Chef Spotlight: Executive Chef Alessio Rossetti of THE OVAL at La Devozione in Chelsea Market

Executive Chef Alessio Rossetti hails from Caserta, Italy'. He trained at IPSSAR Cassino in Lazio and began his career at the 5-Star Luxury Hotel Grand Hotel Fasano in Gardone Riviera, as Chef de Cuisine. He arrived in New York in 2014 serving as Sous Chef at Tony May's SD26 and Black Barn as Executive Sous Chef before leading The Oval.

The Oval is an impressive and beautiful dining venue that is Michelin recognized. Located in La Devozione at Chelsea Market, it is an interactive chef's counter tasting experience named for its shape that serves a nine-course menu. Each course is based on a classic Italian recipe, reimagined through a modern lens, and expressed with innovative techniques, supreme ingredients, and one of Pastificio Di Martino's 120-plus different pasta shapes.

Broadwayworld had the opportunity to interview Executive Chef Alessio Rossetti about his career and The Oval for our "Chef Spotlight."

What was your earliest interest in cooking?

I grew up in a southern Italian town called Caserta. When I was a child, I was inspired by my grandmother's cooking and all the recipes of the Italian southern tradition. My uncles owned a restaurant where I was helping in the kitchen in my teenage years developing a great passion for culinary arts.

Did you have any mentors?

My greatest inspiration was my grandmother and all the chefs I had the pleasure to meet and work with in the past years. I learned so much from them and I still apply most of their teachings these days.

What culinary styles have influenced your career?

My cooking style is mainly Italian Neapolitan cuisine. I believe you have to truly understand your roots to innovate the tradition.

What do you consider the most distinguishing features of your work as a chef?

I have a profound love for territory and seasons. My recipes are the union of attention to the seasonality and respect of the farming process. In my dishes, the best imported Italian ingredients (Pasta, EVOO, Tomato) and Union Square's Fresh Farmers Market vegetables and fruit coexist to recreate a modern Italian cuisine with roots in traditions and my memories. Specialty dishes include Trottole with Lamb Genovese, Spahettino Mandarino e Caviale, and Mista Arrosto.

What is your favorite meal or meals?

Spaghetti Pomodoro, fish ceviche, and Sfogliatella Riccia.

Tell me a little bit about your restaurant for our readers.

Pasta is best served and eaten within 60 seconds from when it is cooked, for this reason at The Oval every dish is made express and served instantly after it is plated, the distance from the "Pass" to the customers is eliminated, so that guests can appreciate temperature of serving, al dente texture, an scents at their peak, moreover I can interact with guests while I am cooking. This is the dream of every chef, so that every passage of the recipe can be a way to communicate and to explain to guests the love that is infused in every dish.

The tasting menu is rigidly seasonal, the rhythm and the intensity of the dishes are modulated in accordance to the current season, nature builds masterpieces and chefs have the obligation not to interfere excessively but only to enhance taste and harmonize flavors and appearance of the ingredients. The menu is a trip in which I take our guests exploring places, history, art, music, in 7 steps, holding their hand while they are eating and watching the next dish being prepared for them.

The Oval at La Devozione is located at 428 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011. For more information visit https://www.ladevozionenyc.com/ and call 646.720.0215. Follow on Instagram @ladevozione_nyc.

Photo Credit: Giada Paolini