling was related to a wedding reception held in 2021 at the chef’s Piccolo Lago di Verbania restaurant — which boasts two Michelin stars — alongside Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.
During the festivities, the wedding guests were served a raw clam risotto. After their meal, several people who ate the dish complained that they began experiencing symptoms like nausea, vomiting, dysentery and abdominal cramps and some were forced to seek treatment at the hospital, per the outlets.
The incident was investigated by Italian police who determined that the guests had been infected with the norovirus — which had been found in the raw clams in the risotto dish, per the outlets.
The chef indicated that he plans to appeal the court’s verdict and continue business. He told the Corriere della Sera newspaper, per the The Sunday Times, “Next week we will reopen after the winter break here on the lake. We have a spectacular new menu.”