Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few months, you have no doubt heard of Th Taste, the epicurean festival presented by Los Angeles Times and Food & Wine over the Labor Day weekend, September 2-5.
The massive 4 day event broken down into nine signature events at three venues across Los Angeles: Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and Downtown that will showcase the Los Angeles food scene through a curated list of events including top restaurant tastings, cooking demonstrations, Grand Tastings, wine seminars and mixology, celebrity chefs and other personalities, and music that are expected to attract over 20,000 guests.
Local Santa Monica restaurateur Celestino Drago of Drago Santa Monica is a featured personality, with a cooking demonstration at the “Secrets from the Kitchen & Cellar” session in Beverly Hills on Saturday September 3.
What dish will you be demonstrating at Secrets from the Kitchen and Cellar?
A risotto with roasted red beets and spot prawns
Is it traditional or modern?
It is a modern take.
Does it come from a particular region in Italy?
No this is something that I’ve created using the best ingredients on the market and right now dates are very seasonal. It’s very festive and healthy. I am going to use whole prawns roasted with olive oil, fresh thyme, and garlic and I am just going to put the prawns on top of the risotto. I am creating my own experience and flavor.
Is it special to a particular occasion or everyday?
It can be both. The colors are very great for spring/summer. I also like to do the dish during the wintertime during Christmas with something other than the shrimp. The pink/red colors are great for Valentine’s day as well.
What made you select this particular dish?
When we pick a dish to do in front of a crowd, we want to make sure that everyone can taste the dish and this is perfect for it. I like to do something that people think is impossible. People think risotto is difficult, but it’s not. I want to try to encourage people to do a risotto. There’s a lot to talk about with this dish– the grain, the rice, the method. And I will probably get someone from the crowd to help me. 45 minutes is the perfect amount of time for this dish.
What secrets about this dish will you reveal?
I want people to be able to use the dish as a guideline for other risotto dishes. I will teach them how I do my risotto.
How is modern Italian cuisine evolving today in Italy?
It is evolving big time. All the new restaurants are creating new dishes. Some do a great job maintaining the traditional aspects of a dish where others are very experimental. The traditional restaurants will always be there but there are a lot of new concepts emerging as well.
What kind of experimentation do we see?
Many restaurants are experimenting with a lot of herbs. Microgreens are huge now. It’s much more interesting in a way than what we have here. I was in a dinner in Sicily for slow foods from the south. They used a little leaf from South America and it tasted just like an oyster! They used that as an appetizer. They served flower pods as intermezzo. There were about 10 different flavors coming out. It’s interesting what they’re doing with the microherbs to reflect aromas, spices, etc. — a lot of experimentation. This one dinner, everything was cooked with seawater—it was fascinating.
What about fusion with other cooking traditions? Italy has always had fusion along its borders with neighboring European countries – like Switzerland and the Mediterranean countries, but today, are there any interesting fusion trends with non-neighboring traditions? Say, Asian?
Italians use Japanese ingredients a lot. They use a lot of Soy. I was at a dinner where the chef used seaweed in a risotto.
Are more esoteric regional dishes getting lost today?
Like I said, there will always be delicious traditional Italian restaurants.
What are some of the most noticeable differences you have noticed in the taste / preferences for Italian cuisine in Italy vs US?
I think people are more open in the US. In Italy, their cuisine is so regional.
Which of your restaurants is most challenging and takes up the most of your time? Would it be Drago Centro just because of its size?
Drago Centro because of it’s size but also because of what we’re doing over there. Very diverse menus and clientele. We see a greater result from our changes at DC because of its location and space.
Do you leave the cooking to your chefs these days, or do you still cook at your restaurants?
I still do a lot of cooking. The day I stop doing that, I will be out of the business. I love to cook and don’t plan on stopping any time soon. I still create and I still work with the chefs very closely.
What’s in the works as you look ahead?
I’m focusing a lot on artisanal ice cream. We just purchased a bunch of ice cream makers so we are going to come up with a line soon. Both traditional and creative. In particular, we are working on a line of sorbets and ice creams with herbs and vegetables.
This year, Drago SM has had some unusual menu offerings: first came a duck menu, then a pig menu: What do we look forward to next?
Yes we are going to have more of the “game” dinners in the winter. We did the Duck, we would like to do more along those lines. And because of our 20th anniversary coming up, we will be going back to some of the original dishes – some old fashioned, some presented in a new way.
What’s the best part about being a celebrated chef?
I didn’t know I was celebrated! Nothing is different to me, I just do the things I love.
And last, are you going to bring an extra batch for your demo so that everyone who watches can be sure to get a taste before they try it at home?
Yes!
Celestino Drago may not know that he is a celebrated chef, you and I definitely know better!