Tony Mantuano

Chef-owner, Spiaggia
Chicago, Illinois

When chef Tony Mantuano opened Spiaggia in Chicago in 1984,

a customer told him: “You’re never going to make it if you don’t

put a meatball on the menu.”

At the time, the kind of food Mantuano was cooking—

ingredient-driven regional Italian food—hadn’t been seen before in

Chicago or, for that matter, most of the United States. Instead of

spaghetti with the obligatory meatballs, Mantuano was serving

squid-ink pasta. People were perplexed. But Mantuano, a large

man with a large presence, kept calm. And calm, I observe in my

time with him in his kitchen, is what allowed Mantuano to steer

the ship through those initial choppy waters, to help build

Spiaggia into a world-renowned dining destination, and to achieve a

status few others can claim: he’s President Obama’s favorite chef.

Unlike the chefs on TV who scream and shout, Mantuano

stands towering over the kitchen space and surveys it all with a

kindness and grace that seems out of place on a man of his stature.

He’s almost always grinning; he seems to regard the people and

activity around him with detached amusement.

That’s certainly the case with Spiaggia’s executive chef, Sarah

Grueneberg, who joins us when we get started in the kitchen. The