FYIDC | THE DISH
FROM FINE TO FAMILY DINING With the help of his 9-year-old son Luca, Fiola’s Fabio Trabocchi has moved the concept of family dining beyond the shared dishes on his menu at Casa Luca.
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abio Trabocchi’s name is well known in Washington’s restaurant scene. Many will maintain that he ushered in a new age of fine dining with Fiola, the upscale trattoria that he and wife Maria opened in 2011. Fiola quickly found a place as a culinary hotspot and was chosen at the 2012 RAMMY Awards as the “Best New Restaurant of the Year.” (Fabio picked up the “Best Chef of the Year” award at the 2013 awards as well.) Now, with the help of the youngest Trabocchi, he is expanding his empire to the more casual realm of family dining at his osteria Casa Luca. “Casa Luca is the story of how I grew up, and how Luca represents a link to the future,” Fabio says. “It is a depiction of our everyday lifestyle as a family.” For Fabio, cooking was never meant to be a career or formal education. It began as bonding time with his own father, Giuseppe Trabocchi, in his hometown of Le Marche, Italy. Fabio would accompany his father on weekend trips to friends’ farms, where together they would decide on what fresh and available ingredients their dinner would be based upon. While we often hear of Italian mothers doing all the cooking, Giuseppe was the one who prepared the Trabocchi family meals. Fabio still remembers waking up on Sunday mornings to the smell of fresh pasta his father had been making since 5 a.m. Today, Fabio tries to give his family the same memories by making a point of cooking Sunday family dinners, much like those that can be found on the menu at Casa Luca. Giuseppe was Fabio’s first cuisine mentor and Casa Luca is, in many ways, homage to his father’s role in his booming career. From the family photos adorning the walls, including a 1960 mural of a young Giuseppe on a motorcycle, to the food on the plates, such as his signature grilled pork chop with orange-nepitella gremolada, everything at Casa Luca has a history. Even the dining room light fixtures are handmade from linens that came from a family-owned
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factory in Le Marche, while the glass sconces hanging over the tables were handmade in Mayorga Spain, Maria’s hometown. Fabio is now passing along the same accidental education to his own son, who asked to begin helping in the restaurants at age 7. Fabio and Maria let Luca choose the restaurant in which he wants to work, but lately he has been spending most of his time at Casa Luca — “for obvious reasons,” Fabio says. “Luca spends most of his time in the kitchen helping with small projects, such as making pastries,” Fabio says. “He likes to take responsibility for his work, which shows a higher sense of maturity than most [children] his age. I hope that his time in the kitchen will make him street smart when he is a young man.” Luca, he notes, “is also doing everything a kid his age should be doing. He just isn’t as interested in playing video games for six hours as he is in coming with us to work in the restaurant.” When he’s watching his precocious son walking around in a mini chef ’s coat putting finishing touches on desserts, it can be easy to forget Luca is only 9 years old. Spend a few minutes asking him what his friends think of his “job” or his career aspirations and you will rest assured that his childhood innocence remains intact. “It’s not like everyone has a restaurant named after them. It’s special,” Luca says. “I want to be a chef just like my dad when I grow up.” Though it is an answer most parents might yearn to hear, Maria says she isn’t sure it is the path Fabio would choose for his son because he knows the job can be tough on families. Nevertheless, she believes Luca’s time at the restaurant is beneficial both for his own growth and for his understanding of the family business. “He is a great kid, and I think he is really having fun at the restaurants,” Maria says. “It is good for him to see and understand what we do, and why we may not be home every night.”
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PHOTO BY GREG POWERS
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