Zio Peppe is inviting foodies to take a trip to China with its Marco Polo Dinner, which blends Italian/Chinese dishes.
The meal starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 23, at the restaurant, 6502 E. Tanque Verde Road.
The special dinner is a five-course meal that has roots in Italy and China, but more importantly it represents an interesting challenge to chefs and owners Mat Cable and Devon Sanner both of whom love Chinese and Italian cuisine.
“The Chinese element has always been something that’s appealing to me,” Sanner said. “The meal comes from a mutual love of ours for Chinese cuisine. We’re able cross pollinate and it makes sense in terms of the introduction of noodles and other elements of Chinese cuisine that became staples of Italian cuisine.”
“You know the people who love to entertain?” Cable said. “That’s just us times a hundred.”
The meal begins with a sampling of three dim sum: porchetta gua bao bun, fennel sausage and shrimp siu mai and roe and lo mai gai arancini.
Next up is linguine and langoustine, Italian XO cream sauce and chives.
The third course is red braised beef braciole, Mandarin and garlic gai lan and Carolina gold rice polenta.
Then there’s dessert: Pandan cake, coconut buttercream, watermelon and lime ice cream.
Reservations are recommended. Tickets are $80 plus tax and gratuity.
The dishes were a team effort. Sanner said the idea was raised during a brainstorming session with himself, Cable, sous-chef Dan Heady and second sous-chef Brian Hagan. They asked themselves, “What would a dim sum assortment look like? … Say if we wanted to do a Taiwanese pork bun, a gua bao? Or what if we started with a template of a porchetta sandwich? We make our own pork belly porchetta and a rosemary and fennel rub and a little bit of salsa verde in there but in the guise of a Taiwanese pork bun on a white, fluffy steam bun.”
The evening is a tribute to Venetian merchant Marco Polo, whose travels along the Silk Road in Asia in the late 13th century created opportunities for the confluence of European and Asian cooking.
Cable comes from a restaurant family. His dad and mom owned a gelato and Italian ice place next to a pizzeria. He owns Fresco Pizzeria at 3011 E. Speedway Boulevard and has been creating Italian American cuisine since he was a youngster.
“I always knew that’s what I wanted to do,” he said. “I just thought that being the pizza guy would be the coolest thing in the world. It evolved from there to where we are now.
Sanner worked for many years in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he learned to love Asian food. When he came to Tucson he worked with chef Janos Wilder at the Downtown’s Carriage House.
No one can deny that cooking for a living is very hard work. Cable has a theory about why chefs do it.
“Most chefs are sensualists at heart and really crave that sensory experience,” he said. “The sights, the smells, the feel… the crackling in the pan of oil, that is life blood to us. If we have the opportunity as well to engage with guests and see their delight in something that we prepared with our own hands, something we’ve directed and see the team, the kitchen brigade, coming together and that choreography when it runs well, and you’re tested on a hard night and you come through and guests are happy, that’s intensely gratifying.”
Sanner is about relationships.
“Also, for us, this restaurant in particular, is building community through food,” he said. “What we do with our partnerships, with other food makers and suppliers, food artisans and sourcing from local purveyors, … we’re really forming bonds within the community through what we do here. That’s essential to us.”
Marco Polo Dinner
WHEN: 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 23
WHERE: Zio Peppe, 6502 E. Tanque Verde Road, Tucson
COST: $80 plus tax and gratuity
INFO: 520-888-4242, ziopeppeaz.com
