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Fabio Trabocchi – Conquers Both Sides of Pennsylvania Avenue

Jordan Wright
February 2011
Special to The Washington Examiner

Fabio Trabocchi with National Gallery of Art Chef David Rogers at the recently opened exhibit - image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art

Fabio Trabocchi with National Gallery of Art Chef David Rogers at the recently opened exhibit - image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art

As I sit in the gutted remains of what was once chef Yannick Cam’s glamorous Le Paradou, I am listening to Fabio Trabocchi, the formidable chef from Le Marche, Italy and his stunningly beautiful Spanish wife, Maria, describe their new restaurant-to-be, Fiola.

“The floors will be mosaic tiled and there will be a 56-foot marble bar,” he urges me to conjure up.  “The ceilings will be golden domes with dark glossed wood for the tables and super-comfortable caramel leather chairs.”  But it is January, the place is frigid and stage one of the renovations is a far cry from the expected transformation.  I struggle to imagine the sunny space as a sumptuous retreat for his haute clientele.  A whole section of the restaurant will be raised up three feet, “We don’t want anyone to feel as though they are sitting in Siberia,” he tells me, referring to the back of the restaurant which was down three steps and felt like Siberia.

Workmen are stationed in every corner of this immense space – a hive of activity – they invade not just in the front of the house, but behind the scenes in the vast state-of-the-art kitchen with its warren of rooms for cooking, prepping and baking.  A glimpse of the wine storage, reveals room after room and row and row of endless racks reaching clear to the top of 10-foot ceilings, their hundreds of carved wooden niches ready to cradle precious bottles of barolo, brunello and vin santo.

The couple had met here in the mid-90s when it was Bice.  “He was only 20, fresh off the boat from Italy and a skinny little thing,” Maria tells me.  “Not my idea of what a chef would look like.  But it was our love story.”

Prosciutto San Daniele (Prosciutto, marinated eggplant, Parmigiano-Reggiano, aged balsamic vinegar), created by Chef Fabio Trabocchi for Garden Café Italia at the National Gallery of Art, February 11, 2011–March 20, 2012. Photo by Rob Shelley © National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Prosciutto San Daniele (Prosciutto, marinated eggplant, Parmigiano-Reggiano, aged balsamic vinegar)

Mozzarella caprese (buffalo mozzarella, tomato, basil, and extra virgin olive oil), created by Chef Fabio Trabocchi for Garden Café Italia at the National Gallery of Art, February 11, 2011–March 20, 2012. Photo by Rob Shelley © National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Mozzarella caprese (buffalo mozzarella, tomato, basil, and extra virgin olive oil)

Though still attending university in Spain, she had arrived in Washington at the same time as Fabio on what was to be a short internship at Bice.  “I had to ring up my father to find out how to make a wine list,” she confesses.  As fate would have it the chef and the manager fell in love soon after they met, and the restaurant’s management sent the two off to her homeland in Marbella to run a luxury five-star hotel and high-end restaurant along the Iberian coast, where it was not uncommon to see celeb neighbors, Antonio Banderas and Sean Connery, drop by when they were in town.  Their next stop was a posh hotel in London’s Knightsbridge area for a few years before they returned to DC.  Not exactly hardship posts.

When at last Trabocchi found a restaurant that would give him total control of his cuisine, he blossomed and during his six-year reign at Maestro in the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner, he consistently garnered effusive reviews.

But he needed a bigger stage and stunned his loyal clientele when he went to New York City where he briefly helmed the now-shuttered Fiamma Osteria.  Although Frank Bruni, food critic of The New York Times, went head over heels for Trabocchi’s cooking, bestowing a three-star rating, the economic downturn could not stave the restaurant’s demise.

Maria and Fabio, who even in jeans look like they just sprung from the pages of Italian Vogue, have moved back to DC, “to the city we have always loved” and his impatience to reclaim the top rung with Fiola is palpable.

Tiramisù classico e cioccolato (classic tiramisu with chocolate sauce), created by Chef Fabio Trabocchi for Garden Café Italia at the National Gallery of Art, February 11, 2011–March 20, 2012. Photo by Rob Shelley © National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Tiramisù classico e cioccolato (classic tiramisu with chocolate sauce)

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, served with house-made preserves, honey, grissini, and pane carasau on the buffet created by Chef Fabio Trabocchi for Garden Café Italia at the National Gallery of Art, February 11, 2011–March 20, 2012. Photo by Rob Shelley © National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, served with house-made preserves, honey, grissini, and pane carasau

He describes it as “super-elegant and seasonal with straightforward and approachable regional cuisine inspired by my cookbook”.  Of course he will still prepare his signature dishes…the lobster ravioli and lasagna from the Le Marche region.  “My clientele wouldn’t let me back in town without having these on the menu!” he teases.

Until Fiola opens this April his followers will have to be content with sampling some of his specialties at the Garden Café Italia launched this week at the National Gallery of Art.  It dovetails with the just-opened and spectacular exhibit, “Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals”.

“Now we are on two sides of Pennsylvania Avenue.  I’m getting closer to the White House!” he jokes, reflecting on the coincidental convergence of the two locations.

See him this Sunday at the museum at noon and at 1pm for “The Italian Pantry”: Part I Demonstration with Chef Fabio Trabocchi at the Cascade Café, Concourse where he is joined by Chef David Rogers of Restaurant Associates and senior lecturer Eric Denker to discuss staple items for Italian cuisine.  This first of three demonstrations to be held during 2011 will focus on Italian breads, olives, olive oils, and cheese—from Canaletto’s day to the present. Chef Trabocchi will also sign copies of his book Cucina of Le Marche: A Chef’s Treasury of Recipes from Italy’s Last Culinary Frontier, available in the Gallery Shops.

To view Garden Café Italia’s menu visit – www.nga.gov/dining

To keep track of Fiola’s April opening visit – www.fioladc.com

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