Behind The Swinging Doors: Inside The Kitchen At L'Apicio

L'Apicio, part of the dell'anima, L'Artusi, and Anfora family, opened in NoHo earlier this year. They're serving modern Italian fare with house made pastas and an award-winning meatball. Executive chef Gabe Thompson runs the kitchen, while his wife Katherine runs the pastry program. Recipes from L'Apicio can be found in the new cookbook Downtown Italian: Recipes Inspired by Italy, Created in New York's West Village, a combination of work from Thompson, his wife, and Joe Campanale, beverage director at L'Apicio.

Behind the Swinging Doors: Inside the Kitchen at L'Apicio (Slideshow)

We stopped into the L'Apicio kitchen on a Thursday at 6:00 p.m. The bar area was starting to fill up with a few people trickling into the dining room. They tend to draw in the after-work crowd, especially now with the launch of the new gratis bar, a few small bites per group on the house. The bites include eggplant chips with roasted red pepper hummus, mortadella treminzini, and a ricotta crostini. 

In the kitchen, they work on the bites for the bar while also prepping pasta for dinner service. Chef Thompson makes his rounds through all the stations before landing in the center, putting final touches and wipe-downs on plates such as eggplant mezzaluna, stone fruit panzanella, and blackened tuna. Click through our slideshow to see what goes on in the kitchen at L'Apicio.

Black Olives

Finely chopped black olives are part of the prep work for the roasted chicken entrée.

Family Coffee

A necessary item for the kitchen staff — coffee.

Click here to see more photos from inside the kitchen at L'Apicio.

Jane Bruce is the Photo Editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @janeebruce.