by Ben Hymowitz
If you were a chef at a restaurant, would you ever think you would own a restaurant? Christian did.
And now Christian Petroni is a chef, restaurateur and TV personality featured on the Food Network.
Currently, Petroni is the executive chef, owner and visionary behind Fortina, an Italian restaurant chain operating in five locations in New York and Connecticut.
Petroni’s family immigrated from a small island off the coast of Italy named Ponza. Early in his career, he was a chef at Barcelona Tapas Bar in Greenwich.
Petroni and his family grew up poor in The Bronx. One of Petroni’s biggest influences was Dominic Patalano.
“When I was young, there was a chef named Dominic Patalano and he owned a catering hall named Maestro’s and he was from the same part of Italy as my parents,” said Petroni.
While other kids were watching children’s shows like Sesame Street, Petroni was watching cooking shows on the Discovery Channel.
“I was especially enamored with the cooking shows that were on the Discovery Channel. One of them specifically being ‘Great Chefs of the World,’ ‘Great Chefs Hawaiian Style.’” said. Petroni.
“I mean for me these were like the early cooking shows of my childhood. Not so much the ‘Galloping Gourmet’ or ‘Julia Child,’ as it was the generic format on ‘Great Chefs of the World’ on the Discovery Channel back when there was only one Discovery Channel,” said Petroni.
As Petroni continued his career, he became the executive chef and manager at Barcelona Tapas Bar in Greenwich, CT.
“I worked for Barcelona when they started conceptualizing Bartaco, and that’s when I actually started to develop and helped develop the dishes. We helped develop the tacos [for Bartaco] early on out of the kitchen of Barcelona.”
Bartaco now boasts 22 locations around the country and are still planning to open additional locations in the United States.
Petroni’s celebrity chef status came after he won season 14 of the competitive Food Network show “The Next Food Network Star.”
He has also appeared on various TV shows, such as “Beat Bobby Flay” and “Chopped,” which he won in 2010.
A long time Petroni fan and Fortina patron IMS teacher Ms. Diana Tomaselli said, “I’ve been to three of the five Fortina’s — Stamford, Armonk, and Yonkers. I mainly go to Armonk. The people there are always really nice. The service is excellent, and the atmosphere is cool and relaxed, and that’s kind of the way Christian is.”
She continued, “I’ve met him several times. I went to a cooking demo in Yonkers and we got to meet him and he talked about his inspiration for his menus, and he cooked some things for us. Everything I’ve ever had there was delicious.
Ms. Tomaselli said she always intends to try different things on the menu.
“I always go back to my tried and true meatballs or the Luigi Bianco pizza or spaghetti and meatballs because the food is just delicious.”
