“Fresh ingredients, simply prepared.” This hallmark of Italian cooking sounds simple enough. Still, it's shocking to discover how much education, training, and experience are actually required to cook food, “simply.” No one chef learns the art of simplicity the same way as any other. Taken together, the culinary training of renowned chefs Lidia Bastianich, Mario Batali, Alessandro Stratta, Jody Adams, and Michael Schlow suggests that the only rule of culinary excellence is that there are no rules. Each recognized master of Italian cooking forged his or her distinctive path to notoriety and success. Aspiring chefs of the Italian take heart. All roads can lead to Roma, if you're passionate and persistent.
By the (Italian Cook's) Book: Jody Adams
A culinary school textbook case of early inspiration, award-winning Boston chef Jody Adams was motivated by her mother's love of cooking. Propelled by family support, Adams used her degree from Brown to whip up a part-time job working for professional food writer Nancy Verde Barr. From Barr (Julia Child’s executive chef), Adams learned to embrace both French and Italian cooking techniques. Her enthusiasm transformed Adams from student to apprentice, helping Barr test recipes for the popular Italian cooking guide, We Called It Macaroni. In the early 80’s, Adams again transformed her passions, this time in the restaurant industry. She worked her way up from cook to Sous Chef to award-winning executive chef and on to culinary fame. She presently operates two critically acclaimed restaurants in Boston: Rialto and blu.
Family Inspiration: Lidia Bastianich
Considered by most to be America’s “queen” of Italian cooking, the multi-talented Lydia Bastianich is multi-famed as well for her many cookbooks, her award-winning restaurants, and her 39-part PBS series, “Lidia’s Italian Table.” She has the native's feel for arti culinarie. Born in Italy in 1947, Bastianich’s enthusiasm for cooking began in her grandparents' trattoria--the family restaurant where she worked in her youth. Bastianich first encountered a large professional kitchen when she enrolled in a convent school in Trieste. After her family immigrated to New York in 1958, she expressed her talents for cooking by preparing the nightly family dinner. Always industrious, Bastianich learned the art of baking while working part-time at the Walken Bakery in Queens. Though the bakery and the convent school shaped her innate talents, Bastianich remembers her time with her grandparents in their trattoria as the source of her inspiration. Her famiglia let Bastianich believe in the importance of preserving pristine, unadulterated, uniquely Italian flavors--the hallmark of her cooking style.
Molto Experience: Mario Batali
Award-winning chef, prolific New York restaurateur, cookbook author, and Food Network star, Mario Batali earned his phenomenal success one step at a time. He began his career in the culinary arts as a dishwasher in a pizza restaurant in New Jersey while attending Rutgers University. Bit by the culinary bug, Batali briefly enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu in London after graduating Rutgers in 1982, but he soon decided to go the apprenticeship route, learning the artful tricks of the culinary trade from Chef Marco Pierre White. Where does a future Italian cuisine notable spend his three-year apprenticeship? In a small town in Northern Italy, of course. And what did Italia teach Marco Batali? Keep it simple, and let the main ingredient be the star of the dish.
Baseball to Cookbooks: Michael Schlow
Schlow, whose Boston restaurant, Radius was named one of the 25 best American restaurants in the September 2001 issue of Gourmet, swapped his baseball scholarship for the Academy of Culinary Arts in New Jersey. That trade put Schlow on the road to success--a road that included some of America’s top restaurants. For starters, Schlow mastered the effortless Italian--particularly Tuscan--cuisine by working with famed New York restaurateur Pino Luongo. Next stop, the Chef de Cuisine position at both Coco Pazzo and Le Madri. And next? Executive chef at Sapore di Mare and then 75 Main, Michael Schlow continued to base his Italian cooking technique on “purity.” At every restaurant along the way, he shaped his trademark philosophy of “less is more.” Inevitably, the restaurant road led Schlow to homes of his own--as Chef and Co-Owner of the critically-acclaimed Radius as well as Via Matta and Great Bay.
High-Roller: Alessandro Stratta
For some chefs, cooking isn't just a living, it's a legacy. Alessandro Stratta is a fourth generation hotelier/restaurateur, whose father’s family hails from the Piedmonte region of Italy. Named one of “America’s Ten Best Chefs” by Food & Wine magazine, Stratta believes the secret of success is using the right ingredients in combination with excellent techniques. He says "Yes!" to simple foods that showcase their ingredients and "No!" to the overuse of spices.
Trained at the California Culinary Institute, Stratta has worked in some of the finest restaurants in the world: San Francisco’s Stanford Court Hotel, the Michelin three-star Hotel du Paris, Alaine Ducasse’s Louis XV, and New York’s Le Cirque. What could top being named the executive chef at Mary Elaine’s at the Phoenician in Scottsdale? Stratta was hand-picked by Las Vegas gaming mogul Steve Wynn to become executive chef for the restaurant “Renoir” at the Mirage. But his star was still on the rise. Most recently, Stratta opened the critically acclaimed, “Alex”, which in 2006 received the AAA Five Diamond Restaurant award.
As you can see, there is no one right way to train for a successful Italian culinary career. With a dash of fearlessness and a mix of training and passion, you, too, could watch your chef's star rise.