The US magazine records the new course of Italian restaurants in the Big Apple, where tradition is no longer a virtue. "We bring to the table the things people are nostalgic for and present them in a different way. Our food is 101 percent Italian, despite the seasonal and local ingredients, interpreted New York style."
The news
Italian cuisine is the most exported in the world. And so it is often abroad that traditions are preserved or even invented, only to boomerang back, according to what is correctly called the "pizza effect". Now, the New York Times' T Magazine reports on the new trend of Italian restaurants that are most in vogue in the Big Apple, under the sign of "iconoclasm".
For example, there is Gary Fishkop and Paul Cacici's Daphne's, a new address in Brooklyn, where the tomato sauce is not red but Chartreuse green and washed down with vodka, the lasagna comes in the form of chips (Bottura style?), in fried fragments on a beef tartare complete with yolk marinated in soy sauce, the Milanese looks classic but is swordfish.
Nothing earth-shattering or unheard of, but enough to upset the expectations of those abroad who see our cuisine as synonymous with comfort, such as a regular at I Sodi or Via Carota, Bamonte's or Carbone. "New York City has enough classic Italian restaurants. Chefs want to do something personal and go their own way."
Because Daphne's is not an isolated case: there are several restaurants that, according to the newspaper, would make an Italian grandmother flinch. Café Mars promises to be eccentric, right down to the pink designer chairs at the bar, designed by Studio Apotroes, and the neon, reminiscent of the Memphis Group. Here, Castelvetrano olives arrive in cube form, inside a Negroni-style jelly nut. Then there's Marie's, where James Beard Award-nominated chef Miguel Trinidad serves coaster-sized cheese ravioli and lamb ragout pies.
Mark Brucato, an Italian-American actor born and raised in the metropolis who has reviewed hundreds of Italian restaurants there under the pseudonym Lil Mo Mozzarella, has no doubt: "Atmosphere is everything. These trendy Italian places bring the right vibe, trying to blend different things to stand out. Because 90 percent of Italian menus are the same.
Chefs Scott Tacinelli and Angie Rito of San Sabino and Don Angie speak of a "new wave of American Italian cuisine" and are not afraid to serve pepperoni carbonara, shrimp and mortadella cream with Ritz, or crispy tuna with broken arancini. Bar Madonna's Eric Madonna, for his part, is pushing his Calabrian hot wings, tail croquettes with celery salsa verde, or quasi-burgers with parmesan frico. "We bring things to the table that people are nostalgic for and present them in a different way," he points out. "Our food is 101 percent Italian, despite the seasonal and local ingredients, interpreted New York style."
