April 2003: Gruppo Restoratori Italiani (GRI). Think On It

Note bene: From pasta to pizza, Italian food in America is depressingly and cheerlessly no longer Italian. It has become, for the most part, mainstream and mundane. Pretender-chefs have incongruously fused and con-fused it with other so-called cuisines to the extent that Italian food here has lost its character, soul, and that singular sense of pedigree that distinguishes it from every other cultural gastronomy.

There is not much that appeals about Italian cuisine in this country.

Even 21 years after Tony May (he of San Domenico restaurant in NYC, arguably the finest Italian restaurant in the country) founded Gruppo Restoratori Italiani (GRI) to restore a sense of substance, style, and authenticity to Italian cooking here, many Italian restaurateurs still have no clue of their true culinary heritage and the fundamental celebration of it. Even worse, as unpleasant permutations of Italian dishes have wormed their way into and through the sterile menus of darn near every restaurant and, in so doing, have managed to spread the notion that these permutations are desirable and authentically Italian, a category of chain restaurants calling themselves “Italian” has sprung up like weeds, infiltrating cities and their suburbs to misinform the American palate about Italian food. It was such an infiltration, if you will, that inevitably called for a heavily-sauced dose of reality and, shall we say, benign reckoning.

Enter Tony May and GRI, “a group,” as May maintains, “of restaurateurs, sommeliers, and chefs who either work in Italian restaurants or want to know about Italian restaurants or want to know what Italian foods and wines they can add to their menus that are authentic.”



GRI’s mission is simple: to prove to culinary schools, restaurateurs, manufacturers, diners, foodservice distributors, and writers, that real Italian recipes and the real ingredients in them are treasures; and when served at table either cold or hot something extraordinary takes place: a grand and gratifying meal that is like no other. Listen closely to Roberto Donna, May’s right hand at GRI and chef/owner, Galileo restaurant, Washington, DC: “It is not enough just to have recipes that one carelessly calls ‘Italian,’ and in the preparation of them, use whatever ingredients one can buy from the distributor, the supermarket, or the local convenience store. Everything about the meal at table— whether at home or at restaurant—must be genuine.”

GRI’s efforts have not been in vain. Slowly, but surely, it has painstakingly asserted its influence to convince chefs who presume to cook Italian that they ought to try harder. Result? Something has begun to happen, justifying the energy the Group has burned to enrich the integrity of Italian food in America. Notwithstanding the fare ordinaire “Italian” chains crank out, some Italian restaurants (including the over 200 GRI members) have taken giant steps to improve the product and the meaning of the menu. “Today, you can find food in many Italian restaurants in the United States as good as any of the best in Italy,” May told a group of restaurateurs, gourmands, and writers.

There is more to GRI’s influence. According to May (right), you can talk all you want about ways to prepare and serve Italian food, but the most compelling proof is when you see and taste it in the country that perfected the preparation and serving of it for centuries.

For many years GRI has done just that: taking anyone who cares about Italian food to a region of Italy renowned for fine restaurants (and the farm, vintners, and food companies that supply products to these restaurants) to taste and sample the best Italy has to offer. In so doing, it has stimulated writers, restaurateurs, educators, and consumers to now think kindly about what’s genuine and to think twice of pretense. There can be, May insists, theme, variation and distillation of a basic cuisine—that’s what inspires culinary creativity; there cannot, however, be theme, variation and adulteration—that’s what dulls creativity.

And so it was that a few years ago, GRI escorted a group of writers, restaurateurs, and foodies to Italy . . . this time to Udine, a city in the northern province of Friuli. And there, among old bridges, churches, viaducts, cobblestone streets, and very old castles and villas, this contented group of 30 ate hearty and toured vineyards and food factories that craft some of the world’s finest wines, grappa, foie gras, prosciutto, and cheeses.

At restaurants La Taverna and Casa della Contandinanza, we feasted on risotto so full-bodied and flavorful, seasoned with herbs grown only in Friuli, that we came to appreciate better the GRI insistence that an authentic Italian recipe is known by the authentic ingredient company it keeps. 

Visits to food factories put to rest any misgivings we may have had of how environment and technology impact the characteristics of a product to make it inimitable. In much the same way the special climate and soils of Champagne infuse the growth of the grapes and, thereafter at the winery, the crushing, fermentation and aging of them to create a wine unlike anything produced anywhere else, so do the vegetation, soil, and climate of Friuli combine with meticulous manufacturing standards to produce perfect foods and wines.

Said Roberto Donna to the group at its final get-together before departing for home, “We need to distinguish ourselves as forerunners of Italian cuisine in the United States. We need to be almost fanatical about product excellence, to be faithful to the traditions and heritage of authentic Italian cucina, and to continue to reject the use of substitutes that contaminate the values of our recipes and the presentation of them in our restaurants.”

Try telling that to The Olive Garden.