The cold veal dish vitello tonnato is an Italian classic but not common on restaurant menus here. Photos by Abigael T. Sidi
By Abigael T. Sidi
Whenever I return from Italy, (which has been only twice in my life, but still), I enter a phase of semi-denial and try to prolong the dolce vita vibes for as long as I can. Last year, I immediately headed for the likes of the Upper West Side’s Song E’ Napule and Sempre Oggi, both of which I ended up covering for this column. In anticipation for this year, I had squirreled away Osteria Accademia, the recent Italian venture of Murat Akinci and Huseyin Ozer, the team behind my favorite UWS Mediterranean restaurant, Leyla.
Once seated at Accademia, five seconds were all I needed to make my selection: the vitello tonnato, one of the first items in the antipasti section. This rare “surf & turf” entry in the Italian culinary repertoire, which combines veal with a tuna-flavored mayonnaise sauce, had been one of my culinary revelations on our last trip (I remember stealing slice after slice from Dad’s plate at a tiny trattoria on the outskirts of Montalcino – he was distracted by his own shameless pickings of everyone else’s dishes).
Accademia’s vitello tonnato is beautifully presented, with the thin, carpaccio-style veal slices arranged as a rosette, the enticing tonnato sauce on top in its center. The dish is finished with microgreens and alluring caper berry halves. The plate also immediately showcases a key feature of the dish: the veal slices are cooked to the required pink medium rare, promising to deliver on the authentic flavors I had experienced in Tuscany (the dish is Piedmontese in origin but is very commonly found throughout northern Italy.)
What struck me first was how chilled the dish was, which is how vitello is supposed to be served and enjoyed on warm summer days. The rosé veal slices also showcased a beautiful tenderness and a delicate, meaty, but almost sweet flavor, exactly like I had experienced a few weeks prior.
The sauce, more creamy, balanced, and nuanced than what I had tasted in Italy, with just a hint of tuna and lemony flavor, gracefully complemented the meat without ever outshining it. Whenever I wanted a little more salt and tang, I would just bite into one of the delicious, slightly briny caper berries. Of course, I also took advantage of not one but two complimentary baskets of Accademia’s home-baked focaccia and crostini, not only between every bite of vitello, but also to secure any residual drop of the delicious sauce. An amazing, amazing dish, and perfect treatment for anyone experiencing moderate to severe Italy withdrawal.
I asked Accademia co-owner Murat Akinci about the dish. “Back in the 90s, when I worked at I Tre Merli on West Broadway in Soho, we had this item on the menu and it was wonderful,” he said in a phone interview. “Then, over the years, working at other Italian places, the vitello started disappearing from the menus. Veal is less and less available now, you have to ask for it, but it is a really undeniable component of many Italian recipes.” When Akinci and Huseyin Ozer decided to open Accademia, “I specifically requested from the chef to add this dish into our menu. Since then, it has been one of our popular dishes; some guests come all the way across town just to have it,” Akinci said.
Asked about the recipe behind Accademia’s version of the dish, he shared that veal tenderloin is cooked together with mirepoix (a French aromatic base composed of celery, onions, and carrots); bay leaves; and coriander, fennel, and anise seeds. It’s cooked to an internal temperature of 120, so it’s still relatively pink in the middle, Akinci told me. “Then it is quickly chilled and frozen. The next day, we thinly slice it. For the sauce, we make our own mayonnaise, which we enrich with tuna, capers, and lemon juice, for balance, depth, and flavor,” he said.
The library-like interior of Osteria Accademia is lined with 3,500 books.
Impressed that Akinci and Ozer, both Turkish immigrants to the US, could extend their amazing Middle Eastern culinary skills to such authentic Italian cuisine, I asked Akinci about the chef they had hired for Accademia. “Our consulting chef is Massimiliano (Max) Convertini, a renowned Italian chef of many well-known restaurants in the city,” he said. Convertini helped launch the restaurant in 2022 and continues to work with current chef Memet Kabayuka, who is also the chef at Leyla.
“Memet is able to perform so well between two different cuisines because he received his international professional culinary training in Turkey,” Akinci said. Convertini helps him “learn the small, important nuances in Italian cuisine. He just likes to work with high quality ingredients, create harmony on a plate. He’s also very young, he’s only 29!”
Just like its menu, Accademia’s “biblioteca”-type decor is small, inviting, and stylish without being pretentious. The 3,500 vintage books lining the shelves offer a soothing, sound-controlled, intimate space ideal for conversations. “Accademia” has historically been used to name places where Italian academics gather for wine and antipasti “and talk about their affairs or their plans all day long,” Akinci said. “We wanted to find a theme that would appeal to the fabric of our neighborhood.”
Osteria Accademia is open for dinner every day from 4:30 to 10 p.m. (10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays). It’s also open for brunch on weekends (11 a.m. – 3 p.m.), with pickup and delivery available at these times.
The Dish: vitello tonnato ($17)
The Restaurant: Osteria Accademia, 646 Amsterdam Avenue (between West 91st and 92nd streets)
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Dining and Cooking