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Business & Tech

Head of New Italian Culinary School Visits Local Restaurants

Stefano Corvucci, founder and director of the Culinary Institute of Bologna, takes fact-finding tour to observe trends in cooking at Italian American restaurants.

Stefano Corvucci, the director of the Culinary Institute of Bologna (CIBO), toured restaurants and culinary schools in this area last week. He was accompanied by Marv Alpert, a restaurant marketing consultant and a resident of Tarrytown.

Corvucci is researching trends and techniques in the restaurant industry that could affect course instruction and class materials at the Bologna school.

Culinary programs offered at the Culinary Institute of Bologna are many and varied and include short, hands-on classes conducted in English--mainly intended for small American tourist groups. Longer-term training curriculums for chefs and cooks are also offered.

The culinary programs for tourists can be as short as a few days and they can be customized depending on the interests of the participants. They involve active participation--not just demonstrations. Escorted cultural tours of the historical Romagna region and visits to food markets are coordinated with the cooking classes.

Expansion plans for the newly founded CIBO call for a hospitality school (to include hotel management), a restaurant run by the culinary division of the school and an on-site hotel.

Places and restaurateurs visited by Corvucci and Alpert last week included:

  • Irvington. William Winstanley at
  • Somers. Rick Dinardo at Il Forno
  • Nyack. Rossano Giannini at
  • Astoria. Rocco Sacramone at Trottoria L'incontro
  • Mahhattan. Claudio Marini at Barbarini Alimentari

Giannini founded the Federation of Italian Chefs of America in 2000 and served as its first president. The organization became an affiliate of the international Federazione Italiana Cuochi, formed in 1960 to preserve and promote the authentic cooking of Italian food worldwide.

Corvucci and Alpert also met with officials at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park and the International Culinary Center (formerly the French Culinary Institute) in Manhattan.

Corvucci is available as a personal chef to individuals or companies during his visits to America. He can teach or prepare gourmet meals for small groups (typically up to 12 people).

Stefano Corvucci's background

Corvucci learned about cooking and preparing dinner from his parents and grandmothers at an early age. "Dinner at our house wasn't always bought at the grocery," he said. "My father might bring home a wild boar he shot in the Romagna hills or mushrooms he picked in the countryside."  

"I was the only one of my friends who preferred cooking to playing soccer," he said. "So by the time I was 12, my friends were more eager to have me cook pasta for them than play on their team."

Corvucci enjoyed working part-time in restaurants while attending high school in Bolognia and college. He earned a law degree at the University of Bologna and worked for a private law firm for about two years. But when an opportunity to buy a small, 18-seat eatery arose, he opted for a career in the restaurant field.    

Once having gained experience on the running of a restaurant, he opened Trattoria Del Rosso, an 80-seat eatery in Bolognia, sold it after four years, and started Rosso San Martino, an upscale Bolognia restaurant with 110 seats inside plus 30 more on the patio. A signature dish for this restaurant is Lanatra E Laratrae (a dish similar to Duck a l'Orange).

His favorite dish for his dinner, he revealed, is Taliatelle Bolognese, made with ground beef, handmade pasta, pancetta and tomato paste.

The Culinary Institute of Bologna is located at Via Augusto Righi 30 in Bologna, Italy. For more information, go to www.culinaryinstituteofbologna.com.

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