Guest Chef on the Waterfront Winner!

Each year at FareStart’s Guest Chef on the Waterfront fundraiser, Seattle DINING! sponsors the judges table. These dedicated foodies manage to taste each and every item prepared by the participating chefs and, no easy task, pick a winner in the appetizer, entrée and desert categories. One of those three winners is voted best overall. After the event, we publish a story about the overall winner. This year’s winners were: Chef de Cuisine Brian O'Connor (center) of Blueacre Seafood for best appetizer, Marshall Jett (right) from Veraci Pizza for best entree and Lorna Stokes (left) from Cantinetta for best dessert. Lorna was announced the overall winner by Jay Friedman (www.gastrolust.com) on behalf of Seattle DINING! (we were out of town--hate to miss this event!). Photo by Jim Rawson

Nutella Zeppole
Zeppole is an Italian doughnut made with baking powder instead of yeast. You simply whip up the batter, drop it the fryer and you're ready to go. Sounds almost boringly simple, but the taste is anything but. Plus Lorna's winning recipe had it filled with Nutella mascarpone and tossed in ginger sugar. You're beginning to understand the overall winner designation, aren't you? She does variations of this at Cantinetta where there is always one fried dessert on the menu. All desserts change monthly to stay seasonal and match the overall menu which changes every three weeks, along with the daily menu changes based on what new ingredients they stumble across. Cantinetta owners describe the restaurant as "a neighborhood pastaria emphasizing Tuscan culinary traditions, using seasonal organic ingredients from the Pacific Northwest."

Lorna snacking on her own creation. Photo by Jim Rawson.

Lorna still remembers making her first cake when she was 8, which was a total disaster. In her senior year of high school, she decided to go into journalism, mostly because she didn't know what else to do. Her mother suggested culinary school, but Lorna was thinking more along the lines of restaurant management. After talking with a counselor at Pennsylvania Culinary Academy in Pittsburgh, the counselor suggested that Lorna's interests were really more in the pastry area. "It's true," she says. "I like chocolate and sugar." She signed up for a two-year program that was condensed into one year and did a four-month externship. She took a job at Criolla's in Destin, Florida, where she learned from a great pastry chef. She met Chef Brian Cartenuto and, over the next few years, helped open several restaurants with him. In late 2008, he called her and asked if she wanted to open a restaurant called Cantinetta in Seattle. He didn't have to ask twice; she moved here in December 2008 and the restaurant opened on January 3, 2009. "I love it here," she says. "There's no humidity, there are four seasons and there's so much to do. Cantinetta is a wonderful place to work. It's very easygoing, but a really nice setting. If I didn't work here, I'd be here eating all the time anyway!" Brian has since moved away, and the kitchen is now in the capable hands of Chef Emran Chowdhury and Joe 'the pasta guy' Obaya who hand makes all the pasta.

As part of a military family, Lorna lived in Europe and saw England, Germany, France and the Netherlands. She's never been to Italy, but is in the process of planning her first trip next year. "I've done a lot of research on Italian desserts," she explains. "They're very different in terms of being less elaborate and more everyday, simple food. I always have a chocolate item on the menu, along with a fried item. Zeppole is a very popular and common dessert in Italy. I like to be creative, yet sometimes the most authentic thing is simple and basic but delicious."

Cantinetta's owners Trevor Greenwood, Wade Moller and Randy Quarry have a winning restaurant in the Wallingford location and in August of 2010 opened a Bellevue location. "We had the Nutella version of the Zeppole on the opening menu and kept it on for an extra month  because it was so popular," says Lorna.

This was Cantinetta's second year at Guest Chef on the Waterfront and Lorna is looking forward to returning next year. "Anytime you win a 'best of,' it's great," she says. "And it's so fun to talk to people at the event; you get immediate feedback." We're sure the guests are looking forward to Lorna's return as well.

Connie Adams/November 2010

Click here to see Lorna's winning Zeppole recipe

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