Jenny and the City
SERGIO CORBIA EXECUTIVE CHEF
by Jenny Leeser, Jenny and the City
Sergio Corbia is perhaps best known for the development of the iconic celebrity destination, Mauro’s Cafe inside Fred Segal.
As Co-Owner and Executive Chef of Mauro’s Café, Sergio delighted a wide ranging group of loyal customers from all over the globe.
Chef Sergio has become successful at crafting warm, family-style environments that highlight the fresh, regional Italian dishes that originally inspired him to get into the culinary world. Chef Sergio and his devoted team create our daily specials at Fabiolus - which keeps our guests coming back for more.
Traditional Sardinian Specialties
What is the best way to celebrate any day? Well with great company and with exquisite food and as a food aficionado that I am and of course carb lover I feel so thrilled to share from renowned Chef Sergio from Sardinia, Italy some traditional Sardinian Specialties.
SEAFOOD FREGOLA WITH SAFFRON
In our opinion, these are the 10 Sardinian top dishes which you should definitely taste during your visit in Sardinia: Fregola, which means breadcrumbs, is a typical Sardinian pasta made of semolina and rolled into small balls. There are plenty of recipes for cooking fregola but the most delicious is definitely a seafood fregola: with clams, prawns and served with some saffron broth and a loaf of crunchy bread. Not everyone knows that Sardinia is a major saffron producer in Italy. This wonderful and very precious spice of intense red color is used in many typical Sardinian dishes and is often called “red gold“ of Sardinia as its delicate threads require long time to be collected and dried and the cost of the final product is similar to that of the gold. Moreover, the saffron flower is characterized by a magnificent lilac color
SPAGHETTI WITH SEA URCHIN
Those who enjoy raw seafood will fall in love with this dish.
The right time to taste this plate is from November till April when the season of “ricci di mare” is open. It is forbidden to take the sea urchins in other periods of the year and it is possible to collect only a limited number of sea urchins per fisherman in order to protect these species.
We advise you to visit Castelsardo, or Santa Teresa di Gallura to try this dish. The perfect wine to match with spaghetti with sea urchins is the amazing Cannonau of Sardinia, a hearty red wine, which emphasizes the intense taste of the sea urchin.
BOTTARGA
Bottarga is one of the most famous and tasteful delicacies of Sardinia originally coming from Cabras, a small town on the western coast of the island. This dried mullet roe can be tasted in thin slices as a starter, or it can be used to dress pasta, usually spaghetti or linguine.
CULURGIONES
Culurgiones is a Sardinian first curse arriving from Ogliastra, the wildest part of Sardinia. It is a kind of home-made dumpling pasta stuffed with delicious mint-flavoured potatoes cream. Normally it is served with fresh tomato sauce and basil or with butter and sage.
OCTOPUS SALAD
Sardinian octopus salad is usually served as a starter. The main ingredient of this dish is obviously the local octopus, which is smaller than an Oceanic octopus, and consequently it tastes very delicate.It is usually served with boiled potatoes, celery and is dressed with garlic, parsley, olive oil and lemon.
CATALAN STYLE LOBSTER
Catalan style lobster is a typical dish of Alghero, a Catalan town on the north-western part of Sardinia. Obviously this precious crustacean is fished in the local sea on the western coast near Alghero. After being boiled, lobster is served as a salad with fresh tomatoes and onion. We recommend to taste it with a white wine like Vermentino di Sardegna.
SINCE 1992
Mauro Cafe is a neighborhood restaurant and Los Angeles destination with Italian roots and Californian influence. As an all-day, European-style cafe in the heart of West Hollywood, we remain committed to supporting local food purveyors offering the freshest ingredients possible to our community of both long-standing patrons and new neighbors.
Equally important to us is continuing to engage with and advocate for organizations that address food insecurity throughout our city through events and pop-ups and the restaurant.
