Photo: Robyn Lee
Name: Cesare Casella
Location: Upper West Side
Occupation: executive chef and
partner of Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto
Website: http://www.salumeriarosi.com/
You grew up in Lucca and transformed your family restaurant,
earning it a Michelin star.
What culinary traditions did you hold onto and what did you change?
I think I keep almost all the traditions, because to me they are memories.
But I adjusted to using different ingredients like local produce,
and spent a lot of time researching
the quality of products and ingredients
because that is very important to Italians.
What made you decide to come to New York?
I love New York City and when I was living in Italy,
I used to visit every year for vacation.
I started to get involved with charity events here
and had to travel more and more frequently to the city.
When I was offered a consulting job in New York I took it just to spend more time here,
and would spend three weeks of every month in Lucca, and one week here.
I thought it was so cool that my building in New York had more people than my entire village in Lucca!
Tell us about your first solo restaurant, Beppe, and how it came to be.
Everything in Beppe was Italian. We brought the wood, tiles,
and even the chairs over from Italy. What we didn't import,
I personally designed—like the restaurant's chandelier
which I had created based on my vision.
The design was exactly what I wanted in the place,
and I loved it. Beppe had an incredible feel.
Since I figured they wouldn't like living in
New York City,or even fit in my elevator to get
upstairs, I decided to leave them in Texas for a while.
You also opened Maremma, which regularly featured the Chianina cattle
—an Italian breed that you raised locally.
How did you get into the cattle-farming business?
I try to build my slice of Tuscany here.The US wouldn't let me import Chianina cattle from Italy,
so I did all this research and found a guy in Texas who imported them in 1975.
I went to Texas to visit him, and purchased the cattle on the spot.
Since I figured they wouldn't like living in New York City,
or even fit in my elevator to get upstairs,
I decided to leave them in Texas for a while.
Last year I actually donated them to the Center for Discovery,
where they now live. It's an amazing organization.
In addition to bringing Italian cattle to the States,
you started the Republic of Beans. Tell us about that?
I have a real passion for beans. When I arrived in New York,
the one thing I most missed from home was the beans.
It's very difficult to find beans like the ones we have in Italy,
so I started importing them for myself. My chef friends would ask about my beans,
and if I could start importing for them too.
That's how the Republic of Beans was started.
On the website I sell beans from my land in Tuscanyand others
from small farmers in Italy that produce incredible products.
You've been teaching for many years
—what do you enjoy
about teaching young chefs and what advice do you give them?
In my career, I'm very lucky that I've met a lot of incredible chefs
and have learned a lot from them. I like sharing my passion,
and passing along the wisdom I've learned over the years.
I enjoy showing people what real Italian food is,
because it's often misunderstood. It's more than food to me—it's the culture,
the history—and I try to educate people about real Italian cuisine.
Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto is a change of pace from your earlier restaurants.
How has it been different for you? Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto
is actually very similar to what I had in Vipore, Italy.
It's an authentic Italian salumeria that has a salumi counter
in the front offering a variety of things like prosciutto, arista, speck,
mortadella, and salame among others, and a restaurant in the back
where guests can sit and dine on assiaggi (small plates).
It's not much different than what I'm used to,
and when I opened the restaurant with Parmacotto it felt familiar to me.
We have to ask, what's the story with the rosemary?
We've never seen you without it peeking out of your breast pocket.
The rosemary started when I was in Vipore many years ago.
In the back of the house there was a garden that would grow herbs,
and I used to pick them and place them in my pocket to later use for cooking.
One day I went to dinner with a friend who showed up in a suit with a pocket square.
I didn't have anything to place in my pocket and so I tucked in my herbs.
From them on I would not only wear herbs in the kitchen, but all around with me.
