Chef in court accused of stalking, raping his wife after abusing her for years

Valletta – A well-known chef who once championed farm-to-table menus and championed Maltese produce on prime-time TV cooking shows appeared behind the reinforced glass of the Criminal Court on Thursday, charged with raping and stalking his wife after allegedly subjecting her to years of systematic physical and psychological abuse. The 41-year-old restaurateur, whose downtown Valletta bistro is a staple on TripAdvisor’s top-ten list, pleaded not guilty to eight counts that include rape, aggravated stalking, grievous bodily harm and coercive control. Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech ordered the man’s immediate remand in custody after prosecutors warned he posed “an acute risk of re-offending” and had tried repeatedly to contact the alleged victim since she fled their Qormi townhouse in March.

The case has shaken Malta’s tight-knit culinary scene, where the accused was celebrated for reviving traditional rabbit stew recipes and hosting sold-out wine-pairing nights for tourists. “We all knew him as the jovial guy who’d throw fresh ġbejniet to the crowd,” said one former supplier outside the courts on Merchant Street, still clutching the day’s invoice. “But behind the scenes, it seems the fire was burning the wrong people.”

According to the 120-page indictment filed by Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg, the pattern of abuse began in 2017, months after the couple’s lavish wedding at the Upper Barrakka Gardens. Investigators say the chef used his public profile to isolate his wife from friends and family, confiscating her mobile phone, monitoring her movements with hidden GPS trackers and forcing her to sign over her share of their joint savings account. “He told her no one would believe a foreigner over a Maltese celebrity chef,” prosecuting inspector Johann Fenech told the court, adding that the alleged victim, a 35-year-old Slovak marketing executive, finally sought refuge at a shelter run by the Commission on Gender-Based Violence and Domestic Violence after a violent episode that left her with a fractured wrist.

The charges mark the first high-profile prosecution under Malta’s 2023 amendments to the Domestic Violence Act, which expanded the definition of coercive control and introduced stalking as a standalone offence. Lawyer and women’s rights activist Lara Dimitrijevic, who is assisting the alleged victim pro bono, said the case could set a “watershed precedent” for how Maltese courts handle marital rape—a crime only criminalised in 2018 after fierce parliamentary debate. “For decades our legal system treated marriage as automatic consent,” Dimitrijevic noted outside the courthouse. “This trial will test whether the reforms on paper translate into justice in practice.”

Inside the courtroom, the accused stood motionless as the charges were read. Dressed in a navy suit rather than his trademark chef’s whites, he occasionally glanced at his parents seated in the second row. His defence team argued that the couple’s sexual encounters were consensual and that the stalking allegations amounted to “normal attempts at marital reconciliation.” Magistrate Frendo Dimech rejected a request for bail, citing WhatsApp messages the chef allegedly sent threatening to “destroy her life like an over-cooked timpana” if she did not drop the complaint.

The revelations have already rippled through Malta’s hospitality sector. By Thursday evening, the chef’s restaurant had been delisted from the Malta Tourism Authority’s “Taste Our Island” campaign, and booking platform Tock cancelled all upcoming chef-table experiences. “We stand with survivors,” the MTA said in a terse statement. Meanwhile, patrons who once queued for his fenkata are sharing screenshots of Google reviews being hastily edited: five-star raves replaced by single-star protests reading “Boycott the abuser.”

At a candlelight vigil outside Parliament on Thursday night, some 200 people—mostly women but also many male chefs wearing black aprons—listened as activist groups demanded mandatory safeguarding training for restaurant owners and a 24-hour helpline for hospitality workers trapped in abusive relationships. “We serve strangers with smiles, but we’re told to swallow violence at home,” said 28-year-old sous-chef Maria Micallef, her voice cracking. “Tonight we say enough.”

The case resumes on 3 July, when the court will decide on the admissibility of the victim’s encrypted diary entries, reportedly stored on a password-protected laptop the chef tried to destroy. Until then, the island’s food forums—usually abuzz with debates on rabbit vs. horsemeat—have gone eerily quiet, save for one recurring question: how many more kitchens hide such secrets, and when will Malta finally turn up the heat on domestic abuse?