When you talk about the Philadelphia restaurant scene, you talk about Marc Vetri and you talk about the other guys. And this is not to say the other guys are shabby — people like Stephen Starr and Jose Garces run very good restaurants that kick the pants off most of the restaurants operating in the most important restaurant city in the world 100 miles to the northeast.
But to experience a $135 tasting at Vetri’s eponymous Center City restaurant is special. The tasting is the only option and Vetri, a very youthful-looking 44, plays the instruments in his kitchen thoughtfully, effortlessly — as if they were one of his beloved guitars. Cauliflower flan is served with a well-considered quail egg while proteins like baby goat, black angus and Texas antelope get loving attention. And there’s pasta. Hell yes, there is pasta, like spinach gnocchi, almond tortellini and tagliatelle stuffed with foie gras. The whole Vetri experience is very Batali-esque, with rich sauces topping hand-rolled pastas that reads old world on the menu, but arrives with a more contemporary sensibility.
We recently caught up with the chef, who just released his second cookbook, to talk about the highs and lows and bloody kitchen injuries in his already storied career.
When was the last time:
You took your staff on a field trip…
Eight of us went on a tour of New York. We started off at Franny’s, then we went to Buttermilk Channel then we went to Maialino then we went to Gramercy Tavern and we ended up at The Breslin. We try and see what other folks are doing. To see what works and what doesn’t. And you know, just have a night out and a little bit of camaraderie.
You fired somebody…
I’ve never really fired anyone. They seem to fire themselves. I’ve never had to say “Get the fuck out.” They’ve always just not shown up when I wanted them to leave. You don’t have to fire them.
You spotted a big-time restaurant critic in your restaurant...
One night in June Frank Bruni [of The New York Times] emailed that he wanted to take his friend to Vetri. It happened to be on the same night I was hosting a big charity event off-site with 40 chefs from around the nation and 1,000 people attending. So he’s eating there and I’m at the event and I see that he writes up on his Twitter, “Just walked into Vetri, what are the odds of me sitting right next to Adam Platt.” I didn’t even know [Platt, restaurant critic of New York magazine] was there! So I came back immediately after the event, and walk up to them, “Hi Frank, Hi Adam.” It was the biggest two New York critics in my restaurant randomly on the same night when I was not there.
Someone inspired you…
My biggest mentor was a guy I worked for in Italy, a guy who would stop me always and say, “watch this, watch this.” Whenever the vegetables or meat arrived he would say, “Marc, Marc look at this, this is what you look for.” He took me to the butcher shops and fish markets and really wanted me to understand the origin of everything. He always said, “How can you make something if you don’t understand where it came from.” And that was a really awesome lesson. The two years I spent in Italy really helped me to define myself.
Dated a staff member…
I did, when I was young and stupid. I dated some of my waitresses way back in the day. Obviously, that never worked out. I stopped that after a while. It didn’t work out. Then I met my wife, not at the restaurant, and that worked out well.
Spotted a celebrity in your restaurant…
We don’t get tons, but we’ve had Reese Witherspoon, Bradley Cooper. We’ve had M. Night [Shyamalan], he’s obviously from Philadelphia. We’ve had Robert De Niro when he was filming. When there’s a film going on we usually have the directors more than we have the actors. Like we’ve had James Brooks. He was eating at the restaurant every night.
Kicked somebody out of your restaurant…
We have a small restaurant and this guy walked in, he had a reservation and we were running a little bit late and he wasn’t in the mood and you know it’s a little room and he was walking up and down the restaurant, where there’s no room to walk, and he was letting me have it, saying, “This is ridiculous!” loudly. I was starting to get mad and walked up and I handed him his coat and I opened the door and I said, “You can leave now.” And he said, “What do you mean?” and his wife said, “I think he wants us to leave honey.”
Last one: What was the bloodiest kitchen injury you’ve witnessed?
The worst one probably was on myself. When I was in college I was working at a restaurant and I was slicing up some calamari. I didn’t feel anything and I see blood everywhere and I look at my finger and the whole half of it isn’t there. I look over and it’s sitting on the calamari. So I went to the hospital and they were able to reattach it. They said if I went one more millimeter or whatever I would only have half a finger. It was a little scary. There was blood everywhere.
Were you back on the line soon?
Oh yeah. Chefs just get back to work.
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