Ryan DePersio’s Battello in Jersey City serves NYC views as well as Italian fare like the homemade mafalde seen here. Photo: Arron Andrews
Ryan DePersio is one of the most celebrated chefs in New Jersey, with two popular restaurants, TV appearances, and another restaurant on the way. We talked recently while he was driving to work—between back-to-back trips to Italy (one to choose wine for his new spot), hiring new staff, and calls with his videographer.
He’s a busy guy—and he definitely isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
DePersio, who owns Battello in Jersey City and Ember & Eagle in Eatontown (both on New Jersey Monthly’s Top 50 list), is about to open his third restaurant, Barchino, in Jersey City this fall with his business partners, Cory Checket and Joe Calafiore.
The interior of DePersio’s Battello in Jersey City. His newest restaurant, Barchino, will open next door this fall. Photo: Arron Andrews
Juggling multiple responsibilities isn’t anything new for the talented chef.
At the age of 16, this Nutley boy already knew he wanted to enter the culinary world, having learned how to cook from his mother, who developed recipes for women’s magazines and cookbooks. Intent on learning as much as he could about the business, DePersio worked three jobs while still in school. He washed dishes in one restaurant, worked the salad station at another, and delivered pizzas—working seven days a week. Why?
“I loved money and I wanted to learn about the business,” says DePersio, who is now 48 and lives in Wyckoff with his wife and kids. “I wasn’t a very good student; I was a little bit of a troublemaker and a wise guy. I just had a really hard time focusing and caring about school.”
Noting her son’s interest in cooking, his mother introduced him to the Food Network, and he began watching Emeril Lagasse and other chefs religiously. Soon, DePersio was following his mother’s recipes and cooking dishes on his own.
“My mom said, ‘If you’re really into this cooking thing, you know you could become a chef someday? And I said, ‘Yes, that’s what I want to do,’” he says.
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After attending cooking school in New York City—while working nights at top restaurants, including Bouley Bakery—he stayed and cooked at a few other popular NYC restaurants. His next move was Paris, where he worked at a one-star Michelin restaurant for a short time before coming back home to cook for the celebrated French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten in New York for the next two years.
“That was my favorite of all the places I worked,” he says. “I loved the food and the design of the restaurant and the style of service. Working with Jean-Georges five days a week was a dream. He was amazing. It was a very integral part of my career.”
After Jean-Georges, he traveled to Florence, where he cooked at a three-star Michelin restaurant called Enoteca Pinchiorri, which offers a legendary gastronomic experience. “I spent four months there, and it was very special to me. I loved being there, and I wanted to go back to work at another restaurant in Italy, but I was 24 years old and I thought I needed to start making money,” he says.
When he returned home to New Jersey, he decided it was time to open his own place. He found a space in Montclair for Fascino, his first restaurant. It opened in 2003 and was an immediate success.
In a 2010 review of the restaurant, New Jersey Monthly gave it three stars and said the restaurant continued “to sparkle.”
It was a family affair. He opened it on his father’s birthday; his mother, Cynthia, was its pastry chef, and his brother, Anthony, was the general manager. His grandfather, “Papa Mac” Martino, made cavatelli and orecchiette at home and delivered them to the restaurant.
Since then, Fascino has closed, and DePersio opened eight other restaurants, including Bar Cara in Bloomfield and Kitchen Step in Jersey City, which have both since closed, as have some of his other spots.
It’s all part of the life of a restaurateur.
His restaurants are popular gathering spots for date nights, family and friends, and guests always feel welcome when they walk in. The food is inventive and flavorful, and DePersio is always experimenting and trying new things. He loves to add Asian touches to his cooking, something he learned from cooking for Jean-Georges.
DePersio has also appeared on the TV cooking shows Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay, as well as on the Today show, cementing his status as a celebrity chef to be watched.
Sea scallops at Battello. Photo: Arron Andrews
His new 120-seat restaurant, Barchino, will be more moderately priced than Battello, which is next door. It will serve inventive pizzas, paninis, shared plates, salads and appetizers.
It will also include an event space. (Both his other locations host weddings and other formal events; in Eatontown, Ember & Eagle is located within Tillinghouse at Suneagles Golf Club.)
He’s talked about reopening his popular spot Kitchen Step, which closed last year. But, he says, for now, he and his partners are focusing on Barchino.
“We’re very patient and we are very focused when we open a restaurant. We’re not restaurateurs that will get a place open and then we’re not there. For the first month, I’ll be there seven days a week, and then eventually I’ll pare it back,” he says.
While he likes to experiment with his cooking whenever he can, DePersio’s first love is always Italian cuisine.
“I grew up in an Italian family, and I ate at my grandparents’ house every Sunday when I was a kid all the way up to close to 30 years old. It was an event,” he says. “My grandparents were cooking—it was always like a holiday. There was a plethora of food, and it kind of seeped into my soul. I just knew that when I started a restaurant, I wanted it to be Italian.”
