It’s not every day that you get to taste with a legend.

But that’s exactly what happened last week when I visited New York for a meeting with Ceci’s east coast importer and a dinner with wine writers.

When it came down to sit down for lunch with the Enotria Wine Imports sales team, founder and owner Andrea Fassone suggested Morso, the most recent entry by legendary Italian chef and restaurateur Pino Luongo (above).

By the time I moved to New York City in 1997, Pino — a man literally 10 years before his time — had already reshaped the Italian culinary landscape in the city with Coco Pazzo, his landmark Italian restaurant.

But even by that time, he had already opened two other iconic Italian restaurants in the city: Il Cantinori and Le Madri.

He was and is a pioneer and visionary of Italian food and Italian cooking in the U.S. and his restaurants — including Morso, his newest — are always benchmarks for contemporary and classic Italian cooking in this country.

I am rarely starstruck but Pino’s is one of those stars that shines brightest. It was an utter thrill to get to taste Ceci Otello with him!

Jeremy Parzen
Ceci blog master