Kate Zambreno

Fortunato, Jennifer Newbury's acclaimed Italian spot that opened in spring of 2002 on the burgeoning stretch of restaurants on West Division, roughly translates as "luck" in Italian. But to own the only Chicago restaurant given a nod by Esquire as one of the twenty best new restaurants in the nation--not to mention its selection by Newcity as Chicago's best new restaurant last year--is more than just beginner's luck. In order to catch a glimpse of the recipe for culinary success, we talked to this veteran chef (Amerique, Chez Jenny, Sole Mio) about how more isn't always better, the trouble with calamari, and the ghost of restaurants past.

It's been a huge first year at Fortunato. How do you put it into perspective?

It's been fabulous, actually. I feel really lucky. It is more than I had originally hoped for the restaurant. My hopes were to try to establish what we were trying to do here, which was to cultivate knowledge of Italian food. Not necessarily to take on the responsibility of educating people, but to take it back to what I considered real Italian food, instead of Americanized versions.

How would you describe your cooking philosophy?

Paring down is really essential, because there's a propensity to layer upon layer upon layer. And more isn't necessarily more. Maybe our mission statement could be "less is more."

You mean in terms of huge portions?

And also in terms of flavors. Huge portions of pasta are one of my personal pet peeves. That's kind of another longer story.

I heard about this motto you have in the kitchen--what was it, no calamari, no tiramisu?

Well initially it was no calamari, no pizza, no tiramisu. And it was that way because without originally having an identity those things immediately indicate--and there's nothing wrong with those foods, I love fried calamari, I love pizza--but they indicate a certain type of restaurant and they're also so easily expected. We wanted to try and encourage people to dig a little deeper, and not have a safety net to fall back on. So they had to make a more conscious choice about what they were going to eat. Again, it isn't necessarily about educating but here you can't look at the menu and say 'Well, I'm having calamari, because I'm in an Italian restaurant," which you can do in most places. Here, you have to ponder the menu, figure it out, and be more involved in the choices that you make.

You once joked that you were Italian in a former life.

People ask me how did you get into Italian food, and I don't really have a reason, except that it seems to come really naturally to me. If I had to eat something every day that's what I would eat.

This is for our essential restaurant issue. What are some of your essential Chicago restaurants?

Well, for something a little more upscale I love Blackbird. I think Paul [Kahan] is amazingly talented, overall I think it's such a great restaurant, it suits me to a T. Where else do I go? I love to go for sushi. I go to Mirai, because it's in the neighborhood. I was down at Emperor's Choice in Chinatown, and it was so delicious. I love actually sitting at the bar at Spring by myself and eating there. Oh wait--and you know where else I love? Irazu. That would definitely be an essential.

What do you think about this new "restaurant row" on Division Street?

You know, it's funny. Some people think that this restaurant is in just the worst neighborhood, they just cannot get over it. And I think, god, you should have been here five years ago. What's interesting about it is that if you go far enough back where you're past where this neighborhood was really awful for a while, if you go back to the fifties or sixties, this was a Jewish deli, and they had guys lined up in here hand-carving roast beef. Which I found out only because the guy who delivers knives for us used to deliver knives there. So it's funny because, I know it sounds completely wacky, but I think there's some old spirit of restaurants on the street.

(2003-02-05)

Also by Kate Zambreno

Everything 101
I decided to spend a day behind-the-scenes at "Odyssey," in order to soak up some of the studied seriousness, immerse myself in a day spa of theory, maybe leave the experience a little more highbrow in the process.
(2003-01-22)

Doggie smile
At Sutton Studios in Evanston, it takes a communal effort to get an 8-year-old panting golden retriever named Summer to sit still enough to be captured in a candid pose with her owners.
(2003-01-15)

Afterlife, unlisted
It's a bizarre truism of our consumer society that corporations now own your name long after you no longer exist.
(2003-01-15)

Red Hot
The name Elizabeth Crane--Betsy to friends--is one you might soon casually drop at smart cocktail parties.
(2003-01-02)

Bubblicious
(2002-12-26)

The War on Nightlife
(2002-12-12)

Caught on tape
(2002-12-04)

Being Ira Glass
(2002-11-26)

Bull masters
(2002-11-26)

Splendor of the night
(2002-11-20)

Your chariot awaits
(2002-11-20)

What a Riot
(2002-11-13)

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