From 1997 to mid-1998, Luke Palladino was executive chef and partner at Venice's internationally celebrated Ristorante al Covo. "It was an incredibly intense experience because there were only three people in the kitchen there: a dishwasher, a cook and me," he says. Prior to his time at al Covo, Palladino immersed himself in the culture of Italy's varied regions, doing stages at restaurants in various regions, including Rome, Piemonte, Puglia, Friuli, Sicily and Tuscany. Along the way, he struck up a friendship with Carlo Petrini, the president of Slow Food, an organization dedicated to combating the culture of fast food by preserving and passing down age-old culinary practices.

"I decided early on that it was important to specialize in a specific cuisine and, because of my heritage, I wanted that to be Italian," says Palladino, who remembers family holidays as a procession of food, each relative's signature dish on the table. To ensure that his heritage was properly honored in his cooking, Palladino enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America, and then dedicated himself to becoming an expert in the art of Italian cuisine. To do this, he spent more than three years living and cooking in Italy.

In the United States, Palladino has worked under some of the country's most well-respected chefs, including Paul Bertolli, Jeremiah Towers, Emeril Lagasse and Todd English. He worked with English from October 1999 until May 2001, first as executive chef at Onda Ristorante at the Mirage in Las Vegas, where he crafted an innovative Italian menu that incorporated the lessons he'd learned in Italy, and then he opened the Aspen outpost of Olives as its chef de cuisine. In Aspen, Palladino was awarded "Best New Chef" by the Aspen Daily News.

In 1989, Luke Palladino was voted "most likely to succeed" by his classmates at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. This prediction turned to prophesy on Thursday, July 3, 2003, when he opened not one, but two restaurants simultaneously. Located inside the $1.1 billion Borgata Hotel Casino &Spa in Atlantic City, Specchio and Ombra (and later opened, Risi Bisi), reflect a journey fueled by passion, discipline and - in the words of noted food writer David Rosengarten - "great farinaceous facility." Learn more about Palladino's restaurants.

At Specchio and Ombra, Palladino brings the Italian culinary experience to Borgata. Specchio presents refined Italian dishes that showcase his artistry; Ombra presents the simpler rustic flavors of the Italian countryside. At Risi Bisi, he replicates the style of Italian street food, such as paninis and pizzas. Every dish is created in Palladino's custom-designed kitchen, which boasts a "double mouthed" custom brick oven, a rotisserie and two 'Bonnet' cooking batteries for the most simplistic yet highly technical cooking technique. The results reinforce the accuracy of his classmates' words by earning him such accolades as, "the best unknown Italian chef in America and two of the best new Italian restaurants anywhere" (The Rosengarten Report, February 2004).

Chef Palladino's Tips and Techniques.