San Diego's Accursio Lota Has Won Italy's Highest Chef Award

San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour · Apr 2, 2026 · 57m

A few years back, Accursio Lota—2017 World Pasta Champion and chef-owner of Cori Pastificio and the new Dora Ristorante which was named for his nonna—told us he raised snails under his family's staircase as a child in Sicily. Fattened them up on raw spaghetti and fresh herbs, eventually ending their journey on this planet with some butter and garlic.

Turns out this was an entire neighborhood kid thing. Some kids ride bikes. Some puree their brains playing video games. Kids in Lota's neighborhood waited for the rain to come, then went around collecting a very Sicilian version of escargot…