Mark Cirillo | Cucinato Founder, Sous Chef & Dishwasher

If you know the tiniest bit about Italian music, you probably know the 1980s classic by Toto Cutugno called L'Italiano (The Italian), with its catchy chorus that says "Let me sing, because I'm proud to be, an Italian, a true Italian." But do you know what Italian town inspired the song? 

According to Cutugno himself, it wasn't a town in Italy, but the town of Little Italy right here in Toronto, whose pride made such an impression on him that he wrote a song about it. Growing up in that community, we were often told, with great pride, that Toronto was the "largest Italian population outside of Italy!" I took it for granted this place was as "true Italian" as you you could get.  

But when I first visited Italy, and I met cousins had never heard of Brio soda, or eaten veal sandwiches from the bakery, or made tomato sauce in the garage, and didn't speak Italian exactly the way people did here, I started to wonder. Maybe I didn't know what “real Italian" meant after all.

Above: Mark Cirillo looking like an Italiano Vero in Florence, late 1980s

I've learned since then that every Italian community from Sicily to Piemonte, or Toronto to New Jersey for that matter, has its own traditions. One nonna's Sunday risotto is another nonna's fileja. One man's Barolo is another's vinu nustru made in the garage.

Yet, as the expression goes, tutto fa brodo, ("everything makes soup"). All these different traditions are somehow, in a deeper way, are the same. The same pride in tradition, craftsmanship and primary ingredients. The love of cramming as many family and friends around the table as will fit, and then adding few more unexpected guests, lingering for hours at the table, forgetting about the time, just grazing, talking incessantly (usually about food) and laughing (mostly at themselves).

I started little blog about this idea about a decade ago, how you can discover so many flavours and variations of l’italiano vero right here in Toronto. I called it Cucinato, short for Cucina Italiana in Toronto, which coincidentally means "Cooked." A pretty simple idea. Cucinato soon evolved into a series of collaborations - exploring Tuscany with Gaia, Naples with Bruno, Puglia with Massimo or Laura, Veneto with Stefano, and so on. It got so popular that pretty soon we needed a home!

Luckily we found this cosy little gem in historic Corso Italia, the former Big Ragu and Ristorante Venezia. Hosting gatherings here feels like a return to my roots, going back in time to those big family gatherings in the basement of casa Cirillo on Lisgar St., where, over the loud voices and laughter, you could faintly hear a 45 of L’Italiano playing on my cousin's old record player (set to auto-repeat, no doubt!). 

Benvenuti / benvenute a Cucinato Studio!