A Big Night for Visiting Italian Chefs to Prepare Their Best Dishes

Last week Vincenti restaurant in Brentwood invited Cesare Giaccone and his son Oscar from Ristorante dei Cacciatori (a.k.a. “Cesare”) in Piedmont, Italy, to cook for two nights along with Vincenti’s former chef Gino Angelini and newly promoted chef Nicola Mastronardi. In Piedmont, the wine region in northwest Italy, Cesare is a legendary figure, admired for this native son’s love of the land and his artful cooking. His restaurant there, in the tiny hamlet of Albaretto Torre, about a 20-minute drive from Alba, seats 30 at most (and that’s in truffle season, when Germans, Swiss and Milanese pour down from the north to feast on white truffles).

Cesare and Oscar arrived a few days early to give them time to figure out a menu (and to go produce shopping at Chino Farm in Rancho Santa Fe). This is what they cooked:

The meal started with postage-stamp-sized agnolotti with a filling of turkey and greens and an extremely fine pasta wrapper. Made just now, as the waiter explained it, they weren’t boiled but simply cooked in a hot pan till the pasta was cooked through and somewhat crunchy. It’s an old tradition in the Langhe (the hills surrounding Alba), Cesare told me.

After this antipasto, he served mare caldo “alla Vincenti,” a plate of mixed, warm seafood, each element perfectly cooked and not masked by a heavy sauce--all the better to let the taste of the superb fresh seafood shine. Then came crema di sedano con parmigiano, a celery puree garnished with shaved Parmigiano Reggiano. I’ve had this same dish in Albaretto Torre, but there it was topped with a blizzard of white truffles.

Though technically it’s still truffle season, I laud his decision not to serve truffles: It hasn’t been a brilliant year for them, and if they’re not stupendous, you’re wasting your money.

Gnocchi were made expressly for each order, too: exquisite little pillows of potato, egg and the smallest amount of flour in a light, fresh tomato-based sauce.

The main course was what everybody had been waiting for--the dish that makes some guests, even seasoned chefs, moan when they taste it at Cesare’s in Albaretto Torre: capretto. That’s right, baby goat (these were from Sonoma) cooked on a spit over a wood fire until the meat is caramelized and succulent. While this didn’t match the taste of the capretto Cesare gets from little farms in Piedmont, it was fabulous nevertheless. And what a great match for a Barbaresco or Barolo with a little age on it.

Those who didn’t overindulge in capretto continued with a taste of cheeses from the artisanal producer Uccelli in Piedmont followed by a fruit dessert.

All in all it was a wonderful evening from this father-son team and Vincenti’s chefs, one of the most successful guest chef events I’ve ever attended.