Lunch with Chef Alberto

Members of Delta Pi Delta Alumnae Chapter met at “Alberto’s on Fifth” in Naples, Florida, on November 8, 2014, for a cooking demonstration by Chef Alberto Varetto, followed by lunch. Chef Alberto has had a long and distinguished culinary career, which began in Italy and continues at Alberto’s on Fifth, opened in 2012. Chef Alberto prides himself on presenting authentic Italian food and on making fresh pasta, sauces, sausage and breads every day.

For our cooking demonstration, Chef Alberto began with pasta preparation. We had  recipes in hand, and Alberto showed us how to prepare the dough for pasta and then how to make different pasta shapes, like fettuccine and spaghetti. He also demonstrated how to make ravioli. After the pasta demonstration, Alberto showed us how to prepare risotto and roasted pepper salad with sautéed shrimp. He doesn’t cut corners. Everything is prepared from scratch, and Alberto is an excellent teacher with a subtle sense of humor. We ended up inspired to go home and prepare these dishes ourselves.

The last dish that Chef Alberto prepared was Tiramisu. He added 3 Tbsp of sugar to 3 egg whites and mixed them until they were fluffy. He then added 16 oz of mascarpone cheese,  3 egg yolks and a few dashes of amaretto to the egg whites and whipped again. To assemble the dessert, he broke 2 lady fingers in two, dipped them in espresso coffee and placed them inside a ring. He then spread the mascarpone mixture over the lady fingers and repeated the layering. He put cocoa powder over the top and removed the ring.

After the food demo, we had lunch. Our first course included roasted pepper salad with sautéed  shrimp and greens. The main course was salmon on risotto, fettuccine and ravioli. For dessert we had Tiramisu. The food was wonderful, the service was excellent, and somehow it tasted better because we had seen the care with which it was prepared.

Alberto’s on Fifth has outdoor eating on a terrace in front of the restaurant.

Brenda, Phyllis and Sasha outside of Alberto’s

Bobbi, Barbara and Betsy sitting front and center at the demonstration table

Pat, Mary and Carol at the demo table

Carol, Carolyn, Mary Lou, Barbara and Rosemary ready to take their seats for the demo

Teddy and the hostess for this meeting, Jackie

Darlene, Judith, Nancy, Sue and Sandy

Phyllis and Sue have the blues.

Nancy and the store manager of a jewelry store next door to the restaurant

Shirley color-coordinates perfectly again. 

At Bonita Bay in February, the colors were different, but they were perfectly done as well.

Darlene and Scottie

Linda and Sally

Pat, Brenda and Kim

Tables for the demonstration were set up in a “U” shape.
Everything was laid out meticulously in preparation for the demo.

Behind the bar at the restaurant, all the bottles were wearing cone cups, and I wish I had asked why. 

Shirley and Jackie

Chef Alberto makes a well in the flour and slowly combines the eggs and flour to make pasta dough.

After the dough rests, Alberto feeds a portion through the pasta machine.

The chef continuously folds the pasta and feeds it through the machine until it is the right consistency.

The sheets of pasta should be 10 inches long and 5 inches wide.The thickness depends on which pasta you are preparing.

The chef makes fettuccine with a different attachment from the dough-making attachment.

Chef Alberto makes ravioli using a form with round indentations. After the first sheet of pasta is laid on the form and filled, the second one is pressed into place on top.

The form is flipped over and the dough is cut with a pasta cutter.

The chef adds some Pinot Grigio to his risotto. He uses aluminum pans for risotto because they distribute heat better than other pans do.

Alberto continually shows his students what is happening at various stages of preparation.

This is the proper consistency for risotto, which the chef insists cannot be made in less than 25 minutes of constant tending.

With leftover risotto, add an egg and bake.

Leftover risotto plated

Peppers for roasted pepper salad

Roast the peppers, preferably in the oven, but a bare flame will also do.

After the burned skins are removed, the peppers are sliced, seasoned and marinated for an hour.

Chef Alberto assembles the appetizer of summer roasted pepper salad with sautéed shrimp.

The appetizer plated

A close-up of the appetizer

The chef pipes the tiramisu filling on the lady fingers.

The tiramisu plated

The appetizer course of our lunch included shrimp on roasted peppers, prosciutto, a shaved slice of parmesan on greens and diced tomatoes on mozzarella.

Our entrée consisted of salmon on risotto, fettuccine with tomato sauce and ravioli.

Our dessert was tiramisu. This is the BEFORE shot of the tiramisu

This is Nancy and the AFTER shot of the tiramisu.