Julian Bentivegna

The Work Today

At ME Restaurant in Pizzo, Italy, the cooking is built on Calabrian and Campanian traditions, with regional produce handled cleanly and technique used as structure rather than display. Julian Bentivegna keeps the register restrained: the food stays rooted in place, and flavor is left to carry the weight. His own line on the work is blunt and useful: “I take my cooking seriously, but never myself.” That position was assembled methodically. Lyon, then Grace in Chicago, Illinois, United States, then Alo in Toronto, Canada, then Momofuku in Toronto, Canada: each stop added another layer of discipline to the work. Julian Bentivegna’s path reads less like promotion for its own sake than the steady building of a kitchen vocabulary, one shaped by repetition, pressure, and the habits that hold a pass together. The present-day split between Ten Restaurant (since 2019) and ME Restaurant shows two sides of the same craft. As chef and owner, Julian Bentivegna makes decisions that reach beyond service; as Executive Chef, he stays inside the daily realities of heat, timing, and line work. In both roles, the emphasis stays on clarity, pace, and control of the plate rather than spectacle. At ME Restaurant, the Calabrian and Campanian frame is doing important work. It places the cooking inside a known regional grammar, where sea food, chili, pasta, and local technique are part of the meal’s structure. Julian Bentivegna keeps that foundation audible in the food: grounded, direct, and without excess.

Signature

Bentivegna’s signature dishes include crispy octopus, black ink pasta with tomatoes and clams, and spaghetti with garlic oil chilli suriaca and mussels. The common thread is control of contrast: crispness set against tenderness, brine against sweetness, depth against brightness. Crispy octopus depends on texture and precision; black ink pasta with tomatoes and clams brings together dark pasta, tomatoes, and shellfish; spaghetti with garlic oil chilli suriaca and mussels leans on a direct combination of heat, oil, and saline balance.

In Their Words “I take my cooking seriously, but never myself.” These lines describe a chef who has earned control through endurance and now works with the added responsibility of ownership. The first is about the physical cost of the trade; the second sets the tone for how Julian Bentivegna keeps the work sharp without turning solemn.

Acclaim

The notable markers here are specific: Ten Restaurant since 2019, and an Executive Chef role at ME Restaurant in Pizzo, Italy. Julian Bentivegna’s standing comes through the responsibility attached to those posts — the trust required to run them, and the consistency expected from a kitchen that has to deliver day after day.