course 1
warm mushroom salad, poached quail egg
course 2
pan seared monkfish, white beans, peppers, artichokes, roasted tomato vinaigrette
course 3
cider braised shortribs, celeriac puree, watercress salad
course 4
beignet, whipped brie, apricot, seared foie gras

The chef is also planning a few other tiny food courses to keep things interesting (amuse bouche, intermezzo and possibly some housemade truffles for a finale, but that part is still in the works). Reservations are encouraged.

Symon News
Everyone’s favorite Iron Chef is at it again. Seriously – when does this guy sleep? According to Crain’s, Symon is opening a new restaurant in Milwaukee inside the Hotel Palomar. I’ve stayed at the Hotel Palomar in LA, which is part of the Kimpton Group. I really like this chain of boutique hotels, especially the Hotel Monaco in Chicago and San Francisco.

Dominic Cerino
This isn’t exactly new news, but in case you haven’t heard, Dominic Cerino is now the head chef at Lakeland Community College dining and event services. This is a great addition for the college. Cerino will no doubt bring in a lot of business and really up the level of quality overall. I’ve been to a few events at Mooreland Mansion – beautiful space and grounds, but the food often fell short. That won’t be the case anymore with him in charge. Oh how I miss those braised short ribs and lentils…

1. What are the top 5 spices every home chef should have? I use a lot of the basics at home, including garlic powder, oregano, cumin and Curry powder. Then I also use a garam masala. I used to cook for a lot of Indian weddings at the Ritz-Carlton and was introduced to how fantastic this stuff was on poultry, seafood and vegetables.

2. What is your favorite and least favorite thing to make? I love to cook Italian, especially when I cook with my girlfriend and/or my kids. It’s fun, approachable cuisine that you can feed the masses with. I can’t think of anything that I would say I hate to make.

3. What is your favorite thing about Cleveland and what drives you nuts? The greatest thing about Cleveland is the family atmosphere that exists in the whole town. I lived in NYC for a number of years and I would watch kids get on the school bus from these high-rise apartment buildings of Manhattan. That just seemed so foreign to me – growing up without space. The only thing that bothers me is the reputation that Cleveland has of a behind the times food town. I couldn’t wait to come back!

4. If you could cook for one person, real or dead, who would it be? If I could cook for one person, it would be my dad. He spent time with me in the kitchen as I grew up, like most kids spend time in the garage. He is the best cook and the greatest man I’ve ever known; I miss him every day.

5. You’re having a dinner party, top 5 songs on your play list? I would play selections by Fleetwood Mac, Lionel Ritche and James Taylor.

6. Favorite restaurant in Cleveland? I love to take my girlfriend to Momocho. Great food, atmosphere and cool stuff to look at on the walls.

7. What restaurant do you miss? I miss Shakees Pizza. I was still pretty young when it closed, but I have great memories of going there with my parents and watching the silent movies while we had dinner.

8. What’s your last meal on Earth? Nothing glamorous here. If I were on death row, I would request a Daniel Bolud Fois Gras Burger. Maybe it would stop my heart before I got to the electric chair!

9. Most unusual food you have ever tried? I had a some crickets that were fried once. I had been drinking – I don’t recommend it (the crickets).

10. Most famous person you have cooked for? I had the pleasure of cooking for a few good ones, but Julia Child’s 90th birthday party in Washington D.C. was one of the more memorable.

11. How did you end up at Pier W and where were you before? I worked for the Ritz- Carlton in NYC, Cleveland, Washington D.C., Los Angeles and Boston for 12 years after culinary school, and did a stage at Alain Ducasse at the Essex House. I wanted to move home and Pier W gave me that opportunity two years ago. It was the best move I’ve ever made.

12. Where do you grocery shop? I would love to tell you that I shop the West Side Market three times a week and that I buy organic from Wild Oats all the other days, but the truth is that I have a family and I shop at Giant Eagle most of the time. They are open 24 hours, and I shop overnight when I get off work.

13. Favorite guilty pleasure when it comes to food? I make my own ice cream at home with the kids – we don’t even wait for it to stop spinning before we get the spoons out.

14. If you weren’t a chef, what would you be doing? I’d be a writer. I hope to do something with that someday, maybe when I get too old to be in the kitchen 14 hours a day.

15. If you could be another chef, any chef, for one day, who would it be? I would love to be Julia Child. She was an inspiration to me as I began my career. Watching her shows, I was so impressed by how flowing and confident her movements were in the kitchen. That impresses me more than anything, that purposeful movement in the kitchen.

16. Favorite TV show? I don’t watch much TV, but I do love Rescue Me with Dennis Leary. I guess it strikes a parallel for me between the lifestyle of the firemen in the show, and the crazy existence of a chef.

17. How did you get involved with the Copper River salmon in Cordova? What makes them so unique? I got asked by a friend to help cook for Cordova Alaska’s Centennial Celebration, which is at the mouth of the Copper River Delta. When I got there, I fell in love with the area, the people and the fish. We did a six-course meal, all surrounding Copper River salmon, for food writers, chefs and townsfolk. It was one of the most memorable weeks I have ever had, and I am hooked on the best salmon in the world.

18. Favorite meal from your childhood? My grandmother Nana’s breaded pork chops. She was 4 feet 6 inches tall and all of her was pure chef.

19. Who or what inspires you? I get inspired and do my best work when I have had enough rest, a good breakfast and everything is right at home with my girls.

20. What are you doing in your kitchen right now that’s different from others? My kitchen is one of growth and learning. I take each day and try to learn something and teach something. We are trying to create a kitchen environment where cooks feel good about themselves and where they work and that they know their suggestions matter. I came up in this business having to work with screamers, who felt the only way to grow was through having your spirit squashed time and again. I want to lead a different way.

Someone told me a long time ago that the restaurant was actually Carrie’s childhood home and that you could still see part of the original front porch. That’s true, sort of. You can have dinner outside the original front porch and it was a childhood home for someone, just not Carrie or anyone in her family.

A German family built the house sometime in the early 1900s and the Cerino family purchased it from the family in 1963. Many of the original items are still in tact, like the oversized fireplace. The German family would serve chicken dinners right from the front porch and used the basement as a speakeasy. During the tour, Dominic pointed out where the speakeasy once stood and the original tunnels that flow all throughout the house. Apparently, this was quite the house and family back in the day. Local legend says the FBI watched this house during WWII because they believed the Germans had a ham radio.

While in the basement, hearing about the tunnels and local legends – and just the fact that we were in the very old basement of a very old house – I had a feeling Dominic was going to tell me something I didn’t want to hear. So I quickly blurted out, “If you’re going to tell us this place has ghosts, I don’t want to hear it.” I’m terrified of anything scary. I successfully avoided watching Halloween or any of the Freddy movies growing up. I’m sure there are spirits and ghosts zooming around, I just tell myself they are all Casper-like. Well, either Dominic didn’t hear me, or didn’t take me seriously; because he went on to tell about his cousin that haunted the restaurant and caused minor problems.

“Goofy things,” he said, would happen. So he called Mary Ann, the North Royalton resident/ghostbuster who inspired the TV show “Ghost Whisperer”. Which made me chuckle and think of Dan Aykroyd and Ray Parker Jr. Apparently; Dominic had recently constructed a family tree going back several generations. He had inadvertently left out a cousin and she was upset she wasn’t remembered. That cousin, Virginia, was haunting the place. When Mary Ann told him this, he didn’t believe her. She said your cousin is here and is upset you don’t remember her. At first, Dominic didn’t. Then he remembered his Uncle Pete’s daughter from a previous marriage, Virginia, but everyone called her Ginger. She met with a very untimely and saddening demise back in the 1960s when Dominic was 8 and no one ever talked about it. At first, Dominic thought Mary Ann researched him – he was skeptical. But, she knew details about the entire incident that she could not possibly know – that he did’t even know. So he decided to call a family member who would know if this was accurate information and that person confirmed every detail. So in the end, Mary Ann helped Dominic remember his cousin, which was all Ginger wanted, and happily moved on. I’m happy to report there haven’t been any “goofy” things since.

Aside from ghosts, the 30,000-square foot restaurant has a nightclub, several banquet rooms (lots of weddings take place here), which feature crystal chandeliers from Milan his grandmother designed in 1972, and three dining rooms.

When we first got there, Dominic took us to the kitchen where he was preparing to cure bresaola for the first time. He shared he marinated the meat in the cheapest red wine (apparently an industry secret), bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, carrots, celery, onion, orange and lemon peels and salt/pepper. He then took us into a cooler with other cured meats, something he has taken a big interest in, but admits he is still learning. “I just threw away 20 pounds of pancetta, so I’m still learning,” he explained. “I’m still perfecting the skill and probably never will. I just wanted to learn it and will evolve with it.” (Dominic spent time with Armandino Batali, Mario’s dad and owner of Seattle’s popular Salumi, to craft his skill)

In the kitchen and cooler, I couldn’t help but notice how clean everything was – and just how much of everything there is. I mean gallons upon gallons of chicken and veal stock, marinara sauce, olive oil and every other ingredient indigenous to Italian food. There was even veal stock brewing in action – 80 quarts to be exact and what appeared to be an ore of some sorts for stirring.

I saw it all: dry goods area, bakery, live kitchen, prep kitchen, freezers, and tons of equipment. Things you can’t even get anymore, like the cast iron tilt skillet. “That’s one of the benefits of having an old kitchen,” said Dominic.

Yes, this place is big. Maybe too big. “We are so big and so much is going on,” said Dominic. “Some nights it doesn’t get managed properly.” This, I learned, is a huge frustration for Dominic. He absolutely can’t stand when someone does not have a good experience or someone is seated at a dirty table. He does not like things to fall through the cracks, but admits, the place is just too big for perfection every minute of the day.

“My dream is to be in a smaller place,” he said. “Five thousand-square feet, and 125 seats – that’s ideal. I would love to gut and give this place a new look, but I’m not sure this is the place we should do that – we would lose all of our grandfathering. This is a different market than it was 30 years ago. We’ve done it this way for 30 years, why change it. That’s what some people say anyway. But I want to get back to the way my grandmother did it, the way they do it in Norcia. I want people to experience what that feels and tastes like. I want to get back to basics.”

I was fortunate to spend over three hours with Dominic Cerino, Carrie’s grandson. We talked food, Mario, family roots, Cleveland issues, Alan Greenspan, ghosts, history and current challenges/issues that keep Dominic up at night. Dominic, I learned, is an extremely interesting man (he once worked as a chef in Antarctica) full of obvious passion and love for his roots, a remarkable palate and good business sense. He has a very interesting story to tell. In fact, he has several, which is one of his challenges: trying to tell too many stories instead of conveying one constant message. It’s a story he eagerly wants to share and have his customers, regulars and new (especially regulars) embrace. But it’s the fear that the message will have the regulars abandoning ship in droves that aids to his sleepless nights. I get the sense that he is trying to make everyone happy – but I wonder if he is happy in the process.

This cannot possibly be told in one post. Instead, it will be a series of sorts focusing on the traditional Q & A, the restaurant’s history (speakeasy, hauntings), vision (Norcia, Italy) and future (think small) and of course, our meal (I swear I’m still full).

Top 5 spices: red chili, black pepper, fennel, cinnamon and nutmeg

Favorite restaurant: Lolita and Baricelli when we have something special to celebrate

What restaurant do you miss: I don’t know. I don’t eat out that often to miss something.

Hidden café/restaurant Clevelanders have yet to discover: The Sausage Shoppe. This is a Cleveland treasure that should have national recognition. Norm (the owner) knew my father-in-law back in Germany. Norm is the real McCoy. The business will die with Norm because of the city and rezoning. He can’t leave it to his children. It’s a rotten shame. This will be lost and it shouldn’t. The city doesn’t realize what they are doing and what a huge loss this will be.

If you could cook for one person, real or dead, who would it be: My father passed away in 2001. I would love to cook for him and cook the lentils and food we are trying to cook now. He so loved food and would have loved what we are trying to do here.

Most unusual food you have ever tried: Roe/fish eggs. I don’t really care for them and the texture.

What do you like and dislike about Cleveland: One of my greatest loves is the month of October. This month makes it worth living here.

I dislike the complacency of the people to keep accepting incompetence. I’m not sure when it started, but look at Rockefeller and the tax passed on him, which made him move to New York. What if Cleveland had not passed that special tax on him and he and his billions stayed here and he built Rockefeller Center in Cleveland instead of New York? And it keeps happening over and over. And they are going to raise taxes again? Before you are a major league city, how about having major league schools?

Take the tax dollars and build a refinery. It makes a lot of sense to go back to refining. John Rockefeller’s stuff is still here and we have the greatest ports. This would create jobs and better lives for this city and its people. The city keeps making the same mistakes over and over. The infrastructure is not here. We want to build a convention center but our bridges are crumbling and schools failing? Where are your priorities? There is the technology to build this stuff and we can rebuild our infrastructure. Then we can build all the mega stuff. We have the ability to build really good ships if we wanted to. You can make stuff like this work if you have vision.

Look at Tim Hagan. The first thing he does is raise taxes. How can you possibly attract new businesses here and keep the ones we have? How do we keep people from moving on after school for better jobs? They need to find a way to create long-lasting jobs. We need to work together for a long-term solution. So, let’s build a refinery and give it to Exxon. So what if they profit, it will still be good for Cleveland and it will create enough revenue for stadiums, convention centers and whatever else the city thinks is worthwhile.

I hate politics, but I want to stay in business and I want to stay in Cleveland. I don’t want my sons to leave Cleveland for work. I want people to stay here. This is our home. We are fortunate to have a lot of great things in this city, but how long before the city can no longer hold onto the symphony? We already lost the ballet. Thank God for the Clinic and UH.