Cesare Casella may be from Italy, but his Tuscan-style cuisine borrows heavily from the sea.
Cesare Cassella
As part of our coverage of Blue August, Planet Green is interviewing chefs around the country to get their takes on the Gulf Oil Spill and how it might affect the future of the region's vibrant food culture. This is the fifth interview in the series; read the whole series for more from chefs like Mario Batali and food thinkers like Ruth Reichl.
Cesare Casella grew up among the pots and pans of Vipore, the small trattoria his parents owned outside of Lucca, Italy. At age 14, Cesare enrolled in the Culinary Institute Ferdinando Martini, in Montecatini, and sharpened his practical cooking skills while studying the history of food. After graduating, Cesare set about turning Vipore from a local favorite into both a regional and international destination, and, by 1991, Cesare had earned Vipore a Michelin star and a reputation that attracted clients from Henry Kissinger to Tom Cruise.
In 1993, Chef Casella was named Executive Chef of Coco Pazzo in New York City. Soon there after, he launched its sister restaurant, Il Toscanaccio. In March 2001, he opened his first solo New York restaurant, Beppe, in honor of his grandfather, Giuseppe Polidori; his newest restaurant venture is Salumeria Rosi, a small Italian salumeria con cucina near Lincoln Center, opened in partnership with the Italian meat cured meat producer, Parmacotto.
In 2006, the French Culinary Institute appointed Chef Casella as the first dean of Italian Studies in both New York City and Parma, Italy. He has written three cookbooks, Diary of a Tuscan Chef (Doubleday), Italian Cooking for Dummies (IDG) and, most recently, True Tuscan (Harper Collins). Chef Casella stepped away from his many Italian-themed ventures to talk about his thoughts on the Gulf oil spill.
