Fora is Italian-rooted cooking and Chicago artistry, together in one room — shaped by Executive Chef Marcello Florio's kitchen and a design story built around original art.
Fora is Italian-rooted cooking and Chicago artistry, together in one room — shaped by Executive Chef Marcello Florio's kitchen and a design story built around original art.
Marcello Florio learned to cook before he learned to drive. At 15, he entered the kitchens of Villa Santa Maria in Italy — one of the oldest culinary schools in the world. What followed was 35 years of professional kitchens across Italy, Europe, and the United States. Two languages learned on the line. A career built on adaptability, precision, and a refusal to stop being curious.
His cooking doesn't announce its influences. It absorbs them. Italian technique is the foundation — in the structure of a ragù, in the patience required to make pasta worth eating, in the understanding that simplicity is not the absence of skill but its highest expression. Everything else — the Mediterranean accents, the global touches, the unexpected combinations — arrives quietly, in service of the dish rather than the story behind it.
At Fora, that philosophy has a room and a menu worthy of it.
Designed by award-winning Ste. Marie Design Group, Fora reflects The Emily Hotel's commitment to artists from Chicago and around the world. A bold entrance piece by Raspy Rivera, the hotel's inaugural Artist in Residence, welcomes guests in. Textiles by Jessica Alejandra of Vita Boehme add warmth throughout, and a sculptural mirror installation by Iowa-based artist Candice Luter anchors the room.
Ceramics from independent makers — Every Story Studio (Nottingham), YomYom Ceramic by Joseph Malca (Israel), and Pottery Props by Paula (Madrid) — complete a gallery-like display.
It's Chicago artistry with a global perspective — making Fora a destination for art-forward, design-driven dining in Fulton Market.
