Gianni Scappin: The Man from Gusto

Gianni Scappin learned the basics of Northern Italian food at his father’s side as a teen. He flirted with the idea of medicine, but cooking was a more accessible career, and the young man found himself at Recoaro Terme Culinary Institute, studying with masters on internships all over the nation that famously lives to eat.

After graduation, Scappin wandered for a while: a fine hotel in England; a stint in a cruise ship galley, the Excelsior in Venice. As he roamed, he made connections; when Castellano in Manhattan needed an executive chef, he was recruited from Europe. In Scappin’s deft hands, Italian food soared past the city’s expectations. It turned out that New Yorkers had been starving for risotto and tiramisu made with traditional ingredients.

His next adventure involved developing several restaurants around the globe. Lured back to Manhattan to lead the kitchen team at Pino Luongo’s Le Madri, he let a guy named Stanley Tucci come help out, a course of events that led to the making of Tucci and Campbell Scott’s cinematic love letter to Italian food, Big Night.  

Having conquered New York, Scappin headed back to Italy and reopened the family trattoria for a time. His then-wife Laura Pensiero missed the US, though, and the talented pair landed in Rhinebeck where they opened the still-thriving Gigi Trattoria in 2001.

That partnership didn’t last, but Scappin’s found his home here: teaching at the Culinary Institute of America, running Woodstock’s Cucina and the Market Street Restaurant in Rhinebeck, and penning definitive cookbooks. This spring, he’s bringing his signature approach to a third Hudson Valley location, across from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie.

Why a third restaurant, and why Poughkeepsie?

Because we thought this particular place was a very good opportunity. Poughkeepsie has the colleges and offices, the hospitals—just the overall density that you need to support a restaurant year-round. Wintertime for both the other restaurants has been quite rough. I love Rhinebeck and Woodstock both, but things there are a little more seasonal. I don’t like to lay off my good people for the winter. Their bills don’t stop, I want to keep them working and keep them all year long. It’s the right thing, and I want them faithful when spring and summer comes. So yeah, population—students, infrastructure, the attractions, the train station—I think we will be able to move people there over the winter and they’ll still have a job.

Also, we have people—dearly beloved customers, friends—who come from Millbrook and Cold Spring to eat with us. It’s a long drive and some don’t come as often as they would like or we would like. Hopefully some of those people will come more often. And the new place has 70-to-80-seat-capacity party rooms where people can have events. That changes the level of catering we can offer, and it should be pretty good for us. At Cucina, we have a gorgeous barn, now we’ll have a private space right in Poughkeepsie.

Aren’t you busy enough, between running the other two restaurants and teaching at the CIA? Do you worry about getting stretched too thin? Do you just not sleep?

I have a way with choosing people. I get the right team together—a very good chef, a very good manager. I’m 54 years old and I have the experience, I know how to do this. They’re young and building their careers with a lot of passion, a lot of energy. And they get treated well, get good bonuses, get a lot of room to be creative, to feel as if it’s almost their own restaurant. I have a good partner and a good team, why not expand and grow?

So each restaurant has its own chef, but we talk every day, we sit down together and plan the menus, we have some kind of a style, a line we follow as a team. I’m one of them, and they know if they have a problem I’m the first one to say leave, go home, fix the problem with your family, because that’s your foundation—without that you’ll collapse. And if your manager or your server is not happy, it spills over on the customer.

We have people that have been with us ever since Gigi opened, and I think this attitude is why. I come from Europe, I’ve been in this business back there, and when you give loyalty there, it is still the thing that from when you’re born to when you die they take care of you. I’d rather pay more taxes and have that kind of a world, where you’re set.

So we’ll see how it goes. My next thing is, I want to be able to come to my restaurant and eat, have a good visit, get a little money and say, “Okay, I’m going to the beach now.” I’ve been working since I was 14 and someday I’d like to be able to stop.

What’s the new Poughkeepsie restaurant going to be like?

It’s going to be very casual. Very similar to Cucina, but mixed with just a bit of Market Street. Our hope is to draw a lunch crowd, so good healthy stuff, big salads, not too expensive to make a habit of, a regular thing. For dinner, it will be romantic and warm, candlelight, still very casual, with the kind of menu where you can choose to spend a lot of money and get great value for it, but you won’t have to—you can still eat something simple and wonderful and well made. We want to do a great bar, the kind people love to hang out in; maybe we’ll look at a nice TV for sports, try to bring in more of the students.

You could obviously work anywhere in the world at this point. Why this area?

The Hudson Valley is home. I live up here and it’s going to be my residence for a long time, it’s time for me to settle. My roots are planted here—I love the people and the farmers and the food, the beautiful seasons and the good nature—not just the trees and the mountains and the river but the human nature. There’s no real crime; people get along. So I guess opening a third place, I’m just planting those roots even deeper.

I mean, there are times it would be nice to be warmer, like this whole past few months, but you can always go to Florida for a weekend.

Are there more expansion plans in the works?

Ultimately, who knows? We’re always open to a great opportunity. I love Kingston, that beautiful historic area. For now it’s one step at a time, and Market Street is still a very young restaurant too. But I’m always looking for talented young—well, talented people young and old—to work with, and so far I have been very lucky in finding them. We’re a good team, all honest people. I just want to keep the energy going and treat everyone well—coworkers, neighbors, customers. The art of the restaurant business is giving people an amazing experience. We’re here to be nice to people, and like anything else, if I give to you and you give to me, no corporate mentality—we all sleep more comfortable.

I know you published a pasta cookbook not long back; are there more cookbooks in the works?

I actually have four books all together, three published through the Culinary Institute: A Tavola!: Recipes and Reflections on Traditional Italian Home Cooking, then there was Italian Cooking at Home with The Culinary Institute of America, and the third one is Pasta. We still pitch, we’re always pitching ideas—it would be fun to write about small plates maybe—but publishing is very tight right now and there are a million people writing cookbooks. I’m just lucky the CIA has still published some of my work. They’ve been really good to me in so many ways.

I was interested to see that Tony Bourdain wrote about you.

He’s wonderful, just a really smart and warm guy. We worked together for a year and a half. Tony writes from his soul, you can see his soul in all his work. And deep. He’s been on a panel talking politics with Andersen Cooper! He’s a party animal, but that’s beside the point. Now, he’s married his lovely lady from Sardinia—he found a wonderful Italian girl and had a baby, he’s a very happy father. Still—he invited me to a party but I knew it would be too much party for me. I’m tiny, I can’t drink but one drink. So, no party, but if he asked me to go on a trip with him, I would.

So when do the doors open, and what are you calling this place?

We’re thinking the middle to the end of April sometime. And the name is Gusto. Taste.

This article appears in April 2014.