3 things Italian chefs would never order at a restaurant
We’re crazy about Italian cuisine, and can be deeply impressed by chefs who serve us the best plates of penne all’arrabbiata or Milanese cutlets. But what are the Italian dishes that chefs themselves would never order?
Because chefs also love going out to eat at their colleagues’ restaurants, at least when they don’t finally have an evening at home and put something delicious on the table.
Dishes Italian chefs don’t order
But they don’t order these “Italian” dishes when they appear on a restaurant menu:
Chicken Parmesan
For Italian-American chef Michael DeLone of restaurant Nunzio, this is a no-go. He would never put it on the menu at his own restaurant, and if he comes across it somewhere else, he immediately adjusts his expectations (downward). According to him, there are many dishes that are more authentic, creative and, above all, more fundamentally Italian, such as Cotoletta Bolognese.
Spaghetti with meatballs
DeLone mainly sees this dish served in many restaurants as a very large plate of sauce with spaghetti in it, among which you have to try to fish out the meatballs. He says that in no region of Italy is it customary to overload a plate of pasta with sauce and simply consider it good enough.
Carbonara with peas
What Gordon Ramsay puts in his carbonara at home is up to him, but if you come across pasta carbonara with peas in a restaurant, you might want to look for somewhere else. Peas don’t belong in carbonara, any more than cream does. Egg yolk and grated cheese are what you use to make the perfect emulsion to coat all those strands of pasta deliciously.
Also read:
- Video: how to make Spaghetteria’s linguine alle vongole
- The NYT drives Italians up the wall with this carbonara
- 10 fast-food workers spill the beans: ‘I would neeeever order this!’
