FEATURE — Chef Alfredo’s Ristorante Italiano prides itself providing a fine dining experience wherein its customers can enjoy a variety of authentic Italian dishes.

The upscale restaurant was founded by Alfredo Modica, a native of Sicily, Italy, whose five decades of food preparation experience included 30 years as a chef for the Princess Cruises cruise ship line.

In 2011, Modica set up shop in Utah, opening Piccolo Mundo in St. George with Gerardo Reyes. In December 2013, Chef Alfredo’s in Cedar City opened, with the St. George Chef Alfredo’s opening the following October. In the summer of 2018, Modica retired, leaving Reyes in charge of overseeing both locations.

Watch Sheldon and Amber’s visit to Chef Alfredo’s in Episode 28 of “What’s on the Menu” in player above.

The Cedar City location is the larger of the two locations, seating up to 120 people, including up to 30 in its banquet room, which can be reserved for parties and gatherings.

General manager Hector Ortega says Chef Alfredo’s philosophy has been to rely mostly on word of mouth, rather than traditional advertising venues. He said:

Chef Alfredo said he wants to the food to speak for itself. He’s like, “I have great food. I’m going to hire people who are going to (provide) great service, and we want to give them a beautiful, Italian-looking atmosphere.” So we want to hit those three main components.

Although both Chef Alfredo’s restaurants have similar offerings, their slightly different menus are listed separately on the company’s website. Both locations also offer full catering services.

Among the menu highlights:

• Various pasta dishes, including fettuccine, rigatoni, ravioli and spaghetti.
• Several chicken options, including the ever-popular chicken parmesan and pollo marsala, a sautéed chicken breast topped with fresh mushrooms, shallots and marsala wine sauce. A similar dish, vitello marsala, features veal instead of chicken.
• Baked lasagna featuring layers of pasta with meat sauce, ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
• Other meat entrees, including filet mignon beef steak and several seafood and pasta dishes.

Chef Alfredo’s also has several specialty appetizers available, along with soups, salads and desserts. The beverage menu includes a range of imported wines and beers.

Ortega says the food at Chef Alfredo’s is carefully prepared with the overall goal of achieving an ideal balance.

“When I think about cooking, I’m like, okay, here’s the ingredients. Boom!” he said “But then they explained to me, no, you have to test how ripe your vegetables are, how fresh your pasta is, how fresh your sauces are, and you have to make small changes, like extra spices to kind of balance it out, to bring out the flavor and make it pop more.”

Ortega compared cooking for Chef Alfredo’s to a chemistry project.

“You’re like, more of this to counterbalance this, and do this … a little more salt on this, a little more pepper, more sage, rosemary, thyme, you know, whatever it may be … there’s so much that goes into it to make a perfectly balanced dish.”

And when it comes to ambiance, if they’re lucky, diners at the St. George restaurant might catch local high school student Derek Coombs playing jazz and contemporary music on the piano on certain nights.

“He came in and said he wanted to play the piano,” Ortega said of Coombs. “He didn’t have any sheet music. He played like 11 songs completely off memory, and I was like, ‘How old are you?’ ‘Sixteen.’ And I was like, ‘You’re hired!’ Right there. I hired him on the spot and he comes in about three to four days a week when it’s convenient for him, around his school schedule. But he’s here every weekend.”

What’s on the Menu: Chef Alfredo’s | Brought to you by Camping World.

Resources

• Chef Alfredo’s | Website | Facebook pages: (St. George and Cedar City) | Locations: 76 W. Tabernacle St., St. George (click for map) and 2313 W. state Route 56, Cedar City (click for map) | Hours: Both locations are open for dinner nightly from 4 to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The St. George location is closed Sundays, while the Cedar City location is open from 4-8 p.m. on Sundays. The Cedar City location is also open for lunch on weekdays (Monday through Friday) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Call for reservations. | Telephone: 435-656-5000 (St. George) and 435-586-2693 (Cedar City).

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