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 Date Posted: March 24, 2007 “Gary, open the wine, will you?”
Tom is yelling into the phone. He yells when he’s nervous or excited. “Hi Michela. We’re in Rapallo and we’ve just finished our second Pacciugo!” Tom has gone to Italy Italian-style -- with his wife Ruth Anne Adams (a celebrated chef in her own right), his two young children, and his in-laws. In nomine patria, filia, sanctus.
We then began a series of tastings. The first three or four were strictly limited to those in the inner circle: Karen, Gary and me. They were held at Karen’s house because she had the most workable kitchen, which included a big island. We were all nervous. We didn’t doubt that the food was going to be good; Tom is really talented and has a terrific palate. But we have so much riding on Rocca that we knew we couldn’t pull any punches with Tom. From Tom’s standpoint, he was walking into an already developed concept, having to create a menu based on a region of the world he had never visited. Gary, open the wine, will you?
We look at each dish with the intensity of lab scientists -- we smell, we
look, we taste, we touch and poke. For the uninitiated, it would have
seemed as though we hated everything. We didn’t. We loved
some dishes (Tom’s hand-rolled Trofie with Pesto transported us back
to Monterosso; the Wild Mushroom Toasts were heavenly; the Spring Green
Pansotti surprised even Tom), but other dishes needed a little more of this,
a little less of that, or a lot of something. Tom also knew he had to
play with the Veal Involtini, to move it away from giving the impression of
being “prison food” (his term).
It’s clear that Tom has taken in the spirit of this Ligurian cuisine. In order for Tom to make the leap completely, we decide that he is going to have to go to Liguria and experience it all first hand. Poverino! When we speak to Tom while he is in Italy, we are glad he brought his entire family with him. He’s apparently bought a slew of farinata pans, mortars and pestles, and pasta making implements. In order to get them all back, he is going to have to divide them up into everybody’s luggage!
We are all looking forward to the post-Ligurian tasting when the sipping will be celebratory and the eating will be just for the sheer pleasure. |
We’re gathered in Karen’s kitchen. There is palpable tension in
the air…..but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me begin
again. 
It was a happy day when Tom Fosnot accepted the position of chef at Rocca. He
couldn’t have better credentials, having worked side-by-side with Jody
Adams at Rialto and Ken Oringer at Clio. His stint as executive chef
at blu gave him the chops to develop a menu, control food and labor costs,
and manage the myriad temperaments a restaurant kitchen tends to attract.
When we told him about the concept of Rocca, and its Ligurian-inspired cuisine,
he dove in and began to study the region from every dimension. He took
the original menu we had created, revamped it, and put his own unique stamp
on it. Rocca Menu Draft #1.
We studied Tom’s menu and talked it through item by item, while Tom
feverishly took notes on his Palm Pilot. Tom then went back to the drawing
board, and produced another draft. Rocca Menu Draft #2. 
Tom brings handouts to the first tasting: two pages describe in detail
the eleven dishes he
plans to prepare and ten pages consist of a cost analysis of each dish. Tom
also is prepared to give a “best guess” of labor costs for each
dish. He begins an in-depth conversation with Gary about changes he
wants to make in the kitchen labor that Gary has proposed in the pro forma. 
By the third tasting, we all feel a lot more comfortable. Tom’s
handouts now consist only of elaborate descriptions of each dish, and wine
is no longer necessary for either delivering or hearing frank commentary. Gary
educates us on some of the wines he is considering for his list. We
relax and enjoy ourselves. 
Tom tells us that Monterosso was closed the day they were there, but they
found Franco Casoni in Chiavari and had three more Rocca stamps made for the
corzetti. Oh, and the minestrone at Luchin! I really get it now,
Michela -- the vegetables have to cook until they marry. Oh, and we’ve
eaten every conceivable kind of focaccia except the sweet one. Franco
told us where to find it though, so we’ll do that later today. And
tonight we’re going to a tiny hole-in-the wall trattoria where I’m
going to learn how to keep the pesto green.