Three Generations of Tuscan Cooking

In the Bigotti family we pass on our traditions, especially the tradition of our cooking with its Tuscan heritage. Three generations of the Bigotti family work at the Il Pavone restaurant in Walnut Creek passing on the fine traditions of Tuscan cooking in the Bay Area restaurant. Each of us has worked from busboy to waiter.  Marcello Bigotti is our chef and Nick Bigotti  heads up operations and catering at Il Pavone. At Il Pavone, cooking and food is all about family and making you feel at home at our Walnut Creek restaurant while serving you the best in Tuscan cuisine.

Reservation Request

Marcello Bigotti- Executive Chef

Meet Marcello Bigotti, the chef at Il Pavone restaurant in Walnut Creek. Marcello’s interest in cooking and food started at a young age. As early as five he was fascinated by food and its preparation. As a child he can remember his favorite television shows being Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet, not the usual fare for young child, but for a family steeped in Tuscan food heritage and preparation it shows his early fascination with cooking.

In high school Marcello worked in every aspect of food preparation at Marcellos but always gravitated to the kitchen helping to create the wonderful food Marcello’s was known for in Orinda and Danville. He has been a chef for many years at landmark restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area, from Harry’s Bar, Il Fornaio, Palio d’ Asti, the Blue Fox, and Fabrizio’s in Larkspur. In 1990 he came home to Il Pavone to be the head chef at his family’s restaurant, bringing years of experience in Italian cooking and Tuscan specialties to Il Pavone.

Since Marcello was a child he helped his father prepare the homemade pasta, pasta sauce, coppa, salami, and prosciutto that have become a family tradition that sets Il Pavone apart from its competition. The mushrooms that find their way into the delectable dishes created at Il Pavone are harvested in the wild by the Bigotti family. Their homemade pasta, sauces, and meats create the memorable dishes they are known for throughout the Bay Area.

Marcello has traveled to Italy to visit his aunt’s family in the Lucca region to bring back many of the time-honored recipes the region is famous for and are featured at Il Pavone. Many nights you will find him visiting the tables, greeting you with his warm smile, making sure that everything is to your liking. For Marcello it’s always about the food and having customers leave their Walnut Creek restaurant feeling they have feasted on fine cuisine having been treated like family.

Nick Bigotti-Catering & Operations

Nick Bigotti started working in the family restaurant business when he was a young boy washing dishes and then busing tables. The restaurant business for the Bigotti family has always been about family and everyone has been included from a young age. Nick had different plans after high school and went to college at Humboldt State University as a Natural Resource major graduating in 1991.

He had planned on going on to an environmental job on a national scale, but the job he was offered did not fit his goals and he came to work at Il Pavone. Much of his education background in statistics and organizational methods proved very helpful to the overall management of Il Pavone. He has found it interesting that over the years that Il Pavone has grown with his desires for growth for the family business.

The Bigotti family has always catered events since his father’s restaurant started in Oakland in the 1970’s, but Nick Bigotti has taken the Il Pavone catering business to a new level of excellence. Through his inspiration and expertise the Il Pavone Walnut Creek catering business is expanding each year, with events throughout Bay Area.

Looking ahead Nick can envision a new era for Il Pavone with an expanded Bay Area catering business,  soon bringing some of their homemade delicacies of pasta, pasta sauce, and homemade meats and making them available for purchase at the restaurant and in the future online.

Reservation Request