FAITA AND FORGIONE’S FIRST COLLABORATION STAYS FRESH
Five years on, and with the co-founders often busy elsewhere, Impasto remains an
It takes about a decade for a chef to make his or her mark. Some do it faster, others take longer. I’ve watched young chefs peak only to burn out too quickly, while others gradually work their way up. A minimum amount of time is required simply to understand how professional cooking works, to learn from mentors and to make a lot of mistakes along the way. You’d be surprised how many failed dishes I’ve tasted by some of Montreal’s top chefs, both at the beginning of their careers and at the end. But in between comes a high point when you know you’re experiencing the food of a chef running a welloiled machine of a kitchen. There are many chefs in Montreal who are hitting their stride and making their mark right now. Regular readers of this column know the names. The dynamic duo of Stefano Faita and Michele Forgione at Impasto are among the ones I admire most. A decade ago, Forgione was a chef in the kitchen of an upscale retirement home and Faita kept busy helping out at mom Elena Faita’s store (Quincaillerie Dante) and cooking school (Mezza Luna), before writing his first cookbook, Entre cuisine et quincaillerie. The two had known each other for a couple of years before opening Impasto in the fall of 2013; Forgione was coming off a successful run as chef at Osteria Venti, and Faita was hosting the CBC cooking show In the Kitchen With Stefano Faita. Their 54-seat restaurant, designed by Zébulon Perron, featured an open kitchen with bar seating, and food from every region of Italy. The emphasis was on authentic regional cuisine, with absolutely everything — from charcuterie to pasta to jarred tomatoes to gelato — made on the premises. These boys are now on fire, with two other restaurants to their name — Gema Pizzeria across the street, and Chez Tousignant a few blocks away. A frequent face on food TV, Forgione has written a book of his own, Montréalissimo (Éditions de l’Homme, 2016) and Faita works as TV host (TVA’s Arrive en campagne) as well as spokesperson for many brands. The two launched a successful line of jarred sauces in 2017, and a line of frozen pizzas is due in January. If that wasn’t enough, they will open a new restaurant in Villeray around March. Fun! But back to Impasto, the restaurant that started it all. Having dined there often since my first review five years ago, it has become a favourite — especially for a Friday lunch, when you can enjoy a couple of glasses of wine midday (and head home for a nap). I had an especially memorable lunch there last spring, the highlight being the snow crab culurgiones made by Aicia Colacci. Forgione explained that Colacci was the only member of his team who had mastered the art of making these plump and delicate dumplings, which hail from her family’s region of Sardinia. Along with those babies came a glass of white from Domaine du Nival — not the usual Italian organic/ natural selection, but a biodynamic wine from Quebec. Nice! I returned for dinner last week to see how Colacci, now promoted to chef, was doing now that Faita and Forgione are often busy elsewhere. On a chilly Tuesday night, the restaurant was half empty — a surprising sight, as a table at Impasto is usually a tough reservation to nab. Perron’s decor is as fresh as ever, and always-smiling manager/sommelier Benjamin Lemay-Lemieux showed me to a table, where I enjoyed a fine flute of Prosecco while waiting for my friends to arrive. The menu is longer than I remembered, with an emphasis on pasta, as well as a fish of the day and their famous Gaspor porchetta. The wine list is filled with gems, primarily Italian, at many price points. You can select your own, but I’d go by the glass and let Lemay-Lemieux do the choosing. We began — as always at Impasto — with the homemade charcuterie plate, enjoying the spicy mortadella, terrine, capicollo, speck and prosciutto along with some refreshing pickled tomatoes on slices of spongy focaccia. Bliss! Following that, we inhaled a starter featuring buffalo mozzarella with roasted carrots, cipollini onions, a swirl of carrot purée and a spoonful of chunky tapenade. I would have never thought to pair roasted carrots with mozzarella, but it worked, with the potent tapenade contrasting against the carrots’ sweetness. Next came two other copious appetizers: octopus with borlotti beans and “pallotte cacio e uova,” described by the waiter as meatless meatballs. The octopus was flawless: tender, ideally charred and served on a tuna spread, which I hardly noticed because I was so wrapped up in the delectable octopus. As for the meatless meatballs, this mix of bread crumbs, eggs and Parmesan won us over not only because the dumplings were so good, but because the vibrant tomato sauce had the ideal porridge-like texture. For mains we stuck to pasta, choosing the rabbit mafalde, as well as rigatoni given the cacio e pepe treatment. The ruffled ribbons of mafalde were twirled around juicy morsels of rabbit, along with braised chicory leaves, olives and Piave cheese (often referred to as Parmesan’s cousin because of its similar texture and flavour). The dish was good, but would have been great had the salting not been as heavy, which was also the case with the rigatoni. Cacio e pepe is all the rage in pasta circles, and the secret to this simple dish — made with two kinds of cheese (Parmesan and pecorino), butter and plenty of cracked pepper — is the right dose of pasta water. I thought the balance of ingredients was bang-on but again, the salt was played too strong. I mentioned it to my dining companions; they shrugged it off, but I’m certain this kitchen can do better. When it comes to Italian desserts, though, no one does better. We were happy to nibble on a slice of Forgione’s pine nut tart before diving into the famous Impasto panna cotta, this time made with coconut milk and topped with a white wine jelly, coconut almond crumble and white chocolate. I don’t know if you’d get that in Italy, but what nonna wouldn’t love a bite of this North American version? One thing I do know is that these talented chefs have yet to hit their peak. They’ve been cooking for decades, but Impasto is still young. And with so many projects on the horizon, it’s exciting to think of what’s next. Truth is, they’re only getting going.