Back of the House

Craig Stoll Remembers Delfina’s Origins

Craig Stoll winning best chef: Pacific, at the 2008 James Beard awards.
Craig Stoll winning best chef: Pacific, at the 2008 James Beard awards. Photo: James Beard Foundation

The Stoll family has it hard. With both parents putting in long hours at the family business, it’s all they can do to have a home-cooked meal once a week. “We often have dinner out of take out boxes filled with food from Delfina,” Craig Stoll tells Digital city in an interview today. But he didn’t always get to take food home from his own restaurant. Stoll says he had to re-learn cooking technique from the beginning when he lived in Italy in 1992. “I wanted to put my own twist on things but after a few months I surrendered to the cuisine. I became completely immersed.” Stoll said the idea of Delfina came when he returned from that trip. “I had lived in S.F. prior to leaving for Italy and realized how similar the climates and land were in both places… Right after returning to S.F., I noticed borage (a plant we used in Tuscany) growing through a crack in a sidewalk in Cole Valley.” That’s what made him realize he could cook authentically without “slavishly following tradition.” “My personal ‘twist’ came naturally after I returned but it took years to develop and I still work on it every day.”

Delfina Chef Craig Stoll Talks Food Trends and Cooking in Italy [Digital City]

Craig Stoll Remembers Delfina’s Origins