Friday, September 24, 12:00 noon
Members $60, guests $70

Even the most cursory survey of the restaurant scene will tell you that Italian food is easy to do, but not easy to do well. According to Dennis A. Chansky of the Journal News, chef Rossano Giannini is doing just fine, thank you. “Lanterna shines an unfiltered light on the popular cuisine of Tuscany, offering a well-executed primer on the soul of true Northern Italian cuisine,” Chansky wrote, continuing, “[he] folds the sun, the blue sky, Mediterranean waves and the mountain air into his delicious dishes.”

Giannini is a native of Lucca, Italy, and he attended the Culinary Institute F. Martini in Montecatini Terme. He graduated in 1978 and after honing his skills in Tuscany for more than ten years, he was named executive chef at Il Capriccio Italiano, the restaurant within the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan. After two years there, he came to New York, first as banquet chef at Trattoria dell’Arte and later as executive chef at Marsala. In 1994 Giannini accepted an executive chef position at the Sheraton Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, where he remained until returning for a second round at Marsala. After stints at Osteria d’Angelo and Torre di Pisa in Manhattan and Trattoria Fratelli in Ridgewood, New Jersey, Giannini and his wife, Maureen, opened Lanterna Tuscan Bistro, where he prepares the simple, hearty fare of his native Tuscany.

David Corcoran of The New York Times found it to be “honest, dependable…Tuscan cooking, well executed, generously portioned,” and he noticed that “to judge from the crowds on two recent Saturday evenings, its reputation has spread well beyond Nyack. The reputation is deserved.” In Food & Wine, Julia Della Croce praised the chef’s efforts, saying, “Chef Giannini’s food has a lot of modern style. He’s got this way of sticking to genuine ingredients but making them into something very imaginative.” He has also been featured on the Today show and was a contributor to two cookbooks, Signature Pasta and Cooking with Olive Oil, both published by The Italian Table.

When he’s not in the kitchen, Giannini acts as president of the Federation of Italian Chefs of America; is a member of the board of the Gruppo Ristorante Italiani; and is a member of the American Culinary Federation, the Federation of Dining Room Professionals, the Society of Wine Educators, and the Nyack Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club; and, of course, he is an honored guest in our kitchen at The James Beard Foundation. Bravo, Rossano!