Top Naples chefs host culinary stars from across the nation

COURTESY PHOTO Vergina's Jorge Lopez, left, and Executive Chef Sandro Durante, right, with celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse A bevy of america's culinary luminaries converged on the Inn on Fifth last week the evening before they would preside at vintner dinners as part of the Naples Winter Wine Festival.

Top chefs from some of the country's best restaurants — as well as Tetsuya Wakuda from Australia and Mary Ann Esposito of PBS fame — chatted with one another, members of the news media and the 10 Naples chefs who joined forces to welcome them with wine and a bounty of well-executed small plates.

Offerings included langostino rughetta by Vergina Chef Sando Durante, filet mignon alla Piemontese by Bellini on Fifth Chef Maria Furetta, spicy tuna tartare in crispy somen noodles with gingered wasabi foam and baby amaranth from Trilogy Executive Chef Eric Delano, surf and swine by Truluck's corporate Chef Brian Wubbena and Naples Chef Michael Rakun and grilled skirt steak and goat cheese empanada by Bistro 821 Chef Jesse Housman.

COURTESY PHOTO Ettore Laccetti, chef at Ristorante d'Angeli in Naples, prepared gnocchi trecolori, homemade cavatelli alla Vastese and veal braciola for the reception welcoming the Naples Winter Wine Festival celebrity chefs. Emeril Lagasse may be the most widely known of the guest chefs, but all of them operate one or more top restaurants in some of America's most culinarily sophisticated cities.

Each had his or her own reasons for attending the wine festival, billed as the world's most successful charity wine auction, but almost all cited the beneficiaries of the money raised — children in need — as their primary motivation.

"Being asked by the festival trustees is an honor," says Mark Kiffin, chef/owner of The Compound in Santa Fe, N.M. "There's great satisfaction in doing something like this for kids. This is a very fortunate area and (the wine festival) goes up and above any event in the country. When I see what they've accomplished, my jaw is on the floor."

Floridians are most likely to know Chef Norman Van Aken, who is credited with creating New World cuisine, an amalgamation of Latin, Caribbean and Asian styles, first at his eponymous restaurant in tony Coral Gables and now at The Ritz-Carlton in Orlando.

With his fifth appearance at the Naples event, he's a regular and he couldn't be happier.

"I was invited to the first one and was just knocked out by the enthusiasm and generosity of our hosts and the guests," says Van Aken. "I go back and tell people who didn't go 'You're missing Woodstock.'"

Mary Ann Esposito, host of the PBS show "Ciao Italia," had an additional reason to attend: "I got a phone call. There was one spot left and there were no women chefs so I'm here representing the women."