Michael Cimarusti is owner and chef of Providence restaurant. After graduating with honors in 1990 from the Culinary Institute of America, Cimarusti got his start in New York working with celebrated chef Larry Forigone at An American Place. He has also been a chef at Le Cirque, Osteria Del Circo, Spago, and Water Grill. Before speaking on a panel and serving up clam fritters at Jonathan Gold’s Union Station Cocktail Party, Cimarusti told us a bit more about himself.
Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. I’ll go through it all. Some Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Hall and Oates, Bunny Wailer, Beck – I listened to Modern Guilt, the whole album. That’s all I had time for, then I listened to the Dodger game on the way over here.
Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. A herpetologist.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. A margarita.
Q. If you were about to be executed, what would you want for your final meal?
A. My great grandmother Domenica Cimarusti’s spaghetti and meatballs.
Q. What is your favorite meal to cook at home?
A. Pasta.
Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. Scarborough Beach on Narragansett, Rhode Island.
Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. I’d be a marine biologist.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. Fishing in Maine.
Q. Who is the one person, living or dead, you would most like to meet for dinner?
A. Dead would be Jerry Garcia, living would be Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips.
To read about Cimarusti’s panel at Jonathan Gold’s Union Station Cocktail Party, a fundraiser for Zócalo, click here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.