CleverRoot

6 6 | t h e c l e v e r r o o t Marinade Background Talk to this man (another one with a thick Ital- ian accent) for just a moment and you'll imme- diately see his heart on the sleeve of his chef's coat. He loves to talk, and you'll be entertained the entire conversation. Says Mafrici, "I'm from Trieste, Italy. .. I grew up in my family's restaurant, which we kept for 50 years. Me and my brother and my sister, we did everything there, homework, everything. They eventually sold it, but after I graduate I realize I wanna go back into the restaurant. I'm very lucky be- cause I'm very stubborn. It's a good thing to be stubborn because, you know, I say to myself, 'I wanna work in the most famous restaurant in Italy.'" And that's exactly what Mafrici did. He got his start as a pastry chef at San Domenico, a two star Michelin restaurant in Imola, Italy. From there he went to France, Germany, Africa and other locales running restaurants, clubs and bars for over three decades. Finally Mafrici ended up in New York, where he worked as Executive Chef at Felidia, Artusi and I Trulli. "At one point, though, I met my wife and I left I Trulli to open my own restau- rant, Lo Scalco, with my own money because, as I say, I'm stubborn. At one point, the second year, they give me the Michelin star, and this made me so happy because I did it all by myself." After a handful of years at Lo Scalco, Mafrici made a decision to spend more time with his family in a place better for his daugh- ter, and one of Chicago's Italian staples, Pelago Ristorante, was born in 2009. Dollop of Philosophy "I work in many restaurant, every restaurant for me is a different experience. Pelago is like my life experience put in one menu... With Pelago I decided, 'You know, I want the people to eat. I want people to come back. I don't wanna do huge portions but I need to be fair. I take all the dishes I love from all the restau- rants I work at and I put together. . . I think of my cuisine at this moment as Italian. People ask me, 'From the North or the South?' I say, 'It's Italian. I take a dish from the North, a dish from the South, because I have enough experi- ence to do that." Dash of Motivation "I get to give to the people some parts of my culture. For me cooking is about when you grow up. When you grow up, from smell, you remember. I still smell the soup my mother made and I like to share this with somebody else. That's why I like cooking, because you give somebody a different experience in life. You give opportunity to try another culture. This is why I decided to make more traditional dishes because when I had the Michelin star I did creative things, but they were more about me. Now I do more about my culture. It's nice to represent my culture to somebody else." Garnished with a Favorite Preparation "I like doing the pastry. It's something that can relax me. When I stop working, I love mak- ing pastry at night. I don't know why—maybe because it's dark." The Pairing "I'm really happy to say something good about Banfi because they are very nice people. They really are. The Poggio all'Oro Brunello di Montalcino, it's super good. We serve that here. In fact, we have a lot of wine from them. But ASKA [Castello Banfi's Bordeaux-style Bolgheri Rosso] for me—with Cab, with the dish I show—is great. I recommend the ASKA with the pig with the duck. This is one of my signature dishes and with this wine it's afford- able but very interesting. I really love this wine. The Brunello, the Poggio all'Oro is expensive, worth it, great product, but the ASKA, they did nice things. We take the tenderloin from the pig and we stuff with the duck breast we put some salt and majoram. For me, I love cooking with marjoram—the sweetness. This pairs well with the herbal notes in the Cabernet Franc in the ASKA." Roasted rolled pig and duck with fresh marjoram, roasted potatoes with caramelized onions served at Chicago's Pelago and paired with ASKA. CHEF Mauro Mafrici, Pelago Ristorante, Chicago PHOTOS BY REBECCA PEPLINSKI

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