A field trip to ITALY

with chef Michael white

Every time I go to Italy, I get inspired. Jared Gadbaw, our chef de cuisine at Marea, and I came back from this trip with enough ideas to fill five menus! It was important to take Jared on a trip like this: getting to taste and see firsthand how chefs in Italy use ingredients is an invaluable experience.

Being in the moment and wrapping your head around simple cooking by tasting a fresh, salt-crusted orata with a light drizzle of olive oil is just magical. Of course we ate a lot of great meals, sometimes two dinners a night, but there were times when inspiration came from simply seeing a dish--even it if it did not blow you away, it still triggered your thought process to get creative with a certain type of product.

In the States, we are fortunate that people love pasta enough to be open-minded to innovative combinations that aren't necessarily typically Italian, so we can create dishes like smoked tagliatelle with speck (prosciutto) and anchovies. Having the method and technique down after 19 years of cooking, a trip like this allows me to play inside the Italian box, but without boundaries, and just have fun!

Cetara

This is where we started our trip. Cetara is on the Amalfi coast in the province of Salerno, and there are tons of great little restaurants to eat at here. The town is known for their culinary prowess, especially when it comes to anchovies, and particularly in making the traditional colatura, or garum of fish sauce. This is an amber liquid that drains from the anchovy after it has been salted and pressed, usually in chestnut barrels.

Pappacarbone is a really special place run by a good friend of mine, and the fish is superb! It's located in Cava de'Tirreni, a few miles from the town of Salerno.

Pappacarbone
Via Rosario Senatore 30
Cava de'Tirreni, Italy 84013
+39 08 9466441
pappacarbone@libero.it

Sinigaglia

After hitting Naples, we headed to this port town on Italy's Adriatic coast--very picturesque.

San Domenico di Imola
My old stomping grounds, where I spent several years cooking! Imola is located on the Santerno River in the province of Bologna, and it is most noted as the home of the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari and the Formula One San Marino Grand Prix.

San Domenico di Imola
Via G. Sacchi
Imola, Italy 40026
+39 05 4229000
sandomenico@sandomenico.it

Rome

Our last stop--which I'm still recovering from--was Rome, where we ate at a spectacular seafood restaurant called La Rosetta. It was one of the first seafood restaurants to open in Rome in the 1960s.

La Rosetta
Via della Rosetta 8
Rome, Italy 00186
+39 06 6861002
info@larosetta.com