am New York
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Dining Out – Chef in Review
NEAPOLITAN GEM WORTH REVISITING
By Mina Hochberg
Il Gattopardo has been on the scene since September 2001,
but the reopening of the Museum of Modern Art
across the street begs another look at this midtown Neapolitan gem.
The vanilla white walls and warm lighting of the slim dining room make for an intimate setting that’s more convivial than romantic.
The food is impeccably flavored and fondly concocted by the chef Vito Gnazzo and owner Gianfranco Sorrentino:
the dense beef and veal meatballs wrapped in thin layers of cabbage and flavored with thyme sauce
are packed with flavor and texture, as is the veal braciola filled with eggplant and caciocavallo cheese.
The Cassata dessert is a memorable sponge soaked with a Sicilian orange liqueur combined with pistachio marzipan
– only one calorie, says Sorrentino.
Sorrentino talks with am New York.
Q: You and your chef are from the same region in Italy. Do you have similar tastes?
A: I’m from Naples, the chef from Salerno.
Where he comes from is inland, so he’s more about the meat, like baby goat.
I’m from Naples. We’re more about fish and shellfish, seafood.
Q: How did you come up with the menu?
A: We wanted to create the taste of my mother’s and his mother’s cooking.
Something very traditional, like the Neapolitan meatloaf
– usually the meatloaf was the dish at the end of the week, when my mother used to clean out the refrigerator.
Q: How do you like being near the MoMA, now that it’s re-opened?
A: I had a restaurant in the MoMA for ten years – called Sette MoMA –
so all the curator come here for lunch and dinner…
Dinner is better because people tend to be more relax.
Lunchtime is always business.
Q: Where do you like to eat in the city?
A: I go a lot to Milos for the fish, on 55th Street. I think is very fresh and very traditional.
If I want to have a fun time, I go to Balthazar or Pastis.
And the room I like most – the most beautiful in the world – is the Four Seasons restaurant.
Q: Do you cook at home a lot?
A: Every Sunday I cook for my wife and my son.
Once in a while I invite friends – around Christmas I had 37 friends.
IL GATTOPARDO Restaurant & Catering
33 West 54th Street I New York New York 10019 I Tel 212 246 0412 I Fax 212 246 3332
Reservations are recomended, please contact us at 212 246 0412
Lunch I Mon - Sun, 12 noon to 3 pm I Dinner I Mon - Sat, 5 pm to 11:30 pm I Sunday Dinner I 5 pm to 10 pm