Give me one chef/owner loaded with personality and a genuine love of both kitchen and customers and I’m fairly certain that he’ll be a success.
No one proves that point better than Alessandro Pirozzi, who owns two Cucina Alessá restaurants (in Newport and Huntington Beach).
The Newport location, which opened in 2008 and was followed by the Huntington Beach spot last year, takes the top prize as the Business Journal’s Restaurant of the Year.
A few years ago, the homey Italian restaurant started attracting foodies to its homemade pastas and authentic regional Italian cuisine. The love affair continues today.
So what is it that tantalizes us so much?
Well, before Alessandro, Italian restaurants were not exactly concentrating on the indigenous recipes of Naples, Italy, his hometown. As it turns out, we were missing some exceedingly appealing food. Alessandro makes it all from scratch with some ingredients flown in from Italy and the rest personally sourced from farmer and rancher purveyors.
In addition, friendly service staff and personal attention from the chef makes this place something special.
Naturally, pastas are made fresh several times a day and then topped with delicious sauces.
Imagine a refined sauce with depths of flavor and meat and vegetable combinations you’ve not experienced before, atop ribbons of toothsome pasta.
Imagine discovering that the filet of sole and the filet mignon here are among the best ever tasted.
Imagine the creamiest porcini-laden risotto sitting before you. The pizza raffi alone will drive you crazy.
By the time you get to entrées, you will be plotting a return trip because you realize that it’s going to take several visits to work your way through the 17 pasta and risotto dishes.
And, just when we think we’ve had a whole education in one meal, dessert comes along and proves that even sweet endings go beyond what we’ve always known in Italian restaurants.
The more I go to Alessá, the more I realize that those Italians really do know how to eat and am grateful to this restaurant for unlocking such terrific culinary doors.
In case you’re wondering how Alessandro came to this love of cooking, he was originally taught as a boy by his grandmother in her kitchen in Naples. He does have family members who are restaurateurs. He became professionally involved in restaurants on both sides of the Atlantic and then he decided to live his dream and bring those Neapolitan recipes to us.
We, like so many others, are very enthusiastic about Cucina Alessá.
Having introduced a lot of people personally to the restaurant, this one has found several of our friends becoming loyalists from the outset. Let’s just say that it’s sort of impossible to try it and then forget it.
—Fifi Chao
