Spring 2020 Issue
FOOD & COMMUNITY IN PHILADELPHIA AND BEYOND
2020 Edible Philly Local Hero - Chef: Anthony Andiario
CHEF ANTHONY ANDIARIO has always been into pasta. Some of his earliest memories involve making simple fresh pasta for special occasions with his family in northeastern Pennsylvania. After graduating from Penn State, he went to culinary school in Arizona and worked his way up in some of the state’s top kitchens.
Andiario dove deep into the world of pasta- making and local sourcing. He taught himself to make handmade pasta through practice, research, and repetition, going on to run the pasta programs for Quiessence and the nationally renowned Pizzeria Bianco. “Pasta became an obsession for me,” Andiario says.
He had to fashion some of his own tools—such as dowels and a custom cavarola board (carved by his brother, a carpenter) to create texture on “dragged pasta” like orecchiette—and track down others in Italy, like a corzetti stamp used to emboss pasta. “I did a lot of crazy things,” Andiario says. “I’d buy a box of campanelle [typically extruded, not handmade] and just study it. I’d cook it until I could unravel it and see what the initial shape was, and then I’d replicate that [by hand].”
In 2018 he opened his eponymous 38-seat restaurant in West Chester, which quickly became a dining destination and earned critical praise. Using nearly all local products, Andiario butchers his own meat; sources Pennsylvania produce and freshly milled flour; preserves, jars and dries foodstuffs in house; and even forages for local ingredients.
“A lot of restaurants claim that they’re farm-to-table or that they work with local product whenever possible—we take the stance that it’s always possible,” he says.
ANDIARIO
106 W. Gay St., West Chester
andiario.com
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