944

Mr. Fabulous: Star chef Michael Chiarello steps from the TV screen back into the kitchen

Since Michael Chiarello left as executive chef of St. Helena’s iconic Tra Vigne in January of 2000, he’s been a man without a restaurant. But that doesn’t mean the guy’s been keeping a low profile on the food scene.

He’s founded NapaStyle, a swanky chain of boutiques offering artisan foods and accessories that celebrate all things cooking and home (it helps if the life you’re celebrating is absolutely fabulous).

He’s written a gajillion cookbooks, on everything from how to use infused oils, to creating Italian fare as good as Mama made, to entertaining at home just like he does (see above, re: absolutely fabulous).

He co-produces, writes, and hosts a television show, the three-time Emmy winning Easy Entertaining on Food Network. He’s also seen on his other television shows, including NapaStyle on Fine Living, and the PBS television series, Michael Chiarello's Napa.

In his spare time, he’s the proprietor of a small winery, Chiarello Family Vineyards, producing highly rated estate bottlings from the historic 94-year old vineyards surrounding his home in St. Helena.

Except apparently it all hasn’t been enough. In December, Chiarello returned to the kitchen with the debut of Bottega, his new restaurant nestled next door to the latest NapaStyle he launched last July in Yountville. It takes over a 140-year-old historic building, its name means “an artist’s workshop” in Italian, and its opening night was sold out with guests like Margrit Mondavi sidling up to a double magnum of vintage Krug Champagne sent as a congratulatory gift from Thomas Keller.

Could it be more perfect?

Yes.

When Chiarello breezed by my table one busy evening, the crisp white of his chef’s jacket paled beneath the snowy shine of his teeth, his hair was flawless, and darn if he isn’t even more handsome in person than he is on his book jackets or the TV screen. The Chef of the Year for Food & Wine and the Culinary Institute of America was charming as he explained the origins of the ancient grain polenta than anchors a few dishes on Bottega’s rustic-refined Italian menu. It’s an extremely rare red Venetian seed just being reintroduced; he’d gotten his hands on 200 pounds and is fashioning it into small cakes of toothsome, earthy custard that speaks of grassy silk.

Oh, it would be so easy to hate him.

Except that Bottega is a smash, and impossible not to love. It’s buttoned up (every detail of the menu is exquisitely orchestrated, starting with the buttery Parmigiano paste that accompanies bread instead of tired olive oil) and buttoned down (even in a packed house, your server will instantly top off your wine glass, poured from a cute quartino which equates to a glass-and-a-half). It’s fanciful (“polenta under glass” is a small jar splashed with balsamic game sauce) and frivolous (curls of house cured gray salt prosciutto and knobs of fried pasta come with a cup of fizzy, sweet Lambrusco wine).

It’s delicious in its Old World European décor, with warm terra cotta-tone Venetian plaster and weathered brick walls, and textiles dressed in colors of olive, chocolate, tomato, butter, ginger and mushroom. The floors are rough hardwood; the hostess stand is made of Himalayan salt rocks. You can dress up, or dress down (assuming your “down” is downright fabulous, of course).

There’s fun to be had here, such as juicy veal tartare tucked into a crispy cannoli shell atop a puddle of delightfully tuna-y tonnato sauce, a blob of blissfully creamy burrata lolling atop lemon-braised artichoke and crowned in crispy artichoke shards, or a gargantuan lamb shank that’s been braised to velvet in goat milk then gilded in garlic, fennel, sweet onions and roasted wild mushrooms.

But the cooking is serious, detailed down to the brilliant pickled cauliflower and green beans alongside salumi, or a pumpkin fritta that wisely centers on sage rather than sweet onions. Chef de cuisine Nick Ritchie worked with Chiarello at Tra Vigne, and keeps true to the seasonal, sustainable style that’s become a Chiarello signature.

Endearingly, Bottega is economically-priced, maxing at $26 for a wood oven roasted whole fish with Meyer lemon, shaved fennel and citrus salad, or smoked and braised natural short ribs with five onion Cavalo Nero and smoky jus.

Yet, perfect? Happily, perhaps not.

As Chiarello checked in towards the end of my meal, seeing if I was pleased with my Arborio rice tart (it’s cake, really) stuffed with wonderfully un-sweet Meyer lemon custard under huckleberry compote and a dollop of mascarpone, a roar of flames suddenly shot up from the kitchen behind us.

He paused, the slightest touch of alarm in his twinkling eyes. The evening before, he confided, a passerby had flicked a cigarette into a pile of boxes outside Bottega’s back door, and nearly burned the building down.

The kitchen flames subsided then, and Chiarello relaxed.

“I missed this business,” he grinned. “How could I not? It’s fabulous.”

  Add to Faves