Danilo Zanna

Vorlage:Short description Vorlage:Infobox person Danilo Zanna (born 15 April 1982), is an Italian chef, media presenter, and restaurant operator currently residing in Turkey. He is currently a judge in the show MasterChef Turkey.

Life and Career

Early years

Zanna was born on April 15, 1982 in Prato, Tuscany, Italy. He took over cooking as a family business. He strengthened his culinary skills by working with Italian chefs on Italian cuisine.

Life in Turkey

Zanna, who is interested in Turkish cuisine, migrated from Italy to Turkey because he wanted to pursue a career in this field. After settling in Turkey, he opened a restaurant with Italian and Turkish cuisine. Later, he started to take part in television programs, with his first being in a program called "Zahide ile Hayata Yetiş" as an assistant chef.

Zanna rose to recognition with the cooking show "İtalyan İşi", which he had created and presented on the Planet Mutfak television channel. He worked on Italian dishes at Kadir Has University Istanbul Cuisine Institute, which includes the restaurant culture of different countries in Turkey.

After Planet Mutfak was shut down, he appeared on television with the programs "Elin Oğlu", broadcast on ATV, and "Lezzetin Şarkısı", which was broadcasted on NTV, and presented by himself. Zanna is currently a jury member in the program of Masterchef Turkey, which started to be broadcast on TV8 in its new season in 2019. He married Tuğçe Demirbilek in 2012, and divorced her on December 15, 2021.

On January 10, 2022, he opened a branch of the Italian restaurant "Filo D'Olio", in Izmir, Turkey, and recruited Mert Ateş Durukan, who competed in MasterChef Turkey 2021, to his cooking team, and Safanur Bol from the same season, a short while later.

He has also hosted the Turkish version of MasterChef Junior, which has aired on Exxen since 2021. As of 2022, he remains one of the three judges in MasterChef Turkey.