Monday, May 1, 7:00 pm
Members $125, guests $155

Last year, just as news was breaking that chef Andrew Carmellini would soon be vacating his post at Daniel Boulud’s venerable three-star Café Boulud, the chef nabbed the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef: New York City. Those who wanted a taste of the newly crowned king of New York’s cuisine were left waiting, wondering, and whispering: Where was he going? When would it open? Could we make reservations now? Early this year, while the rest of the food world buzzed about splashy Italian openings around town, news that work at Carmellini’s Flatiron digs was nearing completion had foodies-in-the-know eagerly awaiting the opening of the aptly named A Voce (“word of mouth” in Italian).

Growing up in Cleveland, Carmellini began working on the line at local restaurants when he was 14. He enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park and spent three years after graduation at New York City’s San Domenico, where owner Tony May took notice of the young chef’s commitment and sent him to Italy to travel, study, and work at San Domenico’s sister restaurant in Italy. A year after his return to New York, Carmellini signed on at Lespinasse as chef de partie in Gray Kunz’s four-star brigade. He was the opening executive sous-chef at the four-star Le Cirque 2000, where he spent two years before Daniel Boulud tapped him to run the kitchen at Café Boulud. It was there that Carmellini first landed on the national radar, earning our own Rising Star Chef of the Year award in 2000 and a spot on Food & Wine’s list of Best New Chefs that same year.

After more than ten years spent in French kitchens, A Voce marks Carmellini’s return to his Italian roots. When his successful six-year run at Café Boulud came to an end, Carmellini joined forces with London restaurateur Marlon Abela to open his own place on Madison Square Park. Inspired in part by the location and in part by his heritage, he decided to create an affordable dining spot that serves sophisticated Italian cuisine. In designing the menu at A Voce, Carmellini broke the mold again, personally seeking out key ingredients from unlikely sources—like a friend in Iowa who cures Niman Ranch pork to make prosciutto and a fresh mozzarella purveyor from Staten Island.

At press time, A Voce had just opened its doors—and early word has it that Carmellini’s soulful Italian cooking was well worth the wait.