Marco Giovanni Battistotti was a true “Old World Gentleman”. To the community here in Penang, he was the epitome of the personalities throughout history from outside and afar who had been attracted to Penang and, in turn, become icons of local business, society and community.
Marco was a tall, dark and warmhearted Italian from San Remo, Liguria. When asked, he would bemusedly retell the story of his beginnings in the hospitality industry. Being tall, he could even as a young teenager pass off as an adult. This way he managed to work as kitchen help in one of the better-known restaurants in Monaco where they would ignore their suspicions about his age during peak seasons and kept him at work. Once the season had petered off, however, he would be escorted to the border and told to go home. It was obviously in these beginnings, maybe not easy ones, that he cultivated his generosity, love of life, support and calm sense of humility, which he subsequently extended to all with whom he worked.
