Osteria

The above picture sums up the philosophy of Osteria in Philadelphia perfectly. In a restaurant where almost every foodstuff is made in-house and from scratch, it is hard not to become entranced. Spit-roasted baby pig, a daily occurrence, is on the menu until it sells out. The smoky polenta is cooked in the same pot, over a crackling and spitting wood-burning grill, for almost 6 hours every day. The depth of flavor that can be coaxed from this type of cooking is mind boggling at times. A restaurant like Osteria reaffirms my career choice. It is everything that a baby Italian restaurant hopes and dreams for when it grows up, yet the restaurant is only 3 years old. It is a restaurant that is truly mature beyond its years. A large part of this is due to its pedigree.

Jeff Michaud is the Executive Chef and co-owner of Osteria. The other owner is none other than Philadelphia powerhouse Marc Vetri, the de facto Italian cuisine guru of the city. Michaud and Vetri go back years, with Michaud first joining the team at Ristorante Vetri as sous Chef.

Michaud then made the move of his life, packing his bags for Bergamo, in Northern Italy. Bergamo would prove to be Michaud's finishing grounds, where he managed to hone his craft to a level rarely seen in the States, and where he would meet his wife. Returning to America he teamed up with Vetri to open Osteria, a behemoth of a restaurant, but a behemoth run with surgical precision.

The sheer variety of preparations happening on any given day in the kitchen is inspiring. Whether it is making meyer lemon marmalade to extend the season of the hauntingly aromatic citrus, starting a new batch of salumi's to be cured for months and then served, fat glistening, in the dim light of the dining room, or the humble daily routine of bringing together flour and water to make the restaurants pizza dough, one of the cornerstones and highlights of the business. This is a restaurant that prides itself in its commitment to artisanship. They make their own yogurt for fucks sake! All pasta is made on the premise. Mario Batali, the most recognizable Italian Chef in the US can't even claim that. Then there are the gelatos and sorbettos. For someone as obsessed with ice cream and sorbet as I am, this was my mecca. Meyer lemon, blood orange, and kiwi topped off the flavors of sorbet, with pistachio and yogurt pulling rank in the gelato category.

"Mozzarella Carrozza"

layers of mozzarella and bread, battered in egg and deep fried,

served with oven-dried tomatoes and capers.

Obviously, this type of food takes a great deal of time and commitment from the cooks at Osteria. On days when the restaurant serves lunch, Thursdays and Fridays, they work doubles. On a busy night they can bust out upwards of 375 covers, 408 being the all-time high. All this with two pasta cooks, one each on saute, grill, pizza, and another two on garde manger, for a total of 7 cooks on the line. Needless to say the food at Osteria is built for speed, and the restaurant is clearly doing very well. All of this work, the countless hours of testing recipes, through trial and error, fine-tuning the methods used in the day to day operations, cleaning, organizing, executing the food during service, all the while holding the cooks to the highest standards has had a magnificent payoff. Jeff Michaud is one of five finalists nominated for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic for the James Beard Awards, the Oscar's of the restaurant world. Rightfully so.