
Once upon a time - at about age 16 - I worked as a bus boy
and dish washer at a small dinner club. For some reason, I was bitten by
the restaurant bug and it changed forever the way I looked at food and food
preparation. I went on to work as a pantry boy, saucier, sauté and grill
man, sous-chef, chef, bar tender and bar manager.
Pretty much all of the bases were covered, except that I never owned a place of
my own. I did however, learn a lot in the 25 or so years during which I
gave my blood, sweat and tears to the business. As you may expect, many
people contributed to what I know, but one man will always stand out in my
memory: Joseph Insalago. I can never thank him enough.
I'm just an ordinary guy with a taste for great food. I have had the
good fortune to have dined at restaurants across much of the country, from
Florida to Maine to California - some very fine and some not so fine. For
the past several years, I have been afforded the opportunity to critique
restaurants around the Fox Valley at which I have eaten in exchange for space on
www.OntheFox.com. The time has now come for me to share my experiences
about restaurants in other places as well. Since many of them could be
outside the Fox Valley area and the cities of Geneva, St. Charles and Batavia, I
needed a new place to share my thoughts with you.
As always, the words on
these pages are simply
the result of my dining experiences; they are not embellished in any way and
they are the truth. No one knows when I will join them for dinner,
therefore my experiences would be as yours would if you walked in off the
street. I hope that they will help you to determine
just where you dine this evening or this weekend. Bon appetite!
--

Ralph Pancetta
|