The best Italian restaurant in the USA

[Claude Kolm/The Fine Wine Review]

You are saying exactly what I have said for years. Yes, there is fine dining, there is even fine Italian dining but for Real Italian dining you really must go to Italy.

I hate myself for doing this, but I have to cop out on this one. I agree with Peter-due to the lack of equivalent quality ingredients, some of which are only available within a few kilometers of some small Italian town, and also due to the need of most U.S.-based chefs, whether Italian by birth and/or training or not, to pander to the American concept of what great Italian food should be, true Italian cooking cannot be replicated here. And not just in restaurants-I am a pretty fair cook of the Piemontese classics, but try as I might, I'm always better in the old country. While I think that someone like Molto Mario may fare better by adapting Italian recipes and techniques to ingredients available here than a transplanted Italian chef would, I find Mario to be making up with enthusiasm and showmanship what he lacks in real grounding in the best Italian culinary traditions. A lot of the recipes in his cookbooks fall flat on their faces, despite superficial appeal when you first read them. Still, I applaud the effort on his part. I find most New York Italian restaurants to be parodies at best. You can dine very well, to be sure, but rarely authentically. Galileo in Washington comes as close as I've seen. Strangely, a restaurant called Il Palio in Chapel Hill, NC is probably number 2 on my list (amazingly strong Piemontese-driven wine list as well). I,too, have not eaten there in years, but Il Mulino was my favorite in NYC as well.

Actually, if you read Burton Anderson's Treasures of the Italian Table (now out of print), the Italian government and now the EU are doing a pretty good job of making sure that you can't get authentic Italian food in Italy, either.

[Bill Klapp]

I stand corrected. It is merely a pleasing restaurant, and it doesn't have to be authentic to be good. Authentic northern Italian restaurants are not possible in this country, for the reasons Craig discussed above. But a little food for thought-why do French restaurants seem to fare at least somewhat better in America? Less reliance on hard- or impossible-to-obtain ingredients? Technique, perhaps?

And good point, Claude. Let people scoff at the little gambero rosso himself, Carlo Petrini, but Slow Food is waging war against the EU food censors and winning a hell of a lot of battles, if not yet the war. The only upside is that, in Italy, the EU-sanctioned stuff in the supermarkets is STILL better than the crap on America's supermarket shelves. The good stuff is still there, but it takes more work to find it than it used to. I am blessed with dear Italian friends who are retired restauranteurs, and to the extent that they don't grow it themselves, they can generally source anything my wife and I might covet.

Edited April 10, 2003 by Bill Klapp (log)

[Robert Schonfeld]

Actually, if you read Burton Anderson's Treasures of the Italian Table (now out of print), the Italian government and now the EU are doing a pretty good job of making sure that you can't get authentic Italian food in Italy, either.

What's that all about, Claude?

[Steve Plotnicki]

Actually I agree and disagree with you about that. I think that French bistro cuisine fails in the U.S. for many of the same reasons that Italian cuisine fails here. You need authentic ingredients to make it taste right. Face it, only a goose from Toulouse gives off the right kind of schmaltz to make a good cassoulet. But French haute cuisine style cooking does work pretty well here and I will tell you why I think that is.

French technique is fungible. It subordinates itself to the ingredient. In fact the entire strategy is to wring everything out of that ingredient. So it isn't dependant on a local flavor profile like cassoulet or bouillabaisse. You can take Maine lobster or free range chickens and build your dish and sauces around the natural flavors of those ingredients. Italian cuisine, since it is dependant on the unique flavor of each regions ingredients, can't function in this country. Where the hell are you going to get the baby goat that Cesare uses? If you don't have that goat, you might as well be eating a NY strip steak.

To me, the closest you get in this country to approximating Italian cuisine is at Chez Panisse and Craft. Not that they are Italian necessarily. But their focus on ingredients is Italian-like. And their approach to preparing the food takes a lot from the Italian tradition, and I guess in Chez Panisse's case from the Provencal tradition, which is really Mediterranean and closer to Italian cuisine then we often realize.

[Claude Kolm/The Fine Wine Review]

Actually I agree and disagree with you about that. I think that French bistro cuisine fails  in the U.S. for many of the same reasons that Italian cuisine fails here. You need authentic ingredients to make it taste right. Face it, only a goose from Toulouse gives off the right kind of schmaltz to  make a good cassoulet. But French haute cuisine style cooking does work pretty well here and I will tell you why I think that is.

French technique is fungible. It subordinates itself to the ingredient. In fact the entire strategy is to wring everything out of that ingredient. So it isn't dependant on a local flavor profile like cassoulet or bouillabaisse. You can take Maine lobster or free range chickens and build your dish and sauces around the natural flavors of those ingredients. Italian cuisine, since it is dependant on the unique flavor of each regions ingredients, can't function in this country. Where the hell are you going to get the baby goat that Cesare uses? If you don't have that goat, you might as well be eating a NY strip steak.

To me, the closest you get in this country to approximating Italian cuisine is at Chez Panisse and Craft. Not that they are Italian necessarily. But their focus on ingredients is Italian-like. And their approach to preparing the food takes a lot from the Italian tradition, and I guess in Chez Panisse's case from the Provencal tradition, which is really Mediterranean and closer to Italian cuisine then we often realize.

For Italian, Steve, try Oliveto in Oakland -- Paul Bertolli, the chef there, is a former Chez Panisse chef (author of The Chez Panisse Cookbook, in fact). He is a fanatic on ingredients and even makes many of his own products, such as balsamic vinegar and sausage.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Claude - On my next trip out, we will go. I even know where we can get '69 Roumier Bonnes Mares to drink .

[Claude Kolm/The Fine Wine Review]

Actually, if you read Burton Anderson's Treasures of the Italian Table (now out of print), the Italian government and now the EU are doing a pretty good job of making sure that you can't get authentic Italian food in Italy, either.

What's that all about, Claude?

Robert -- The book documents for many different kinds of ingredients/food how the bureaucracy and/or economy either makes it difficult or impossible for the best of artisinal products to survive in Italy and discusses some brave artisans who continue to struggle against these problems, sometimes undercover because what they do is illegal.

[Robert Schonfeld]

Actually, if you read Burton Anderson's Treasures of the Italian Table (now out of print), the Italian government and now the EU are doing a pretty good job of making sure that you can't get authentic Italian food in Italy, either.

What's that all about, Claude?

Robert -- The book documents for many different kinds of ingredients/food how the bureaucracy and/or economy either makes it difficult or impossible for the best of artisinal products to survive in Italy and discusses some brave artisans who continue to struggle against these problems, sometimes undercover because what they do is illegal.

It was always my experience in Tuscany that ingredients were extremely local, sometimes illegal, and that the beaureaucracy was impenetrable. No doubt, things have not changed for the better recently. I will look for the book. Thanks.

[Bill Klapp]

Claude and Robert, in my experience, it is shaking out this way: Burton Anderson overstated the case, but certainly not the problem itself. Both the Italian government and the EU are applying standards that are driving many small producers out of business, since the standards are calculated to develop European cross-markets and export markets in totally safe, totally sanitized, totally useless food products. You need only contemplate the difference between prosciutto in Parma and the over-aged, dried-out crap exported here (with the USDA's irrational standards further screwing up the product) to realize the potential severity of the problem. However, at the local level, for artisanal producers who can make a living by selling everything they produce locally, both the government and the EU are ignored. (The Italian government has virtually no enforcement capacity over its citizens in any human endeavor other than true criminal activity, and even there, there is that Mafia problem down south. The thing I love most about Italy is that politics is an entertainment medium, and as such, endlessly discussed but not taken seriously!) The biggest threat at the local level is the failure of the new generation to continue the family business. Fortunately, restaurants are not facing that threat, but the priesthood and prosciutto are!

[vmilor]

Claude - On my next trip out, we will go. I even know where we can get '69 Roumier Bonnes Mares to drink .

Steve, keep in mind that Bertoli is there on tuesdays and fridays. But cooking is consistent if you cannot make it those days. I recommend the grilled squab with squab liver, pancetta and fava bean croutons if it is on the menu with 69 Roumier.

[ballast_regime]

olive garden.

much peace,

iml

ballast/regime

[Alberts]

Although I have much respect for the list of Italian restaurants mentioned above, for me, the authentic Italian restaurant is the family trattoria...Nonna and Nonno cooking in the back, then meeting their customers out front. I'm sure there are some of these here in the states, but they are few and far between. Cooking for love and not (necessarily) for profit makes it authentic.

[tighe]

Reaching slightly beyond the border of the good ol' USA....

By far the best Italian restaurant I've been to (outside of Italy) is Cioppino's in Vancouver, BC. I've been to Babbo, admittedly only once, and it doesn't hold a candle to 'Pino's. Creativity, quality of ingredients, consistency, however you want to measure it....

[Joe H]

I suppose we all have opinions and I have never been accused of being shy about mine. For whatever it's worth I have been to Le Calandre and Dal Pescatore (both Michelin three stars), Aimo e Nadia and Il Desco (two stars) about 20 with a single star and many with no star that were exceptional-all in Italy. In the U. S. I've been to Il Mulino, Babbo, Valentino, Locanda Veneta and too many more to count.

There are two restaurants in the Washington, D. C. area that are equal to any that I have been to anywhere on earth: Maestro at the Ritz Carlton in Tyson's Corner and Roberto Donna's Laboratorio which is a restaurant within a restaurant at his Galileo on 21st Street, Northwest. They are totally different in style with Maestro directly comparable to Le Calandre and Laboratorio having elements of Guido and many others while offering one of the most unique experiences of any restaurant in the world. Maestro is spectacular, innovative with jaw dropping presentations and extraordinarily imaginative combinations of tastes, textures and even temperatures. Laboratorio in a sense is more traditional yet is every bit as extraordinary offering twelve intensely flavored, incredibly delicious courses that change each night in an environment where approximately 25 diners interact with one of the world's great and most enthusiastic chefs who genuinely loves food and loves to cook; he does so literally in front of you with three assistants helping him. Diners even stand around sharing in his "laboratory" just as you would in a good friend's kitchen while dishes are assembled.

Roberto Donna is a James Beard Award winner (national chef of the year) and Maestro is nominated (and WILL win) for best new restaurant of the year. Next year I will be shocked if it is not nominated for and also win national best restaurant of the year.

It's Michelin starred chef is only one year older than Le Calandre's.

I would go so far as to say that putting these two restaurants back to back on a weekend would equal any two anywhere in the world. Unfortunately both have enormous reputations and up to two month waits for Friday and Saturday night.

[Steve Klc]

Minor corrections Joe--Maestro was not nominated this year for the James Beard "Best New Restaurant" Award--the only Washington, DC area restaurant nominated for this national award was Zaytinya--alongside Atelier, Fiamma Osteria, L'Impero and 40 Sardines.

Fabio Trabocchi was, however, nominated for the Beard "Rising Star Chef of the Year" alongside Grant Achatz (user "chefg" of eGullet) Melissa Perello, Luke Sung, and Tory McPhail. Fabio and more about Maestro here:

http://www.ritzcarlton.com/hotels/tysons_c...ro/default.html

And I remember Roberto Donna winning a Beard for "Best Chef-Mid Atlantic," maybe back in '96--when did he pick up the Beard for top toque nationally?

As long as we're on the subject of DC and Italian cooking--to complete the triumvirate--there is the spare, 40 seat Obelisk, less glamorous and much less expensive than either Laboratorio or Maestro, but offering its own version of modern Italian cuisine. Their chef, Peter Pastan, would probably be held in high esteem by many of our eGulleteers who treasure the simple pleasures of a true Italian trattoria. He also happens to have been nominated this year for the Beard "Best Chef-Mid Atlantic" award.

Here's a link to a nice article about Peter, by a freelance writer who used to cook for him at Obelisk:

http://www.emilykaiser.com/text/000303.php

Earlier in this thread I mentioned Vetri in Philadelphia as a creative upscale Italian restaurant in America which deserved some consideration. The James Beard Foundation seems to agree--the only chef outside of Washington, DC nominated this year for "Best Chef-Mid Atlantic" was Marc Vetri.

Here's the review of the 35-seat restaurant by the Inquirer's excellent critic, Craig LaBan:

http://ae.philly.com/entertainment/ui/phil...7&reviewId=4588

Edited April 20, 2003 by Steve Klc (log)

[Joe H]

http://www.chowhound.com/midatlantic/board...ages/19279.html is the link to a post that I made on another board about Laboratorio last night. (Vengroff suggested that I post this on here.) I also realize that Obelisk is superb-my wife and I have celebrated two anniversaries there while it has been recognized as one of the 50 Best in America. Still it is different from both Maestro and Laboratorio and I feel cannot be compared. For what it is there is real excellence and a true credit to D. C. along with Tosca. But Maestro and Laboratorio are on the world stage and can be compared to the best in Italy. Obelisk is national.

Are you certain about Roberto not winning the national award? Perhaps I am wrong but I thought he had. If it was the regional then at some point he and Fabio will probably compete for it which, again, is a real credit to this city.

[janebono]

I agree regarding Mario at Po. Simple, wonderful Italian food at it best, and inexpensive by Manhattan standards. I have not visited Babbo but family members have and found it less than wonderful. For other boro dwellers a vsit to Parkside in Corona is a tasty way to pass an evening.

Leave the Penna al Vodka alone.

Jane