The arrival of Executive Chef Ross Demers in the kitchen at Mi Piaci in Addison marks the beginning of an updated era for the 20 year-old bastion of Italian cuisine. Chef Demers graduated from the School of Culinary Arts in L.A., worked with John Tesar at The Mansion on Turtle Creek to open the famed Chef’s Tasting Room, cooked for the NYC James Beard Awards Dinner, and trained with Tim Byers of Stephan Pyles.
The new menu items, introduced last month, reflect the restaurant’s revived energy. In a media dinner last night, Chef Demers unveiled several of his new additions including affettati misti (house-cured meats and crostini), crudo (citrus cooked himachi tuna, scallop, and mackerel), insalata bietola (roasted beets, microgreens, and goat cheese), and two soups: zuppa funghi (mushroom) and zuppa aragosta (Adriatic-style lobster bisque).
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Two new pastas, spaghettini neri (housemade black spaghetti with blue crab and red chilis) and malfatta con cinghiale (hand-torn, housemade flat pasta with wild boar ragu) accompany two new main course dishes: agnello incrostato (coriander encrusted rack of lamb) and pesce branzino (lemon-glazed Chilean sea bass).
A lofty, springy panna cotta (eggless custard) rounds out the dessert menu and is a specialty of the new chef.
