Tim Caspare

The Climb

Umbrian cooking sits at the center of Caspare’s frame of reference: meat, offal, truffles, and old Italian forms carried through a kitchen language that reads as direct and historical. On that ground, Tim Caspare describes the region as “ancient, very medieval in many ways,” with “lots of meat, especially boar, as well as offal, and of course truffles.”

Today

At Pasquale Jones in New York City, Caspare works with Italian ingredients and preparations in combinations that stay material and plainspoken. The current kitchen in New York follows earlier work in other major cities, but the register remains rooted in product and execution rather than embellishment. His clam pizza is one of the clearest examples there: a white seafood pizza, and a dish singled out as the best we've ever tried.

Signature

The signatures associated with Caspare’s kitchen at Pasquale Jones include clam pizza, Diavola pizza, Wild Partridge Tortellini, Porcini Mushrooms, and Balsamic Vinegar, Warm Braised Leeks, Toasted Walnuts, and Parmigiano-Reggiano, and Umbrian-style pork shank.

In Their Words “Lots of meat, especially boar, as well as offal, and of course truffles.” “The cooking in Umbria is ancient, very medieval in many ways.”

Recognition

Recognition around Caspare’s New York work settles on the named dishes, not on a trophy list. The clam pizza has become the main reference point because it is specific and legible: shellfish on a white seafood pizza, presented without excess and praised in direct terms by those who ate it.