Q&A: Fabio Trabocchi

One of the simplest is the Le Marche Risotto, with pecorino and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses. The twist is that you add cinnamon and grated lemon zest. You don't need a long list of ingredients, and it can be assembled for a quick lunch or family dinner.

Do you make it at home?

Yes, I do it for my kids. They love it.

And the most complicated?

It's the Le Marche version of lasagna, the vincisgrassi . Ours must have 12 layers of noodles. Even in Le Marche, it was reserved for special occasions. But it's not really complicated. It's just labor-intensive.

Why do you think the food of this region is so little known?

Our geography set us apart. Historically, even in Italy it's been unknown. When it was a sharecropper economy in Italy, everyone had his own farm, and there were strong internal borders. People didn't put themselves out there.

Do you try to give the cooks at Maestro the same kind of education that your father gave you?

Every month or two I try to take some of the cooks to local farms, the way I learned, but not as often as I'd like. But we talk daily about ingredients, and I encourage everyone to come in and see how things like traditional butchering are done, because I don't want those skills to disappear. They can bone a pig or lamb. Fish, too, and then I show them what we can do with the flesh, the skin, the bones, the trimmings.

Do you think your cooks will use this book?

This wasn't meant to be a chef's book. I wanted it to be approachable for someone who just loved food, and who cooks at home.