We are back with our new Guest Chef and wine expert for the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network, Chef and partner of Spiaggia Tony Mantuano and wine expert Cathy Mantuano.

We interviewed via email Tony and Cathy, and asked them a couple of questions about their Chef and wine experience and their love for Italian food.

Chef Tony Mantuano wanted to be a Chef because he “loves to cook“, as simple as that. According Chef tony Mantuano, “the secret of being a top Chef is being smart enough to know to leave out an ingredient. The most important ingredient in any dish is the one you leave out“, he said to us.

Chef Tony Mantuano’s favorite food is Cape Cod Potato Chips and his favorite cooking style is “Regional Italian food that respects tradition“. His definition of Italian cuisine is “Food that has respect for Italian culture and tradition“, while his definition of Italian gourmet is “Traditional food presented in a modern fashion for today’s palate“.

Check out this video we found on Google Video, if you want to get more Italian Chef insight, knowledge and philosophy from Chef Tony Mantuano!

We also interviewed wine expert Cathy Mantuano, and she told us that her favorite food is “pasta because there are so many kinds of pasta and so many different sauces and preparations for it“, while talking about her cooking style she stated that she is “a fan of any cuisine that uses fresh, seasonal products as a base for its dishes. I like spicy dishes, as in Thai and Chinese food. I also like Japanese food. I love the spices of Middle Eastern cuisine“.

When asked about her definition of Italian cuisine Cathy Mantuano said that “Italian cuisine highlights top quality ingredients in season, prepared simply, using few ingredients“, while her definition of Italian gourmet is “freshly picked produce, handmade pasta, farm raised poultry and meat, artisanal cheese, estate wines“.

As we reported on our latest post, Cathy and Tony Mantuano are co-authors of the Italian cookbooks “Wine Bar Food: Mediterranean Flavors to Crave with Wines to Match” and “The Spiaggia Cookbook: Eleganza Italiana in Cucina“, both available online at Barnes and Noble’s and Amazon.com’s online stores. Wine Bar Food is also available at CrateandBarrel.com.

Some of the recipes from Cathy and Tony’s cookbooks feature Academia Barilla products (as well as in their Chicago restaurants Spiaggia, Café Spiaggia, and Private Dining Rooms of Spiaggia) and we got permission from the authors to share with you some of their Italian gourmet creations - so here we go with the first one… only that we want to publish the recipe on a clean new post, so you can print it and take it with you to the kitchen - stay tuned for the recipe post coming up tomorrow!

We have the pleasure today to introduce a new Guest Chef for the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network. We will continually introduce a new Guest Chef each month, while the Chefs already introduced will keep sending us one recipe per month, each month! Wow, by the end of the year this will be a top Chef recipe bonanza, and of course we all love it!

This month we won’t only introduce renowned Chef Tony Mantuano, but also wine expert Cathy Mantuano. James Beard award-winning chef Tony Mantuano is Chef and Partner of Spiaggia, the only 4-star Italian restaurant in Chicago! Chef Mantuano and wine expert and wife Cathy recently released a new cookbook titled Wine Bar Food that features Academia Barilla products in the book!!! They also are running a casual dining café-restaurant called Café Spiaggia that complements the recently launched exclusive shoreside Private Dining Rooms of Spiaggia. And there will soon be an event with Zagat next month!

Wait, wait, too much info, let’s start introducing both our new Guest Chef and wine expert.

Chef Tony Mantuano, as reported on his bio published on the Spiaggia Restaurant site, “loves green, fruity olive oil, rare Italian cheeses, woodsy porcini mushrooms and the riches of Italian gastronomy“, which he considers “every day specialties“.

After spending one year in Italy back in 1983, learning all he could about traditional Italian cooking and working at a number of Guide Michelin-rated restaurants near Milan and on the Tuscan coast in Viareggio, Chef Tony Mantuano learned to prepare regional specialties that few Americans had ever experienced.

When Chef Mantuano opened Spiaggia Restaurant in 1984, he was widely acclaimed as a trailblazer of fine Italian cuisine, with reviews from the Chicago Tribune calling Spiaggia “the best high-end Italian restaurant between the coasts” and describing the Italian restaurant as “a jewel” and the food as “spectacular“.

While operating also his family’s restaurant, Mangia, in his native Kenosha, Wisconsin, Chef Mantuano took Spiaggia for a new spin in 2000, reshaping the restaurant’s traditional menu into “an exemplar of contemporary Italian cuisine,” with signature dishes such as Crescenza Cheese-Filled Pasta Pillows with Parmigiano-Reggiano, Brown Butter, Rosemary and Garlic, or the Succulent Roasted Turbot with Sunchoke Puree, Porcini Mushrooms and Veal Mushroom Sauce.

Tony Mantuano is the author, with co-author and wife Cathy Mantuano, of “The Spiaggia Cookbook: Eleganza Italiana in Cucina” (Chronicle Books 2004, awarded as one of the twenty-five best cookbooks of 2004 by Food & Wine). He also has appeared nationally on CNN and PBS, is a regular contributor to the local ABC, CBS and FOX affiliates in Chicago, and has been a guest on popular food talk shows, such as “The Frank DeCaro Show” and “Food Talk with Rocco DiSpirito.”

In 2004, Zagat Survey awarded Spiaggia the “Best Italian Restaurant in Chicago” and the restaurant was named one of the Top five in Chicago by Chicago Magazine. Chef Mantuano also received Chicago Tribune’s “Good Eating Award” and James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: MidWest Award in 2005.

The recent launch of the fashionable Cafe Spiaggia, in the heart of the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, brought the dimension of the neighborhood cafe sanctuary and casual dining room in the fast pace of Michigan Avenue, creating a new well-known neighborhood Chicago favorite.

Chef-Partner Tony Mantuano and wine expert Cathy Mantuano, their cookbooks and their restaurants get plenty of rave reviews from the likes of Forbes blogs, Chicago Sun Times, Food & Wine, Condé Nast Traveler on Concierge.com, Epicurious.com and OpenTable.com.

Spiaggia’s address is One Magnificent Mile (on the corner of Michigan and Oak) - 980 North Michigan Avenue, Level 2, Chicago, Illinois 60611 - Google Map for your driving directions here below.

For more info on Tony Mantuano please check Spiaggia’s and Cafe Spiaggia’s web pages.

If you are interested in the Italian cookbooks published by Tony and Cathy Mantuano, you can purchase them online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. Wine Bar Food is also available at CrateandBarrel.com.

Or, if you live in the Chicago Area and can’t wait to catch up in person with Tony and Cathy, they have a book signing and demo scheduled on July 2nd beginning at 2 p.m. as part of the Taste of Chicago. They will be located outside the Zagat pavilion signing copies and showcasing recipes from Wine Bar Food - save the date!

This is getting quite long for a blog post, so we cut it here to introduce to you wine expert Cathy and Chef Tony Mantuano with their first gourmet recipe tomorrow!

Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist Costantino Cicchelli is back in Atlanta, Georgia, to share his extensive Italian gourmet knowledge with Academia Barilla partners Cook’s Warehouse in Decantur, GA for a gourmet class dedicated to “The Art of Italian Gastronomy“.

Live the life of Italian luxury through your sense of smell, sight and taste with a native Italian as your guide. Separate fact from myth as you learn how extra virgin olive oil is produced and what makes a great one. Experience the best of the best featuring extra virgin olive oils, balsamic vinegars, pecorino, Parmigiano Reggiano, Salame di Parma, and Prosciutto di Parma. Taste olive oil like the professionals by sampling 3 DOP extra virgin olive oils from different regions of Italy and learn which types of foods are complimented by each. Understand how balsamic vinegars are produced and aged, and taste the differences.

The discussion and tasting of cheeses focuses on sheep’s milk pecorino and cow’s milk Parmigiano Reggiano. Italian meats like salame and Prosciutto di Parma are cured in a natural way that enhances their flavors. When you taste these authentic products, you’ll be able to select and buy with confidence (which you can also do at our online store if you cannot make it to the Ducantur class).

Save the date (and the location): The Cook’s Warehouse and
Sherlock’s Wine Merchant in Decatur next Thursday, June 12, from 7 PM to 9 PM.
Admission is 55$. The address to the class location is 180 W. Ponce de Leon Avenue
Decatur, GA 30030, a Google Map is provided here below for your driving convenience.

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Five Chef assistants will be in the kitchen 45 minutes before class
to assist all participants with the preparation work, so try to get to the class a bit in advance.

Call
Simone Stevenson
at
The Cook’s Warehouse & Sherlock’s Wine Merchant
for more info at +1 (404) 377-4005 (Store)
or visit Cook’s Warehouse website for more info and a full schedule of culinary classes.

Welcome to the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network series and to its official opening with the assignment of the first Guest Chef residency to Chef Douglas D’Avico from Chicago, Illinois.

Chef Douglas D’Avico, also known as Doug, decided to become a professional Chef as he loves being around food and the environment of the kitchen. Today Chef D’Avico is the top Chef at the Trattoria N0. 10 in Chicago, where the restaurant specialty is contemporary Italian cuisine.

Before taking the lead in the kitchen at Trattoria No. 10 in Chicago and been awarded with 3 Stars by the Chicago Tribune in 1991, he worked at a horse racing park, a river boat casino and for hotels in Miami, Florida and Honolulu, Hawaii, as he told us in a recent interview.

Among the other questions, we asked him what was the secret ingredient in being a top Chef, and he answered “good fresh ingredients“.

Chef D’Avico’s favorite food is seafood and pasta, and he has a definition of Italian cuisine as “clean, fresh and simple“. Also, Chef D’avico definition of Italian gourmet is “taking fresh produce, artisan ingredients, and cooking with care and respect“.

Chef Douglas D’avico is an adopter and supporter of Academia Barilla products, for his culinary creations. He states that Academia Barilla products are “very good quality with clean flavors“, and you can always find them in his menus.

You can trust Chef D’Avico’s judgment or give it a try for yourself at the Academia Barilla online store, where plenty of Italian gourmet specialties are available and just a click away, and where you can also find the authentic Italian gourmet ingredients used in gourmet recipes by Chef D’Avico and other top Chefs around the world who take Italian cuisine seriously and to the next level.

If you want to get in touch with Chef D’Avico you can meet him at Trattoria N.10, 10 N. Dearborn, Chicago IL 60602 (Google map below). Please visit the restaurant website at www.trattoriaten.com for complete contact info but also detailed menus, restaurant reviews, reservations for private parties and restaurant gift cards. Also, feel free to call directly Trattoria No. 10 at +1 (312) 984-1718.

Since Chef D’Avico’s “plat fort” is seafood, he will be back with us tomorrow to share his first recipe, a yummy Octopus Carpaccio with Blood Oranges. We can’t wait, can you?

We have been blogging about celebrity Chefs for some time now, and we are finally proud to announce the launch of the Italian Food Lovers Chef Networks!

Thanks to the never-stopping activity of Academia Barilla’s Italian Culinary Specialist Team in the United States, and to their relations with several top and celebrity Italian Chefs, we put together a network of guest Chefs who will be contibuting to our Italian Food Lovers blog sharing their Italian food love, passion, experience and, of course, gourmet recipes and special Chef’s cooking tips!

Each month we will introduce a new Italian Food Lovers Guest Chef, who will then start contributing on regular monthly basis. We have a nice line-up of celebrity gourmet Chef who will share their culinary secrets with us.

No anticipations, just get ready to meet our first Chef Network Guest next Monday, Chef Douglas D’Avico from Trattoria n. 10 Restaurant in Chicago. Welcome to the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network series!