Let's Do Lunch! @ Rosemary's

Let's Do Lunch! visits Rosemary's in New York's Greenwich Village for a delicious Italian tasting. Named for the owner's mother, it borrows her warmth and hospitality from her home in Tuscany. Executive chef Wade Moises began his career under far less glamorous circumstances, working at a biker bar flipping burgers where the staff was a shady lot on parole from prison. The experience motivated him to study at The Culinary Institute of America where he honed his penchant for Italian cooking.

It was the early 90s and Wade was hooked on Mario Batali's cooking show, vowing right then and there to work with the restauranteur. And he did just that sharpening his skills at Batali's Babbo and Lupa. Coming to Rosemary's after his travels through Italy, Wade has fine tuned his creations with such dishes as salami style octopus, orecchiette with homemade pork sausage, and linguini with zesty lemon and chilis which he describes as a sleeper hit. The house made foccacia is draped with a thin sliver of lardo which you can also dress with Wade's caponata made in the traditional Sicilian style topped with pinenuts.

Salads are a specialty at Rosemary's featuring celery Caesar salad, crunchy radishes, and rooftop garden salad made from herbs and lettuces grown right on the restaurant's roof, and spicy cabbage which Wade renamed Sicilian kimchi!