The Rizzuto’s restaurants are in the news a lot these days—and with good reason. The peripatetic and utterly charming Bill Rizzuto is a busy man. Perhaps nothing more perfectly illustrates how busy Bill is than the fact that he’s a Bethel resident but President of the West Hartford Center Business Association. I assure you, he’s not horsing around.
Before I moved from Bethel last month, I visited Bill’s original restaurant there, and discovered (not that it’s recent news) that he had expanded into the space next door. Ironically, I had been living in Bethel the past few months but confining my visits to Bill’s recently opened West Hartford eatery. Why? Because we food writers have a bias toward the new and newsworthy. Which is why I’m also keeping a close eye on the Westport space that was formerly Conte’s Fishmarket. A third Rizzuto’s will be going into that space later this year.
But the newest and most newsworthy development in the Rizzuto’s restaurant universe was a Pasta Perfecto Recipe Contest held on May 16th at the handsome West Hartford restaurant.
From over 100 entrants, three finalists were chosen.
Three distinguished judges were assembled at the Blue Back Square restaurant for this momentous contest: the ever-lovely-and-composed Prudence Sloane, a frequent contributor to television, radio and print media,
the ever-dapper Krystian Von Spiedel of the Hartford Advocate, and the ever-rumpled Yours Truly, original inspiration for the phrase “you can dress him up but you can’t take him out.”
Each contestant went into the kitchen to prepare her recipe. Here is contestant Shelley Hunter posing with Rizzuto’s executive chef Scott Martin.
And here’s Shelley preparing a pasta sauce that you could bottle with a smile that you couldn’t.
And here’s Shelley standing next to the finished product, ready to serve it to the three judges, as well as friends and family in attendance. Judges first, of course!
Now here’s contestant Natalie Lawlor serving her steaming hot pasta carbonara.
And finally, here’s contestant Connie Williams preparing her shrimp pasta Paradiso in the Rizzuto’s kitchen.
While all three final entries were delicious, the judges selected the one they thought was the best, the brightest and the most imaginative. The winner received a pasta and wine celebration for 10 people at Rizzuto’s, a gift from Barilla Pasta America, and the knowledge that her recipe would be featured as a restaurant special so others could enjoy it. You might have guessed by the number of photos I ran of Shelley that the judges selected her spicy shrimp and scallop pasta the winner. So let’s finish with a beaming Shelley receiving her award from Bill.
Rizzuto’s Wood Fired Kitchen and Bar, 111 Memorial Road, Blue Back Square, West Hartford, 860-232-5000
Rizzuto’s Wood Fired Pizza Kitchen and Bar, 6 Stony Hill Road, Bethel, 203-790-4444