Michael White

Chef-owner, Marea, Osteria Morini, and Ai Fiori
New York, New York

In all caps, chef Michael White is yelling at me.

“IT’S PASTA, ADAM ROBERTS, NOT NOODLES!

NOODLES ARE ASIAN!”

We are in the kitchen of White’s latest New York City

restaurant venture, the much-anticipated Osteria Morini, and the

scene feels like something out of an Aaron Sorkin drama. Clusters

of chefs congregate around tables in the dining room discussing

dishes; groups of manager-types stand near the bar and debate the

length of the cocktail stirrers. The excitement in the air is palpable,

and White himself has been here at seven a.m. every day testing

recipes (“Only one out of every ten makes it onto the final menu,”

he tells me). The fact that he takes the time out of his day—in the

few short days leading up to the opening—to cook with me is

nothing short of remarkable. As he leads me in, he says, “Adam

Roberts, do you know how lucky you are to be here right now?”

Michael White likes to call me by my full name. Everything he

says is both bombastic and slightly tongue-in-cheek, including the

yelling about the pasta. In that moment, I was asking White about

the importance of fresh noodles—I mean fresh pasta!—versus the

dry stuff. White, quite clearly, has strong opinions on the subject: