Chef Cesare Casella – New York – USA

Cesare Casella is best known as the chef with the rosemary. He is rarely without a small bouquet springing from his pocket, a signature that reflects his dedication to his herb-inflected cuisine, fresh ingredients and his childhood in the Tuscan countryside where rosemary grew wild and his family ran a small trattoria, Vipore, outside of Lucca.

But Chef Casella is not just an herb man. He is the restaurateur behind Salumeria Rosi, Maremma and Beppe, and an expert in Italian charcuterie, too. It started with Mimmo, the Casella family pig in Lucca, which led in time to Giorgio’s, the artisanal, Italian-style salumi Chef Casella has been making in the United States since 2010. Now, he is expanding his empire with Casella’s, a small-batch maker of cured meats in based in upstate New York, which will launch in the fall of 2016. Soppressata. Finocchiona. Prosciutto. You name it, if the salumi is authentically Italian, Casella’s will make it.

Chef Casella’s deep dive into salumi is a matter of personal taste. He loves cured meats of all kinds. But it also captures his passion for real Italian food, the kind that is served in country kitchens and fine dining rooms throughout Italy. He share his knowledge with Americans as the Dean of Italian Studies at the International Culinary Center and also as Chief of DNA, The Department of Nourishment Arts® at The Center for Discovery, where he works to raise awareness about healthy eating for children and adults with developmental disabilities.

Chef Casella is the author of many books, including the newly released Feeding the Heart (2016), the 2013 James Beard Foundation Award nominee, The Fundamentals of Classic Italian Cuisine (2012), True Tuscan (2005), Italian Cooking for Dummies (2002), and Diary of a Tuscan Chef (1998). Currently, he is working on a new book under the working title, The New Italians. Casella also contributed to the English edition of Food Editore’s Gusto, an encyclopedia of Italian food and ingredients (2014).

Voted one of the best chefs in New York City by Food & Wine magazine, Chef Casella has appeared on hit shows such as “Iron Chef,” “Top Chef,” “Master Chef Australia,” “Best Thing I Ever Ate,” “No Reservations,” “Food Porn,” and “After Hours with Daniel Boulud.” He appears regularly in a variety of media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Gourmet, and Men’s Health; and his movements are tracked by bloggers and food websites such as Grubstreet, Eater and SeriousEats.