Tony Quartaro has an impeccable pasta pedigree going all the way back to all-day suppers at his Grandma Joyce’s house in upstate New York, where he learned to shape gnocchi for the Sunday gravy.
Quartaro stepped up at the Bristol as Pandel stepped away to open Balena, which became its own pasta powerhouse, and where he moved over a year later to work under Joe Frillman, now of Daisies (another juggernaut). The pasta program was “98 percent” his when he opened Formento’s as executive chef, but for the last seven years pasta took a back seat, first when he turned south and helped open Dixie, and then a year later when he left to join a school lunch delivery start-up.
As he bumped up production, first in the idle Limelight kitchen, then at Kitchen Chicago, he’s upgraded extruders twice, and his shapes have become more colorful and esoteric: emerald green broccoli leaf rigatoni; saffron fusilli; green and white pleated teardrop-shaped culurgiones stuffed with fried sunchokes, ricotta, and mint; candy-wrapper caramelle stuffed with shrimp mousseline in lobster sauce.
Chicago’s been through a fresh pasta renaissance since the Bristol opened in 2008, one that’s expanded and persisted in the retail market with outfits like Tortello and Flour Power. But until there’s a fresh pastificio in every neighborhood, it isn’t complete.
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