Welcome to the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network series and to its official opening with the assignment of the first Guest Chef residency to Chef Douglas D’Avico from Chicago, Illinois.

Chef Douglas D’Avico, also known as Doug, decided to become a professional Chef as he loves being around food and the environment of the kitchen. Today Chef D’Avico is the top Chef at the Trattoria N0. 10 in Chicago, where the restaurant specialty is contemporary Italian cuisine.

Before taking the lead in the kitchen at Trattoria No. 10 in Chicago and been awarded with 3 Stars by the Chicago Tribune in 1991, he worked at a horse racing park, a river boat casino and for hotels in Miami, Florida and Honolulu, Hawaii, as he told us in a recent interview.

Among the other questions, we asked him what was the secret ingredient in being a top Chef, and he answered “good fresh ingredients“.

Chef D’Avico’s favorite food is seafood and pasta, and he has a definition of Italian cuisine as “clean, fresh and simple“. Also, Chef D’avico definition of Italian gourmet is “taking fresh produce, artisan ingredients, and cooking with care and respect“.

Chef Douglas D’avico is an adopter and supporter of Academia Barilla products, for his culinary creations. He states that Academia Barilla products are “very good quality with clean flavors“, and you can always find them in his menus.

You can trust Chef D’Avico’s judgment or give it a try for yourself at the Academia Barilla online store, where plenty of Italian gourmet specialties are available and just a click away, and where you can also find the authentic Italian gourmet ingredients used in gourmet recipes by Chef D’Avico and other top Chefs around the world who take Italian cuisine seriously and to the next level.

If you want to get in touch with Chef D’Avico you can meet him at Trattoria N.10, 10 N. Dearborn, Chicago IL 60602 (Google map below). Please visit the restaurant website at www.trattoriaten.com for complete contact info but also detailed menus, restaurant reviews, reservations for private parties and restaurant gift cards. Also, feel free to call directly Trattoria No. 10 at +1 (312) 984-1718.

Since Chef D’Avico’s “plat fort” is seafood, he will be back with us tomorrow to share his first recipe, a yummy Octopus Carpaccio with Blood Oranges. We can’t wait, can you?

We have been blogging about celebrity Chefs for some time now, and we are finally proud to announce the launch of the Italian Food Lovers Chef Networks!

Thanks to the never-stopping activity of Academia Barilla’s Italian Culinary Specialist Team in the United States, and to their relations with several top and celebrity Italian Chefs, we put together a network of guest Chefs who will be contibuting to our Italian Food Lovers blog sharing their Italian food love, passion, experience and, of course, gourmet recipes and special Chef’s cooking tips!

Each month we will introduce a new Italian Food Lovers Guest Chef, who will then start contributing on regular monthly basis. We have a nice line-up of celebrity gourmet Chef who will share their culinary secrets with us.

No anticipations, just get ready to meet our first Chef Network Guest next Monday, Chef Douglas D’Avico from Trattoria n. 10 Restaurant in Chicago. Welcome to the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network series!

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.