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| (left) Nonna photography by Elizabeth Lavin (right) Julian Barsotti photography by Elizabeth Lavin |
Favorite cookbook: Cooking by Hand by Paul Bertolli. I worked for him at Oliveto in Oakland, Calif.
Produce we should be buying now: Tomatoes, zucchinis, squash, eggplants, basil. I’m a huge proponent of farm-to-table eating, so check what’s in the Texas shed at the Dallas Farmers Market. Look for fresh-shelled beans—purple hull peas, Texas cream beans, lima beans. If the Tuscans were here, they would be buying lots of these beans.
How I knew I wanted to be a chef:
Working at Oliveto, where I learned to make salumi and pasta, and how to break down an animal to a finished dish—a very cool process.
What got me into cooking: Growing up around people who are passionate about cooking. My dad loves to cook and my mom is the co-owner of Food Company.
Set menu or improvisational? It makes no sense to have fresh tomatoes on the menu year round. I am a freak about the philosophy of cooking seasonally.
Ingredient I use most: Pancetta. We cure our own. We use it as a showcase ingredient and in pasta sauces.
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| Two kitchen tools that everyone should have: Any respectable Italian kitchen should have a food mill and a mortar and pestle. photography courtesy of Corbis |
My take on pizza: My pizza is different from the authentic. If you want to follow the rules, they send out someone from Verace Pizza Napoletana, a cooking school in Marina del Rey, to evaluate your mixer and oven, watch you make the dough, and make sure marble or granite is used to stretch the dough.
Must-have spice: I use so much swine, and I think anise seed and fennel pollen are great complements to pork.
Signature dishes: Probably the white clam pizza. It’s not a Neapolitan thing at all; I picked it up on the East Coast. Everything else cycles on and off.
What I cook at home: We have Sunday “Fundays.” If I make something for friends or myself, I make something that I wouldn’t make at the restaurant, such as risotto or my mom’s crawfish étouffée.
Best compliment to the chef: The food reminded them of eating in Italy.
Favorite grocery store: Tom “Spiceman” Spicer’s F.M. 1410. I bought fresh squash blossoms from him the other day. We baked them and fried them to see which way was better. Everything is good fried.
Anything you refuse to cook? Chicken base. I think it’s a substitute for chicken stock. People add water to it, but it’s all salt, or MSG, or something.
