A chef who I used to work for loved to define Italian food as the simplest expression of the fewest ingredients. Ive quoted him many times but in reality the cuisine is neither homogeneous nor so easy to pin down. Italy is divided into 20 official regions, and these are split even further to mark boundaries that are as gastronomical as they are political. There are 110 Italian provinces in all, with each one leaning on local ingredients and methods to distinguish itself from its neighbours.
The truth is that nothing is simple about Italian food, and very little of it is easy to execute. The country boasts some 243 Michelin-starred restaurants, so its not at all as rustic as the postcards would have us believe. Its varied bounty has long resisted a singular, national definition (as in Canada), and so for a very long time its authenticity and regional fealty was unceremoniously tossed overboard on its trip across the Atlantic. Once in port, we would cram the cuisines wondrous diversity inside a plastic cornucopia and modify the hell out of only those dishes that matched our own tastes and abilities.
In Vancouver, where we werent blessed with as large an Italian population as, say, Toronto, we had to endure a deficit in quality for a very long time. But things have improved considerably over the past 12 years. Weve witnessed the arrival of well over two dozen restaurants, gelato shops, food stores, delicatessens and cafés that have aimed for much better in the Italian milieu. Our diners have come to appreciate the delights of a proper cappuccino, a genuine Neapolitan pizza, a time-consuming risotto, and a carbonara sauce made with egg and guanciale instead of whipped cream and bacon.
While award-winning titans such as Yaletowns l persist in high-end excellence, the most plain to see/taste popular improvements have been in the more accessible realm of pizza.
As regular readers (and diners) are well aware, over 10 restaurants doing superb turns with Neapolitan-style pizza have recently come our way, two of which have been Vera Pizza Napoletana-certified (Gastowns and on Victoria Drive). Nearly all of these establishments offer other improvements upon what used to be, whether it be the addictive crispy ceci at on Main (fried chickpeas with mint, citrus and chillies) or the toothsome crostinis at in the West End. Pasta has also taken gigantic leaps forward, with the majority of Vancouvers new wave making their own every day.
Fewer than half of all the new outlets of awesomeness are owned, cheffed or otherwise managed by Italians. What is driving all the change is a genuine passion for the cuisine, not an unwritten responsibility to honour ones own heritage. The fact that a chef is of Chinese or Scottish descent hasnt made him/her inherently incapable of making a perfect picatta di vitello or risi bisi. To wit, Chefs Neil Taylor at the Moda Hotels and Lucais Syme and Adam Pegg at West 4ths might be considered outsiders or stranieri by some Italians, but they are shockingly well-versed in Italys gastronomic kaleidoscope and more connected to our local farms and producers than most. I suspect that the overwhelming majority of Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»food-lovers would much rather have an experience in their restaurants than in any establishment on , which is seeing its reputation as our Little Italy slowly eroded by its indifference to the vast improvements made upon it elsewhere.
Of course, being a greedy bastard of the insufferable order, Im still not completely satisfied. But however much Id like to see an Italian wine and cocktail bar specialising in risotto and arancini and a few other concepts besides, Im nonetheless positively thrilled at how far weve come with Italian in such a short time.
And having witnessed and feasted on all of these positive changes from the front lines (glass in hand and napkin in lap), Ive come to hope that well soon see other traditions enjoy a similar renaissance. If you think theres no room for improvement in Pakistani, Alsatian, or Portuguese restaurants here in Vancouver, just watch.
Pick a cuisine and chances are that theres a chef somewhere in town who is currently dreaming about representing it (or one of its facets) in a way that we have yet to see. The next wave of new restaurants is always just around the corner, and we never know what their menus will bring.
