It all started with truffles.
Next week, Café on 26 Owner and Executive Chef Maria Fraser embarks on an opportunity of a lifetime. She will join a handful of American chefs traveling to Milano and Cortina in Italy, where she will cook for visitors to the upcoming XXV Winter Olympics.
The chance to be a part of the Olympic Games came about, Fraser explained, because of her friendship with Chef Carlo Zarri, who has been coming to Café on 26 for a special truffle dinner each year.
An expert in northern Italian cuisine, Zarri is also the culinary director for the Milano Cortina Olympics. He has held that position since 2004, Fraser said.
“Last year, when he was at the truffle dinner, he says ‘how would you like to join me at the Olympics?’” Fraser said. “I thought he was joking.”
He continued to talk about it, while Fraser went along with it, she said. “I just enjoy working with him, because he’s a big chef,” she said with a laugh. “Then I didn’t hear anything, and so I thought, ‘yeah, right,’” about the whole thing, she said.
But when he started reaching out to her with nitty-gritty details about forms and contacts and such, Fraser realized he was serious. “I was excited at that point,” she said.
“He picked six chefs from America to be on the team. They’re from all over the country,” said Fraser, adding that “I was the only girl” among the six. “I thought, he must really like me,” she said.
Zarri has told her over the years that her Ocean View restaurant, located in a historic home on Atlantic Avenue, reminds him of his own restaurant in Italy’s Piedmont region, Fraser said. Both are family businesses focusing on warm, cozy surroundings, she said.
Fraser departs for Italy Jan. 19 and returns March 1. After the Olympic Games, she will stay to serve guests at the Paralympic Games that follow. “We’ll be cooking for all the Paralympic athletes and their families, too,” she said.
During the games, the culinary team cooks not only for thousands of athletes, but also for the NBC television crews and guests representing the participating countries.
Fraser will be stationed about three hours away from Milan in Livigno, in the Alps, near the Swiss-Italian border, where the Olympic “snow park” will be.
“I had to order winter clothes,” she said with a laugh. “This is exciting because I am a skier,” she said. “I hope before I leave, I get to do a run. Those mountains look intimidating, though.”
“I’ll be in this cute little town, and I’ll be cooking. I just can’t wait to learn…he’s going to do all northern Italian cuisine,” Fraser said of Zarri, who she said has created the menu.
“It’s been a year in planning, back and forth,” she said of her Olympic adventure. “It involves a lot of logistics with work visas. With all the craziness going on in the world right now, we were kind of holding our breath,” hoping that there would be no complications.
“But the Olympics is all about community in the world,” she said. “I’m excite to meet a lot of people, and chefs, from all over the world. And mainly to learn great homemade, local Italian food so I can bring it back here and make it here.”
Zarri, she said, is “very famous in Italy” and has cooked for many celebrities, including Sophia Loren and Michelle Obama.
As part of her Olympic involvement, Fraser and other participating chefs were asked by Zarri to contribute a recipe that’s popular in their home areas. She is contributing her recipe for Potato Parmigiana Encrusted Salmon with crab and dill cream reduction from Café on 26, she said.
“It’s a pretty popular dish, and that’s what he wanted, was our most popular dish. That’s exciting for me,” she said. The recipe book should be available during the Olympics.
Fraser said in addition to being paid for her work during the Olympics, her accommodations will be provided by the Olympics. Livigno, she said, “is a really cool old Italian town at the base of a mountain,” where chalets are everywhere. I’ll be staying in a chalet apartment, I guess.”
She said she will stay in Milan for about four days when she arrives in Italy, where she will receive her credentials and uniforms.
While in Italy, Fraser, who has never traveled outside the United States, said she hopes to take in as much culture as possible, but that will be mostly before and after her stint as Olympic chef.
“I’m there to work,” she said. “I’m sure I’m going to put in long days there,” but she’s used to that, she said. “I don’t care; I’m a workaholic. I just want to do very well. I want Carlo to be proud of me. So, the pressure’s on me.”
Dining and Cooking