Savino Recine - Owner-chef of Primi Piatti

Italian chef works magic in the kitchen

If the silverware at Primi Piatti begins to bend of its own accord, look around for Savino Recine. The executive chef and owner of this Italian restaurant is a self-taught magician.

“It’s my biggest hobby!” he says. “I have been fascinated since I was a little boy.” Recine likes to incorporate magic (Don’t even try calling it tricks) with the food- and wine-tastings he holds at Primi Piatti every six weeks or so. And he’s planning a special show for New Year’s Eve.

“I probably will do something with telekinesis, predict the future. People will be shocked by that,” he says. “I can even open a bottle of wine with my mind.” He can also make light bulbs explode — though not in a crowded restaurant.

While talking, he’s at the open counter between the restaurant and kitchen, working on the menu for the celebration. “Now add the pine nuts,” he instructs his longtime chef. He says he has close to 4,000 cookbooks at home and gets recipes “from anywhere — anywhere that makes sense to me.”

Recine has been cooking in the capital since his father arrived from Rome in 1973 to work at the Italian Embassy. After stints at several local restaurants, he linked up with Roberto Donna in 1984 to open Galileo and then Primi Piatti. When they went their separate ways, each kept one restaurant. In 2002, Recine opened Finemondo as well.

He likes to cook what he calls “the real stuff — a few fresh ingredients, well put together. I don’t like to have all this many ingredients. It makes food too complicated.”

At a time when Italian restaurants in town were characterized, he says, by red-checked tablecloths and a candle in a bottle, he and Donna introduced Washingtonians to true Italian food.

“Then, you just had garlic and tomato,” he says. “I used to drive 20 miles to get fresh basil.”

He said the pair introduced the city to “a new kind of cuisine based on traditional flavor. This food is not what was going on here before. The basic idea is from way back, the Renaissance time. You take sweet and sour ingredients and build till you come to a good result. It’s the reason tomatoes and anchovy are a very good balance.”

Anchovies? Exactly. Though he acknowledges that when guests say, “Oh, that is so great! What’s in it?” he doesn’t always reveal the anchovies. “Anchovies bring out all the flavor, but I tell them, ‘It’s a secret.’”

Recine’s goal is simple. “How do you give flavor without making food heavy?” He is preoccupied with the healthiness of food. When he created the kitchen at Primi Piatti, he wouldn’t install a commercial deep fryer.

“Some clients, they say, ‘You don’t have fried calamari!’ But we don’t like to do fried food. We want to make people understand you should be more careful when you eat out. It’s not good for their health. The principle to me is stronger than ever right now.”

He doesn’t refuse to cook it — “We are a business, after all. I don’t think it’s good for us to take positions. I just tell the truth to people, and they can make their own decisions.” But Recine won’t eat deep-fried food himself. Nor will he touch beef. “Beef is the worst. We should not have red meat, period.”

There are other popular staples of the Italian diet that worry him, too. “Red wine. Cheese and salami you should not have. They get stuck on your heart. What do you do when friends drop by? You open a bottle of wine. And you have cheese and salami!” He throws his arms up in despair.

He put offal on the menu for two years, but no one would buy it. “Then they would come back from a holiday in Italy and say, ‘Let me tell you what I had in Italy!’” Now he won’t offer liver and other offal because “It’s not very good for you.” He says the most popular dish on his menu is grilled fish. For health, how can you beat that? he asks.

But he’s not a total Spartan, and he enjoys eating. “Asian food is one of my favorites. And I try other Italian restaurants — why not? Anything that makes sense is good. I don’t think only our food is good. Chefs here [in Washington] do a very good job.”

Primi Piatti (202-223-3600; http://www.primipiatti.com) is located at 2013 I St. NW. Main courses cost $18.50 to $33.50.
Finemondo (202-737-3100; http://www.finemondo.com) is located at 1319 F St. NW. Main courses cost $19.50 to $33.50.

This article by Julia Watson first appeared in the Northwest, Dupont, Foggy Bottom and Georgetown Current Newspapers. Photo Bill Petros/The Current.