I am a chef and first-generation Italian American from New York who moved to the South a little over two years ago. In “Searching for Italy in the South,” I'm on a quest to discover chefs who cook real Italian food, who have captured the essence of Italian cooking and are bringing the Old Country to the American South. For the next installment, I join Gian Pietro Ferro at Ristorante Bergamo in Greenville, South Carolina.
Greenville, the cultural entertainment hub of the upper state in South Carolina, is known for its bustling art scene, major performing arts center, picturesque surrounding parks, and delicious foods and drinks. This wasn’t always the case. In 1986, when founding chef Nello Gioia opened the doors of Ristorante Bergamo, he worried that his Northern Italian restaurant would fail, just as the boarded-up businesses around him had.
Surprisingly, Ristorante Bergamo not only survived but thrived, and 35 years later, Gioia wanted to retire. That’s when a mutual friend introduced him to Gian Pietro Ferro, like him a native of Bergamo from the Lombardy region in Northern Italy. Soon, in an almost unbelievable twist of fate, Ristorante Bergamo would transfer from one Italian immigrant from the Italian city’s namesake to another.
Ferro fell in love with cooking at the age of 13 when he started working in his uncle's restaurant in Bergamo. He attended the Scuola Alberghiera S. Pellegrino and became a key factor in opening the renowned restaurant La Champagneria in Milan. In 1987, the Trusthouse Forte Hotel Group recruited Ferro to come to cook in New York. He worked for Silvano Marchetto, the legendary owner of Da Silvano in the West Village, and ran a series of New York City Italian restaurants, ending with Machiavelli, a now-closed spot on the Upper West Side.
Chef Gian Pietro Ferro took over the kitchen at Ristorante Bergamo in Greenville, South Carolina late last year.
Retired in New Jersey, he and his wife decided that they were ready for another adventure. Ferro decided to take over for Gioia, who was looking to step down from the day-to-day activities at Ristorante Bergamo.
Gioia trusted that Ferro would remain true to their Italian roots and the spirit of Northern Italian cuisine and carry on the legacy of Ristorante Bergamo. According to South Carolina’s Upstate Business Journal, the pair of Italian chefs have become fast friends. “It is like finding your brother,” Gioia told the newspaper.
On a recent afternoon, I travel to Greenville to check in on Ferro after six months at the helm of Ristorante Bergamo. He instantly wins me over with his charm. We sit at a white-clothed table in the center of the dining room and chat, then head to the kitchen, where Ferro asks, "What would you like me to make for you today?"
I tell him I’d like to try something that represents who he is. He rubs his chin ponderously, then puts his finger in the air and says, "Ah-ha! I make for you Fegato alla Veneziana."
Soon, he is bouncing around the kitchen getting all the ingredients together while explaining the origin of the dish. "My nonna Rosa used to make this for me all the time when I was a little boy because it has protein and gives you a lot of, how you say it, ah si, energy!" he explains.
While I’m watching him, it occurs to me that fegato in Italian translates to liver. The chef is about to make me try liver for the first time in my life. He pulls out the fresh filet, which he says that he sources from a local butcher. "I get all my meat from Revival Butchery. They are the best. I get everything from there, the liver, the kidney, the stomach, the brains, all of it!"
He turns his attention to cooking the fegato. First, he pan sears a thick slice of premade polenta in slabs of butter, "In the north, we cook everything with butter,” he says, referring to the north of Italy.
I ask the chef about the dish, and whether it’s new to the menu since he took over the restaurant. He tells me that Gioia had a filet of liver on his menu but, he says, “I wanted to make this mine, so instead of fillet I cut the liver into medallions and prepare it just like my nonna used to do, alla Veneziana." The liver is sauteed with onions, in plenty of butter, then he adds a splash of white wine and white vinegar. He finishes cooking the liver in his secret brown sauce, a base of stock made from scratch with vegetables and roasted veal bone marrow.
Surprisingly, the aroma coming from the pan is absolutely mouthwatering. Soon, I’m eating the liver and earning a newfound love and respect for the essence of "la cucina povera" or "peasant cooking," where chefs like Ferro and Gioia keep traditions alive by transforming humble ingredients into something absolutely exquisite.
Of course, Ristorante Bergamo’s menu offers many dishes more immediately accessible to American palates, from veal piccata to fettuccine with mushrooms to seasonal risotto. Recent specials have included monkfish osso buco, rabbit with polenta, carbonara di mare, and fresh homemade fettuccine with sea urchin.
Ferro insists that he’ll continue to focus on dishes that represent true Italian food. "When you go to Italy you don't order spaghetti and meatballs because it does not exist,” he says. “I am Italian and I came to America to make Italian food, food of my paese, and that is what I intend to do here in Greenville. I want to show the people of the South what Italian food really is."