10 thoughts: Fabio Trabocchi

Fabio Trabocchi is a chef-partner at Fiola, a modern Italian restaurant in Washington, DC. He will open a second restaurant, Casa Luca, in early summer and a more upscale seafood restaurant, Fiola Mare, in the fall.

1. One thing you don’t know about me is that I have a passion for classic cars.

2. If I could trade places with one chef, who would it be? I don’t know about trading, but I do admire the work of Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Mario Batali and Massimo Bottura.

3. One of my most memorable meals was at any Sunday feast my father cooked when I was a kid.

4. If there were no oysters, I’d have no reason to live. They are a bite into a marine world that is impossible to reproduce.

5. My go-to drink is Hendrick’s Gin and tonic. Yes, that simple.

6. If I were on death row my last meal would be . . . I have a long bucket list of things to do before I get to my last meal. So long, in fact, that maybe I won’t make it to my last meal. But if I did, it would be spaghetti with mussels. But the mussels must be right from the boat in a little seaside town in Le Marche called Numana, near where I grew up in Italy.

7. My worst culinary creation was at age eight when I tried to make a pie for my sister and me. It was a disaster.

8. If I could change one thing about me I would go back to being eight years old. It’s a time of life when you are most curious and fearless.

9. My favorite junk food is Nutella. However, to me it’s not junk food; it’s a necessity.
 
10. If I wasn’t a restaurant operator, I’d love to be a piano player, a fighter pilot, a painter, a race car driver, a farmer, a carpenter, a baker . . .