Photo: Michael Macor/Chron
Today’s Datebook profiles Jon Smulewitz, the 34-year-old chef-owner of Dopo (Ed. Note: one of our favorite Italian restaurants of all time) and Adesso (short-listed for a Beard award this year for Best New Restaurant) in Oakland. Biggest takeaways: Smulewitz first learned to cook from his Sicilian grandmother in New Jersey, and he apprenticed in all things salumi at Oliveto starting in 1999, where he went solely because of their charcuterie program. “The ingredients we use in salumi, we want people to know they’re eating [all] that – sage, oregano, chiles,” Smulewitz says, and along with “salumi chief” Chad Arnold, Adesso makes over 30 different kinds of salumi, going through two hogs a week.
