Born and raised in rural New
England, across the street from a small dairy farm, Mark developed an early appreciation for food and hospitality through the frequent dinner parties that his parents held in their 1840s-era house.
Mark arrived in the Bay Area in 1985 and soon became involved with the high-tech industry, working at companies such as Sun Microsystems and Tumbleweed Communications. Through bi-annual visits to Italy and constant poring over Italian cookbooks, a passion grew for Italian food and wine. Eventually, it was strong enough to give birth to Incanto.
Mark and his wife Nonna live in an apartment above Incanto's wine bar. Mark enjoys reading and believes that all major league baseball players ought to know how to lay down a decent bunt.
A skilled cook and dedicated forager of wild foods, Chris Cosentino's passion for Italian food began while growing up in
an Italian-American community in Rhode Island. Chris is a 1992 graduate of Johnson & Wales University and veteran of top-notch restaurant kitchens including Red Sage in Washington, D.C. and Rubicon, Chez Panisse, Belon, & Redwood Park in the San Francisco Bay Area. Most recently Mr. Cosentino has served as a consulting chef for the Aqua Restaurant Group in San Francisco and Las Vegas and the Kimpton Group in San Francisco and Aspen.
Chris has developed close relationships with local farmers through his dedicated involvement with the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market and other Bay Area farmer's markets. A part-time professional bicyclist, Chris enjoys spending time away from the kitchen participating in 24-hour endurance races on his single-gear mountain bike.
Work in some of the finest hotels and dining rooms of Claudio Villani's native city of Florence, Italy sparked
Claudio's interest in wine. In 1991, Claudio enrolled with the prestigious Italian Association of Sommeliers to begin formal training as a sommelier. Eight years and four levels of training later, Claudio received formal certification as a Professional Sommelier, the highest degree of sommelier certification awarded in Italy.
Prior to his arrival in the US, Claudio spent three years as a founding manager of Enoteca Boccadama in Florence, Italy where he conceived, created and managed a wine list of more that 1,100 different wines and a cellar of more that 15,000 bottles. The Wine Spectator magazine in its August 31, 2001 issue recognized this wine list, as they awarded Enoteca Boccadama one of only five new "Awards of Excellence" granted to restaurants in Italy.
Claudio placed among the top 20 entrants in the Best Sommelier of Italy 2001 competition and is one of only a handful of Tuscan-born sommeliers working outside of Italy today. He is a passionate ambassador for Italian wine and a fervent believer that wine service and the role of sommelier should be demystified so that we can all just enjoy a good glass of wine. We are delighted to have him managing Incanto's wine and service programs.
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Incanto Italian Restaurant, 1550 Church Street, Noe Valley, San Francisco 94131
415-641-4500 - Email: info@incanto.biz