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!

Today April 7, as every first Monday of each month, Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist Francesco Zimone will be backing up Chef Ottavio Palmieri for the now classic gourmet events at Palmieri Restaurant in Brentwood, Los Angeles Area.

Today Chef Ottavio Palmieri, here pictured with Italian Culinary Specialist Francesco Zimone, will present a brand new organic menu inspired by the flavors and tastes of Campania, the Southern Italian region whose capital town is Naples.

The Campania Organic Wine and Food Pairing dinner menu has been designed by Chef Palmieri, also with the help Academia Barilla’s range of Italian gourmet specialties. Let’s explore tonight’s menu:

Pane Cafone
Traditional Neapolitan crusty bread

Polpetielli Affogati
Baby octopus braised in Academia Barilla cherry tomatoes from “Campania”, garlic and parsley
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Caprese
“Bufalo Mozzarella Campana”; vine ripe tomatoes, basil and Academia Barilla extra virgin olive oil

Wine pairing: Lacrima Cristi Mastroberardino 2006 (white)

Gnocchi alla Sorrentina
Homemade potato “Gnocchi” with fresh mozzarella, basil and tomato
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Maccaroni A’ Genovese
Pasta tubes and beef braised slowly with onions

Wine pairing: Greco di Tufo Mastroberardino 2006 (white)

Spigola all’Acqua Pazza
“Mediterranean” Striped Bass poached with Academia Barilla cherry tomatoes and fresh herbs

Wine pairing: Lacrima Cristi Mastroberardino 2005 (red)

Braciole
Rolled beef with pinenuts, raisins, bread crumbs and cheese baked with tomato

“Ragu’” served with “ Gatto’ di Patate” made with Academia Barilla “Salametti”

Wine pairing: Aglianico Mastroberardino 2203 (red)

Pastiera
Grain and Ricotta cheesecake, candied orange and lemon peel, in a sweet pastry crust
Wine pairing: Homemade Limoncello

This Campania Organic Wine and Food Pairing menu sounds very interesting - and the price per person is interesting too, only 55$ per person (+tax and gratuity)!

The address is Palmieri Ristorante, 11650 San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood, Los Angeles CA - Google Map here below for your detailed driving directions to the restaurant. For your reservations please call Palmieri Ristorante at +1 (310) 442-8446.

The Auditorium of the Academia Barilla Culinary School in Parma, Italy, will host Gusti d’Autore (Author’s Tastes), three-days of evening events opening today, April 7, 2007, and presenting daily events until Wednesday April 9.

Gusti d’Autore is promoted by Academia Barilla in partnership with the City of Parma, and with the support of BIGAB, Academia Barilla’s Gastronomic Library.

The event proposes three days dedicated to Italian gastronomic culture. Each evening will see the participation of several VIPs of the “Italian food scene” who will discuss stories, curiosities and new culinary tendencies while hands-on culinary demos will take place in front of the public.

The first evening will be dedicated to discussing “Cucina Low-cost” (Low-cost cuisine), Tuesday evening will be stage to a culinary round table on “Tradizione e Innovazione” (Tradition and Innovation), while Wednesday, the closing night, will be a soirée dedicated to “Parma ieri, oggi e domani” (Parma yesterday, today and tomorrow).

All the guests participating to the three days event are Italian gourmet experts, ranging from gastronomy experts to food journalists and top Chefs:

• Camillo Langone, who writes about restaurants and literiture for several Italian newspapers (”Il Foglio”, “Il Giornale”, “La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno”, “Il Domenicale”, “Panorama”);
• Paolo Marchi (Cuisine), a chef “manqué” who has been writing food columns (”Cibi Divini”, “Affari di Gola”) for the daily newspaper “Il Giornale” in the last 12 years. Marchi is also founder and editor of “Identità Golose” (Gourmet Identities), an international congress of haute cuisine held in Milan every January.
• Luigi Cremona, a gastronomy lover from Cremona who cooperates with the italian Touring Club in the editing of many Restaurants and Wines Guides. Cremona is also the Director of the oenologic magazine “Spirito DiVino“, and has been awarded as “Journalist of the Year” at the 2007 Wine Oscars.
• Davide Cassi, a Professor a of Molecular Gastronomy and a member of the Italian Kitchen, is very keen on the science of cooking. Editor of several scientific texts in Statistical Mechanics, Cassi’s research concerns fractals, gastronomy and the scientific theory of graphs. In the last 15 years Cassi applied his research on physics of complex systems to gastronomy. Cassi directs the Laboratory of Food Science, the only facility of its kind in Italy, which develops and experiences, both scientifically and gastronomically, new cooking techniques. He also authored, with Chef Bocchia, the book “The estemporaneo ice cream and other inventions” (Il gelato estemporaneo e altre invenzioni gastronomiche), the first manual on molecular cooking.
• Andrea Grignaffini, cuisine academician, after working with Luigi Veronelli at L’Etichetta and being curator at Cose Buone Publishing for the last 10 years, today is the Creative Director at Spirito DiVino magazine. Italian pioneer in cigar journalism, he’s been part of the L’Espresso restaurant guidebook directive committee since 1998. He also works with Gazzetta di Parma newspaper and Tv Parma, while teaches Tasting methodology at Parma’s University of Gastronomic science.
• Massimo Bottura is the top Chef at Osteria La Francescana, a restaurant located in the historic center of downtown Modena. Awarded with 2 Michelin stars, Bottura makes large use of unusual flavors or ingredient combinations, creating recipes that are a journey through tradition, innovation and the unexpected. His formulas and dishes are made of classic and contemporary ingredients, let alone a combination of simple and complex cooking techniques. Always open to new interpretations of the Italian culinary art, he claims that “the important thing to me is to achieve a balance between form and color to captivate the eyes of the customers. Then comes the balance among texture, temperature and flavor to please the palate.”

The three gastronomic evenings will take place on April 7, 8 and 9, and will be open to the public between 9pm and 10.30pm with free entrance, and performed at the Auditorium of the Academia Barilla Culinary School at the Barilla Center, Largo Calamandrei, in Central Parma. Google Maps here below for easy driving directions.

Seating is limited, so reservations are highly recommended. Call +39 0521 264.060 or send an email at info@academiabarilla.it to book your seat at Gusti d’Autore.

Our Academia Barilla Culinary School has been recently included in the Alta Cucina directory of Italian Culinary Courses at www.altacucinasociety.com, and we would like to thank our new Italian culinary friends by blogging about them.

Alta Cucina is a Manhattan-based epicurean society founded to explore, share and celebrate premium-quality Italian food and wine products. Created by a group of Italian cuisine connoisseurs who value the company of others “at table” as a way of sharing the experiences of life, Alta Cucina started proposing in New York interesting experiments in dining and food experience.

Alta Cucina recognizes that the enjoyment of fine food is an art form in which every ingredient plays an important role and must be carefully chosen, and each event or product they select is of certified excellence and tied closely to local Italian craft traditions.

As they report on they website,

Product and recipe selections are always made with deference to natural seasonal rhythms, because to know the essence of Italian cuisine in its purest form also means to understand that each dish or ingredient is the product of precise climactic and territorial conditions. Therefore, there are foods whose true flavor can only be enjoyed a few times during the year.

Here at Italian Food Lovers we definitely like this attitude towards Italian food, so let us tell you also about their events such as the upcoming Day of Slowness promoted by Alta Cucina in New York last February 25, or The Aperitivo Series, introducing in busy NY the traditional Italian experience of “aperitivo“, meant for chilling out with friends after work pairing wines, beers and cocktails to a wide range of finger food made from original Italian gourmet products.

In The Aperitivo Series Alta Cucina throws in also a friendly expert or Chef who introduces dishes and wines, talks about their traditional origins and about the differences with similar, non-Italian food products. Well done, it sounds like the series of Academia Barilla gourmet events, where our guests can always count on the presence of an Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist to ask questions to, and get precious Chef and Tasting Tips too.

Alta Cucina Inc’s CEO Amedeo Angiolillo, who has been interviewed for this blog post, invites also discovering the newly launched series of events Alta Cucina Dinners, featuring themed dinners prepared by Italian visiting Chefs in several restaurants of the US East Coast. The next Alta Cucina Dinners will be held in March at the Barbetta Restaurant (New York) and at the Cafe Oggi Restaurant (Washington, DC).

For more details and full schedule of events visit the Alta Cucina website.

Want to catch-up with Italian cookbook writer and Food Network celebrity Chef Giada De Laurentiis and get an autographed copy of her popular cookbooks, Everyday Pasta, Everyday Italian, and Giada’s Family Dinners?

Just head tomorrow, February 20th between 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm, to the Crate&Barrel store on Union Street, in San Francisco, CA. During Giada’s book signing there will also be free sample tastings available for guests, made with Giada’s new Italian Gourmet specialty foods created in collaboration with Academia Barilla.

Space is limited, so please contact the store for more information and booking. Below find store info, including a Google Map for driving directions to the Crate & Barrel shop:

CRATE & BARREL
55 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 982-5200

Get driving directions on Google Maps

As suggested by the Food Network Recipe Fan Club on their blog, you can also wish Giada big congrats on her first new little baby, a girl due in April!