MILAN — Matteo Panfilio sounded relaxed when dialing in on Monday. The first week of the Venice Film Festival — always the busiest, he said — is behind him, and it’s all downhill from now on.

Not that the executive chef of the Aman Venice hotel, one of the city’s most exclusive hospitality addresses, lacks stamina. Affable yet straightforward, Panfilio is an outdoorsy type. His best cuisine intuitions and concoctions served as part of the hotel’s fine-dining experience stem not from standing at the stovetop but from plenty of solo time spent pedaling his bicycle across Italian hilltops — music in the ears, pulse racing fast and nature all around him.

“I do it to free my mind,” Panfilio says about his intensive training sessions. “When you’re there, pedaling upward alone, you think

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