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"And a Cioppino for Mr. Pacino"

What do Beijing, Baywatch and bruschetta have in common? Quite simply, Nicola Rossetto. Currently working at the Adria Restaurant on Chaowai Dajie, in a past life Nicola used to work in Los Angeles, California, in the United States as an Italian chef to the rich and famous.

As we dined and imbibed on breaded mozzarella, pesto and Chilean wine, Nicola came over to talk. In a complete break from the flamboyant stereotype, Nicola is the picture of calm, with an air of the reclusive artist. It seems he is most at home sitting down and quietly talking about food, often adding at the end of his words: "But that is just my small opinion."

He began cooking at the age of 13 in a family run restaurant in Venice. In Italy the good restaurants are true specialists, serving up either fish or meat, rarely both. It is only the internationalisation of Italian cuisine that has created the "standard Italian," with comprehensive menus offering everything from finely sliced Parma ham over melon (prosciutto e melone) to salted cod and cornmeal (baccala alla Vicentina) and pizza, pasta and lasagne to excess. The Rossetto family business had existed since the 1960s and specialized only in seafood fresh from the Adriatic Sea.

This traditional purist approach has stayed with Nicola. He is passionate about food, but even though he has been in China some time, he never strays from his roots. When I suggested the possibility of a potential Italian-Chinese fusion, his response was an icy, incredulous stare.

"I've never seen a successful fusion. Cuisine evolves by itself. My grandmother used to make lasagne, but now, in Italy, nobody eats lasagne. People are eating deer meat prosciutto with figs and honey."

The way Nicola talks about food, it is obvious that the artistry of food runs in his blood. He talks of fish markets in Venice as one would talk about the Taj Mahal. And like an artist he refers to his ingredients as "materials." Indeed, while the sculptor is inclined to leave oil painting to others, so evidently Nicola rejects any kind of fusion. He has no inclination to cook Chinese food. Italian food is where he excels, and he recognizes that other cuisines are best left to their respective professionals, although he does love a lazijii and anything from Sichuan.

At the age of 20 Nicola moved to Los Angeles. He ended up working in an Italian-French restaurant in the San Fernando Valley called Il Teatro. Surrounded by movie stars and executives, the restaurant was frequented by a whole host of stars from the mid-90s. Nicola drops names like he's reading a list of ingredients: Al Pacino, Kim Basinger, Alex Baldwin, Tom Selleck and Andy Garcia. I am taken about. Such a composed and unassuming man…it turns out that Nicola ran about the private kitchens of the rich and famous for almost 10 years. He catered for more post-premiere parties than he could care to mention. Often working at private functions in the celebrities own homes.

It seems he became a favourite of Al Pacino (Godfather, Scarface, Serpico). Contracted by the big studios, one job had him feeding the cast of Heat during the film's production. During the last two seasons of Baywatch, a popular US television show, before production moved to Hawaii, Nicola was on hand three times a day to keep the cast nourished from a mobile kitchen at the side of the set. 

"It sounds good, but it was totally crazy. America is like another dimension, life is just too fast out there. To do something in Europe may take an hour while in America it's got to be done in three minutes. And in Asia you may have three days. I used to spend two to three hours a day just searching for something new to create."

After moving back to Europe, he then worked around Asia before eventually coming to Beijing in 2002.

"Of course I'm going to stay for the Olympics. I have to see the 100-metre final one time in my life. This is something amazing."

So after Europe and the United States, Italian food is now becoming big in Asia. No other cuisine has quite the same reputation for universal excellence. So what it is that makes it so special?

"People are tired of simple food, they want quality. As soon as restaurants start to make simple food, they go down. Even the Italian restaurants were closing down when I first went to America (in 1990). But then people started being creative;now Italian food is number one."

Engaged in creation is certainly where he thrives, but I got the feeling that Beijing has yet to allow him to fully channel his skills. Maybe the palate is still in its infancy, content with pasta and mozzarella creations. Time will tell. As for now, Nicola Rossetto walks back into his kitchen smiling. If anyone can bring Beijing to gastronomic maturity, it is this man.