4 - Recognised
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Vegetables, pulses and grains are the whole of the menu: no meat, no fish, no seafood, no eggs and no cheese made with animal rennet. The kitchen works with a small group of named growers, among them Società Agricola Corbari at Cernusco sul Naviglio just outside Milan for fruit and vegetables, and Gianluigi Tronchin in the Novara paddies, who grows rice under green mulch.
Menus are rebuilt every six to eight weeks so each one sits inside what is actually ripe. Bread, pasta, vegetable cheeses, ferments and pastry are produced in house from start to finish rather than bought in, and the kitchen works to use every part of each ingredient.
Beyond the dining room, Joia Academy has taught vegetarian cooking and food awareness to amateurs and professionals since 2014, and executive chef Sauro Ricci has cooked community meals at Club Itaca, the Milan mental health organisation, since September 2024. Joia holds five radishes in the We're Smart Green Guide, which placed it 38th in its 2025 Top 100.
The impact dimensions
Low waste & circular practices
Sustainable animal products
The kitchen sources vegetables and grains directly from named growers at the edge of Milan and in the Novara paddies.
Two independent editorial sources from 2024-25 name Società Agricola Corbari at Cascina Imperiale, Cernusco sul Naviglio in the province of Milan, supplying naturally cultivated fruit and vegetables, and Gianluigi Tronchin in Garbagna Novarese in the Novara paddies, supplying rice under green mulch. Both are verifiable in independent business directories. Chef Sauro Ricci describes vegetables as sourced from suppliers at the edge of Milan, with a wider regional circle beyond. The restaurant's own account emphasises support for Milan and Lombardy producers.
The Michelin Guide quotes the chefs: 'We work with a select group of small producers and tailor our menu to the availability of ingredients.' Vegetables and rice, the foundation categories of a vegetarian kitchen, are both demonstrably local or regional. Level 4 is not reached because no source quantifies the local share across all categories, and the menu's Asian register (Thai curry, lemongrass, tempeh, coconut) indicates some ingredients travel further.
The menu changes every six to eight weeks to align with ingredient availability.
Editorial coverage of March 2025 records menu rotation every 6-8 weeks, yielding six to eight menu changes per year. The Michelin Guide classifies the cuisine as vegetarian and seasonal, and quotes the chefs: 'We tailor the menu to the availability of ingredients.' The We're Smart Green Guide lists the kitchen as seasonal across six seasonal registers.
The restaurant describes a double rotation for summer and winter, with one each for spring and autumn. The current autumn menu features Delica pumpkin, cooked roots, chestnuts, red cabbage, pomegranate and figs, with no obviously out-of-season item. No weekly or daily changing menu is documented, which withholds level 5, but every other condition, guide confirmation, absence of out-of-season ingredients, and seasonally responsive menu rebuilds, is met.
The kitchen makes bread, pasta, vegetable cheeses and ferments in house; Joia Lab specialises in plant proteins and fermentation for preservation.
The restaurant states that every item on the menu, bread, pasta, vegetable cheeses, fermented products and pastry, is produced in house from start to finish without semi-finished or synthetic products. Joia Lab is a dedicated production laboratory for plant proteins, fermented products and vegetable cheeses, making fermentation a structural preservation practice rather than a flourish. Independent editorial coverage corroborates in-house fermentation for the alcohol-free pairings, describing 'bevande artigianali create internamente, tra infusioni, fermentazioni'.
On waste and circular use, the restaurant emphasises not wasting and using every ingredient fully in a circular kitchen approach. On energy and packaging, the other two sub-areas of the circular dimension, nothing was found in recent sources, which prevents level 4.
Strongest source Restaurant submission
Joia is entirely vegetarian since 1989 and serves no meat, poultry, fish or seafood; this dimension does not apply.
Joia has served no meat, fish or seafood since its opening in 1989 and operates on a stated principle of non-violence towards all living beings. The Michelin Guide entry classifies the cuisine as vegetarian and quotes the chefs: 'Our vegetarian cuisine does not use eggs or cheeses made with animal rennet.' For fully vegetarian and plant-based kitchens, the sustainable meat and fish dimension does not apply; it is assessed as not applicable.
The executive chef leads community meals at Club Itaca mental health organisation since September 2024, and Joia Academy teaches vegetarian cooking and food awareness since 2014.
Progetto Itaca Milano, a mental health volunteer organisation, published an interview on 6 June 2025 in which Sauro Ricci, identified as executive chef of Joia, describes his work establishing vegetarian approaches at Club Itaca and preparing community meals beginning September 2024. Separately, Joia Academy, founded by the restaurant in 2014, teaches vegetarian cooking and food awareness to amateurs and professionals with stated aims of technical independence and awareness of food choices' potential.
Independent editorial coverage records a brigade of nine: three section chefs, five sous chefs and one pastry chef engaged in continuous internal and external training. The kitchen sources from Slow Food Presidia producers, which supports small-scale producers and biodiversity. These commitments span community, education and employment, though fair-wage terms and formal apprenticeship structures are not documented, which withholds level 4.
The entire menu is plant-based: no meat, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs or animal-rennet cheese; dairy is used in part.
Joia has served no meat, poultry, fish or seafood since 1989 and uses no eggs and no cheese made with animal rennet. Most of the menu is vegan; dairy appears only in part of the menu. Every course on the current autumn menus is vegetable-led: Delica pumpkin Tatin, cooked roots, lentil pâté, plant-based risotto and glazed tempeh. There are no animal proteins to assess as minimal or optional because there are none at all.
The We're Smart Green Guide, the established authority on plant-forward cooking, lists Joia at five radishes and placed it 38th in its 2025 Top 100, recording '100% pure plant choices' alongside organic, local and seasonal attributes. Michelin classifies the cuisine as vegetarian and seasonal. The restaurant is widely documented as the first entirely vegetarian venue in Europe to hold a Michelin star and the only Michelin-starred vegetarian restaurant in Italy.
Sourcing signals
✓
Direct named-farm sourcing
Independent editorial sources name Corbari (vegetables, Cernusco sul Naviglio) and Tronchin (rice, Novara paddies with green mulch). Both are verifiable in independent directories; the restaurant also works with Slow Food Presidia producers.
The restaurant produces every item in house: bread, pasta, vegetable cheeses, ferments and pastry from start to finish without semi-finished inputs. Joia Lab is a dedicated facility for plant proteins, fermented products and vegetable cheeses; independent sources corroborate in-house fermented and infused alcohol-free pairings.
