NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 20: Paula Bolla-Sorrentino and Gianfranco Sorrentino attend Gruppo Italiano Members & Press Cocktail Reception at Il Gattopardo on March 20, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Owen Hoffmann/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
America and Italy has lost one of its strongest and most gentlemanly voices: Gianfranco Sorrentino, after a long battle with illness, has died. As a pioneer of upscale Italian cuisine in NYC, with westside restaurants Il Gattopardo and The Leopard at des Artistes, Sorrentino came from Naples, worked in the restaurant industry in Europe and came to the US in the 1980s, at first toe Los Angeles. By 1990 he had garnered enough attention as a true promoter of fine Italian cuisine to get the space in New York’s MOMA for Sette MoMa at a time when Italian food was being transformed by Tony May, Sirio Maccioni, Piero Selvaggio, Mauro Vincenti et al into an elegance previously reserved for French restaurants.
Gianfranco Sorrentino ran Il Gattopardo––The Leopard, named after the novel by Giuseppe Lampedusa—. across the NYC’s MOMA.
Il Gattopardo
The minimalist Il Gattopardo, (formerly Aquavit) was across the street from MOMA, and a big draw for people in the arts, including vegetarian Paul McCartney as a regular. Sorrentino took over Cafe des Artistes after the death of owner George Lang and renamed it The Leopard at Des Artistes, retaining all the naughty charm of its murals and drew on a crowd from Lincoln Center.
Famous for its murals and elegant setting across from Lincoln Center, The Leopard at Des Artistes drew the opera and ballet fans.
The Leopard at Des Artistes
He was the respected and hard-working president of the Gruppo Italiano, a non-profit dedicated to promoting Italian culture and gastronomy, funding scholarships for the Culinary Institute of America and sending journalists to Italy on regional culinary tours.
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With his executive chef Vito Gnazzo, Sorrentino focused on southern Italian cooking with pasta dishes like mezze maniche with spicy hot ‘nduja sausage ragù and a mass of sweet onions scented with rosemary ; paccheri lavished with a “Genovese” sauce of melted sweet onions, carrots, celery and pork ribs cooked for hours in white wine ; and the lasagna “di Carnevale” with mini meatballs, ricotta and smoked mozzarella.
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 20: Gianfranco Sorrentino attends Gruppo Italiano Members & Press Cocktail Reception at Il Gattopardo on March 20, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Owen Hoffmann/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Gianfranco was every inch the grand seigneur but without the pretense. He had the look of a gentle giant (though he was not tall), his face always shadowed with a three-day’s growth of beard, his hair swept back but in disarray, the collar of his shirts always askew, his necktie out of kilter. His formidable rich voice voice always carried the gaiety of a comic opera basso. He would greet you. stick his chin out, frown, then break not a wide smile of welcome and played the genteel host to perfection. The world of la cucina Italiana is much the less in the US for his passing.
He leaves behind his wife and partner Paola, and his two children, Sofia and Edoardo.
Dining and Cooking