Fabrizio Schenardi may hate his mom’s spinach (“Boil it, squeeze out the water and sauté again with olive oil – all the flavor is gone. Why not cook it just once?” he pleaded.), but Schenardi can thank his Piedmontese mom and her bakery near Torino, Italy for exposing him to pastry and cooking. It led him to culinary school at the Istituto Alberghiero Ravizza and kitchens in Italy, Switzerland, Jamaica, Maui, Tampa, NYC, L.A. and D.C., including 10 years of experience in the top post. The new executive chef at The Four Seasons chatted with us about transformations in Italian cuisine and at the hotel’s eighth-floor restaurant, Cielo, where he aspires to offer guests a sky-high dining experience.
Restaurants often say they specialize in “authentic” this and that – Italian, French, Greek, Thai, etc. What does “authentic Italian” mean to you? You use only the ingredients and the traditional recipe from the area. Obviously, the meat, the vegetable, you need to buy locally. In the U.S., spaghetti and meatballs? I’ve never seen that in Italy in all my life. There are lots of misunderstandings about what people think is the real stuff. … But Italy is going through major transformations, too.
Tell me about these changes. The new generation of chefs is doing interesting things and adjusting for modern life. And Italian cuisine is being globalized. We have a lot of immigrants coming to Italy; it’s impacting the food. When I was growing up, it was really hard to find a restaurant that wasn’t Italian; now you find lots of people from Morocco, Eastern Europe. You’ve got Russian, Korean, Japanese. … The new generation of Italian chefs is looking at what these people are doing and using their food, things like couscous or spices that they didn’t use before.
Where does Cielo fall into this? The core is Italian, the real recipes. But it’s more on the modern side as a presentation and a taste. So Italian by core, modern by taste. But I cater to the people living in St. Louis – adjust for the taste in the city. You need to adjust to the customer if you want a successful business. That’s the reality of the business. Some dishes, though, I don’t bargain on.
Like what? On the lunch menu, octopus with garlic and mint – that’s a classic from Sicily. It’s marinated with extra virgin olive oil, garlic and mint, and served with a sauce from Piedmont. It’s a spicy sauce made with tomato and carrots. Obviously, it’s from two different regions of Italy, but it goes very well together. The stuffed olives with three meats – this one is a classic from Ascoli Piceno, a town in Umbria. Pastas: the bucatini, pappardelle, tortelloni ripieni – classics. For dinner, all the risottos, they are exactly what they are supposed to be. Like for me, from Piedmont, the real risotto, risotto alla Piemontese, always uses a little bit of celery to kill the acidity of the white wine. And we use butter, vegetable stock. The dried porcini rub used on the ribeye steak. It’s a rub we make in Italy. It’s very good.
Would you call Cielo “fine dining”? Cielo is excellent dining, but to me, fine dining is a place you only go to infrequently. I would like to become more like a family restaurant, where people come in, I know who they are, they know me and I have a relationship with them. Not to come here only because today is your birthday or wedding anniversary. I would like to see customers come here two or three times a month and enjoy good food without breaking the bank.
So what does Cielo offer to budget-conscious guests? We do it with the appetizers, gli assaggi. You can have a little thing and the price is reasonable. It’s not large portions, it’s tapas size. And you can do it family-style – pick four appetizers; it’s a good deal. Family-style for dessert too. The wine list is more affordable. For lunch, we went lower on the price; dinner items are not as expensive as they used to be. Now we sell pizza for dinner, and you can ask for half portions on pasta.
Cielo Restaurant & Bar
999 N. Second St.,
St. Louis, 314.881.5800
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2010.