Food And Wine Magazine

RESTAURANTS
The French Laundry and Bouchon; Rodde in a corporate job at The
Cheesecake Factory). Bertolli's 2003 book, Cooking by Hand, now
holds pride of place on the Oenotri office bookshelf, informing every
batch of sugo that the chefs make.
Bertolli is not the only thing Di Fede and Rodde have in common:
Both come from Napa families. Di Fede's Italian great-grandfather ran
the Beringer winery for 25 years, right through Prohibition, and his
grandfather grew grapes for Pine Ridge Vineyards. Rodde grew up less
than four miles from where Oenotri stands today. His father is president
of Peter Michael Winery; today, his parents grow olives and grapes for
Oenotri's Rodde Family house label, available at the restaurant.
Oenotri's cuisine relies
on locally pressed
olives. BOTTOM: Warm
onions and cool dill
yogurt are amazing
with crispy haddock
(recipe, p. 57).
/i.
TER A HORRIFIC
SNOWBOARDING
ACCIDENT
that nearly
killed him, Rodde decided not to go back to the kitchen at
Oliveto. He and Di Fede agreed to open their own Italian
restaurant. After that, says Rodde, "It was really simple.
We sat down and said, 'OK, Italian. North or south?' South. There
are multiple reasons: The pizza is better, and we love eating pizza.
Plus, it's way healthier. Northern Italian is all butter, eggs and beef.
Southern Italian is fish and game. It's cocina povera."
To direct the wine program at Oenotri, the chefs hired former French
Laundry sommelier Sur Lucero. After tasting the food, Lucero went
heavy on Italian imports, a provocative move in
Napa Valley. He swears he did this because Ital3 NAPA
ian wines match Oenotri's food best, not because
he hates wines from Napa. "Classic Italian wines
have a strong streak of leaner acidity that races
through them;' he says. "That makes them work
OENOTRI The olives
come from chef Tyler
better with tomatoes and the other vegetables on
Rodde's parents'
the Oenotri menu." Lucero points out that a full
farm. $25 for 12.7 oz;
third of his bottles do come from California, but
707-252-1022.
he admits that nearly all are 12 to 15 years old,
GROVE 45 Peppery
produced in an era when wines were generally
oil sold in cool metal
lower in alcohol and, therefore, more foodbottles. $30 for 12.7
oz; theo/ivepress.com.
friendly. To promote these wines, Lucero even
runs a wine club so that customers can get some
STAGLIN FAMILY
Herbal oil from a
of his favorite bottles shipped to them at home.
famed Cabernet
Clearly, Oenotri is remarkable. Rodde offers
producer. $40 for
this explanation: "It's all about keeping it simple.
12.7oz; 707-963-3994.
We don't want muddled flavors. Each dish should
have an opinion, and if there are 20 dishes on the menu, then let each
of them have a different opinion. If it's green-garlic cream, let it taste
like green garlic, not cumin or rosemary."
Oenotri's approach is so basic that perhaps no explanation would ever
sound right. The nettles on that pizza with green-garlic cream, after all,
are just garden weeds; chickpea fritters are all about turning a cheap
pantry staple into serious comfort food; and the pappardelle, expertly
prepared with pigeon liver (or any of the offal common at Oenotri, like
lamb testicles or blood sausage), reminds us that we can eat fabulously
in the leanest of times. These dishes have an appeal that's not so much
about sophistication as it is about desire: the desire to do as Di Fede and
Rodde do at their daily 4:15 tastings and devour the whole plate.
OLIVE
OILS
Daniel Duane's memoir, How to Cook Like a Man, comes out in May.
50
APRIL 2012
FOODANDWINE.COM