The Chef's Table: Fabrizio Aceti Brings a New Italian Chapter to Do Forni

VIPs, influencers and food lovers gathered this week around a five-course menu set to officially join the à la carte selection in October. At the stove: Italian chef Fabrizio Aceti, flown in specially to present his newest creation.

Chef Fabrizio Aceti, at work

There's the sound of water first. Do Forni, the Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra's Italian address, sits almost afloat above a pond where a few fountains play beneath a terracotta roof — and that's part of what gives the place its character, dining as if suspended between two waters, well away from the city's noise outside. That evening, the room held a carefully chosen crowd — VIPs, regular gourmets, and a few of Phnom Penh's most-watched food influencers, among them Cambodian creator Vina Na and Shasne Suleimanova — invited to taste, ahead of everyone else, the five dishes that will make up Do Forni's new menu.

Do Forni, the Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra's Italian address

A Chef Who Crossed the World to Better Cook Italy

The menu carries the signature of Fabrizio Aceti, an Italian chef with close to three decades of international experience across eight countries in Europe and Asia, in Michelin-starred kitchens as well as leading Italian restaurants for several respected hospitality groups. His cooking unfolds in a delicate balance between fidelity and daring: staying loyal to the Italian canon while never quite resisting the pull of an idea that unsettles it slightly, a texture you didn't see coming. As Do Forni's Italian culinary consultant, Aceti made the trip to Phnom Penh in person, spending most of the evening at the pass alongside the local kitchen team.

Five Courses, One Voice

The meal opens with Astice — steamed lobster laid over a veil of stracciatella, a few pieces of tomato confit, fresh basil. Nothing showy in the construction, everything resting on balance: the briny sweetness of the shellfish, softened by the creaminess of the cheese. The Cocchi Brut from Piemonte accompanies it with precision, its fine bubbles brushing past the dish without ever trying to dominate it.

Astice: steamed lobster tail over a veil of stracciatella, tomato confit and fresh basil

Next, the Gnocchi di Ricotta — ricotta gnocchi dressed in lemon pesto, clams, a few shavings of bottarga. Arguably the dish that says the most about the collection's spirit: the comfort of fresh, handmade pasta, woken up almost by surprise with a hit of the sea.

The Merluzzo alla Veneziana continues along the same coastal thread — a cod fillet done Venetian-style, with pine nuts, milk and extra virgin olive oil, paired with a Terenzuola Colli di Luni Fosso di Corsano Vermentino 2023 from Liguria, a wine every bit as coastal and precise as the dish itself.

Merluzzo alla Veneziana, flaked and coated in a milk and pine nut sauce, finished with a red chard leaf

The Filetto di Manzo marks the turn in the meal: grilled beef tenderloin with a clean, honest crust, served with crunchy polenta and a gorgonzola sauce. The Marchesi di Barolo Barbaresco DOCG Tradizione 2020, a Nebbiolo from Piemonte, brings the structure a cut of that calibre calls for.

Filetto di Manzo, a grilled beef medallion with a crunchy polenta crisp and gorgonzola sauce

And to close, the Meringata ai Lamponi: a shard of crisp meringue over lightly vanilla-scented Chantilly and fresh raspberries, served with a Grappa Villa Serravalle Moscato Invecchiata 2023 from Piemonte — the kind of dessert that ends a meal without ever weighing it down.

Meringata ai Lamponi, a shard of zested meringue over vanilla Chantilly and fresh raspberries

A Cuisine of Dialogue, Carried by Do Forni's Atmosphere

What stays with you from these five courses is the way Chef Aceti lets ingredients speak to one another without ever straying from the thread of Italian cooking: bottarga waking up ricotta gnocchi, gorgonzola backing up grilled beef and crunchy polenta, a Venetian classic rewritten for a Cambodian table. Each plate reads like a short sentence — few elements, each one exactly where it needs to be — and that deliberate restraint says a lot about the chef's control.

The wine pairings, almost entirely Piemontese, gave the meal a rare, almost narrative coherence, as though each glass picked up the conversation the previous plate had started. An optional wine pairing will let future guests retrace that same journey once the menu opens to the public.

Wine being poured in the dining room, between glasses of rosé and white already filled

And then there's what Do Forni has always done well: a room that breathes, dim lighting playing almost with the shadows, in a close, intimate chiaroscuro, an open kitchen you sense more than see, staff moving through without ever drawing attention to themselves. It's easy to forget you're in a hotel restaurant — the place borrows the soul and warmth of a real Italian trattoria, set that evening on the pools of the Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra.

Several times over the course of the evening, Chef Aceti came out himself to greet the tables, course after course. And each time, without exception, the same thing showed on guests' faces: a satisfaction too genuine to fake.

Guests left delighted, a few photos to remember the night, and October already circled on the calendar.

The Chef's Table with Fabrizio Aceti launches at Do Forni, Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, in October.

Do Forni — Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, 26 Old August Site, Sothearos Boulevard, Sangkat Tonle Bassac, Phnom Penh www.sofitel-phnompenh-phokeethra.com/restaurants-bars/do-forni