Fulvio Velsecchi Fulvio Velsecchi, owner/ chef of Gervais Street’s Ristorante Divino, has 32 years in business, with 3,000 bottles of wine in the cellar and 430 wines on the list. Beginning in the town of Dervio, Italy, on the coast of Lake Como, Velsecchi picked up English, Spanish, and French as he gained a worldly education and developed his culinary and communication skills.

Velsecchi’s parents owned a small hotel suitable for the ski traffic in winter and the golfers in summer. While in elementary, middle, and high school – or the equivalent in Italy – Velsecchi worked for this parents, mostly in the hotel restaurant.

After graduating high school, Velsecchi entered a program in culinary art in Bellagio, also on Lake Como. The program took six months of academic rigor, followed by six months of in–kitchen training under a professional chef, which was followed by another six months of academics.

Velsecchi set out on his next three years as a chef– in–training on the Genoabased Home Lines, luxury cruise ships pulling into ports in Europe, the United States, and South America. Typically, the ship would sail for two or three days during which time Velsecchi would work in the kitchens from 6 am ’til 2 pm and from 4 pm ’til 10 pm, all in the same day.

For the next six years Velsecchi worked in the Bahamas including Nassau Beach, the Lyford Cay Club, and Cafe Martinique on Paradise Island. There he met his first wife, a pharmacist in Nassau.

Velsecchi left the Bahamas for Sea Pines on Hilton Head Island, where he worked for the Plantation Club in the fall of 1969 during the first Heritage Club Classic golf tournament won by Arnold Palmer. He began as an assistant chef in September, and by February he was the executive chef, where he stayed for the next five years.

In 1975, Velsecchi struck out on his own at Hilton Head and started La Penpola. At the time, Hilton Head had only Hudson’s, the Hofbrau Haus, a pizza place and the three hotels and their dining rooms: Sea Crest, Adventure Inn, and the William Hilton Inn.

Velsecchi bought the Boar’s Head restaurant in Savannah on the Riverfront. After four years of shuttling between Hilton Head and Savannah, Velsecchi let go of the Boar’s Head. And he sold La Penpola to put all his energies into Fulvio’s Fine Dining on New Orleans Road at the entrance to Sea Pines where he stayed for the next 11 years.

He also joined forces with a partner to set up Fulvio’s Steak House at Hilton Head Plantation. Then in 1989, he opened Cherrystone Seafood on the Sea Pines Traffic Circle

In early 1994, Velsecchi took over the space recently vacated by Le Petit Chateau on Devine Street to start his Ristorante Divino, which was successful enough to force a move to expand. He found his new home, his current home, at 803 Gervais Street, where he has been for 11 years, as of last month.

With his first wife, Velsecchi has a son, Wayne (44), who lives in Columbia with his wife and two boys, Noah (6) and Zachary (4). Velsecchi and his wife D’Ann have two daughters, Alexandra (21) and Paulina (20). Alexandra is enrolled at Midlands Tech, and Paulina, Wofford, and she is about to leave for study in Italy.

D’Ann manages the front of Ristorante Divino with the help of Shana Adams and their wait staff, and Fulvio commands the back segments. D’Ann is also in the coffee business under the brand Caffe Divino. The coffee Web site is www.divinoproducts.com.

The kitchen at Ristorante Divino is open six nights a week, Monday– Saturday, 6–10 pm. For reservations, call 799.4550.