New Jersey native Bryan Moscatello, executive chef of Stir Food group — which includes Zola, Zola Wine & Kitchen, and Potenza, where he had manned the cookpots for 2 1/2 years until his recent move back to Zola — has had a very busy life in the last few years. When he moved to Washington about four years ago, it was to take over the kitchen of Indigo Landing restaurant located near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. There he faced the challenges of learning the intricacies of low-country cooking, a style far removed from his Italian upbringing. For someone whose entire life seems to have centered on food and its preparation, Moscatello easily met the challenges. As he discusses his lifelong love affair with the kitchen, he recalls helping his grandmother prepare the family dinner every Sunday. In fact, he even learned how to make pasta when still just a youngster. No wonder Moscatello has shone so brightly during his career, being named as one of Food & Wine magazine’s “Best New Chefs in America” in 2003.
Zola Restaurant
| If you go |
| Where: 800 F St. NW |
| Info: 202-654-0999 |
| Hours: Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Mon. to Fri.; Dinner, 5 to 10 p.m., Mon. to Thurs.; 5 to 11 p.m., Fri. and Sat.; 5 to 9 p.m., Sun. |
Now he’s back at Zola, where he focuses on meals founded on locally acquired seasonal ingredients. Moscatello now has the chance to play around with some of the more advanced kitchen techniques, noting that he prepares meats by the sous-vide method (ingredients vacuum-sealed in plastic then cooked in a water bath) and is curing and preserving other meats for charcuterie.
He can also express his own style of cooking, not constrained by low-country seasonings or Italian dishes. “I always say my style is ‘American’,” he says. “But it’s really Old World techniques mixed with modern sensibilities and with a layering of ingredients,” he says, explaining how he masters a mushroom dish by selecting various textures and flavors, using mushroom stock, and finishing them with porcini butter.
What may excite him most about his return to Zola is locally sourcing seasonal ingredients. “I am working with both hydroponic and local farmers,” he says. “When you start eating these products, they taste so much better.” For example, he says, he used to buy the restaurant’s duck from larger producers, but then he started purchasing his fowl from Dr. Joe’s from Pennsylvania. “These are so good,” he says, though admitting that sometimes local isn’t the best if the farmer doesn’t get it right. “We want growers who work as we would if we were doing it,” he explains. “We started FIR, or Farmers in Residence, at Zola Kitchen.”
As part of his new regime in Zola, Moscatello promises greater interaction with guests, letting them know the source of the ingredients on the menu. He’s also tweaking the menu by adding such treats as popovers and little tastes between courses. And he is establishing two different dining experiences — the bar and a chef’s tasting room. “This will have a three-course, prix fixe menu with optional add-ons and with a different service protocol, very interactive” he says. And he promises such luxuries as hot chocolate with chocolate consomm? and a gin and tonic dish with juniper berries.
Q&A
What’s your comfort food?
These days, a great cheeseburger … or homemade pastrami done in-house with Valentine Brothers brisket, brined and smoked.
How do you get your inspiration?
Just by looking at food, playing with it and tasting it; what should it look and taste like? Looking at art for presentation.
Where is your favorite restaurant?
The best meals in town from Citronelle, CityZen and Komi.
What is your signature dish?
I don’t believe in them because then you can’t change them.
What’s in your fridge?
Absolutely nothing except eggs, yogurt, sambal, chili paste and several kinds of cheese. Perrier.
Orata with Sunchoke Tortelloni
Chef Moscatello says that good substitutes for orata are rockfish or black bass.
16 sunchoke tortelloni (see recipe below)
2 cups lemon sabayon (see recipe below)
3 tablespoons chopped roast garlic
Garlic chips, for garnish (see recipe below)
1 quart garlic broth (see recipe below)
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 orata filets
1 pound spinach, well rinsed
Sunchoke Tortelloni
8 ounces (2 sticks) butter
1 ? pounds sunchokes
1 tablespoon finely diced chives, poached in butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Melt the butter over medium-low heat, and poach the sunchokes until tender. Strain off the butter, pur?e the chokes, and strain through a fine strainer. Season with salt and pepper and add the chives.
Ravioli Dough;
2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
2 ? cups all-purpose flour
Salt to taste
Combine the liquids in the mixing bowl and add the flour and salt. Knead until it forms a ball and then 5 minutes more. Allow to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Lightly flour a work surface, and roll out the dough, using the sunchoke pur?e to make the tortelloni.
Garlic Chips
Slice the garlic thinly on a mandolin and poach in milk to cover. Strain and pat dry. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil, and pan-fry the slices until golden.
Garlic Broth
? cup sliced garlic
3 bunches scallions, sliced
1 cup sliced shallots
? cups sliced leeks
1 quart chicken stock
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 sprig parsley
2 tablespoons roasted garlic
Sweat the onions and garlic in a small amount of butter until they become translucent. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain.
Lemon Sabayon
6 egg yolks, beaten
? cup garlic broth
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
To make the sabayon, heat the yolks over hot water, beating them until thickened. Gently stir in the garlic broth and lemon juice until well combined. Season with salt and pepper.
To serve, boil the tortelloni in salted water for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat, and sear the orata skin-side down until only a small amount of translucency is left to the flesh. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a separate skillet and saut? the spinach and roasted garlic until the spinach is wilted. Add the remaining garlic stock. When the tortelloni are tender, add them to the spinach saut?.
In the center of four pasta bowls place four tortelloni and some of the spinach with a portion of broth. Place the fish skin-side up on top of the saut? and spoon some of the sabayon around. Finish with the garlic chips.
