ITALIAN CUISINE HAS CONQUERED AMERICANS’ HEARTS PARTLY BECAUSE OF SIRIO MACCIONI’S RESTAURANT "LE CIRQUE" THAT FOR 40 YEARS HAS MADE NEW YORK RESIDENTS FALL IN LOVE WITH GOOD ITALIAN COOKING

How has Italian cuisine changed in America? 40 years ago in New York French cuisine was all the rage and the first restaurants that offered Made in Italy food and wine were limited to a sign with the words "Italian Restaurant" and they made “Italian style” food with what the ingredients could buy in America.

And it was in New York 40 years ago that an Italian, Sirio Maccioni, decided to open his own restaurant, where he wanted (some day) to offer the best of Italian cuisine, but decided to use a French name, "Le Cirque”. Forty years after opening his restaurant , Maccioni (who will celebrate on October 15th) tells the story of his restaurant on 65th Street in Manhattan, where famous people like Frank Sinatra, Robert De Niro, Henry Kissinger, Woody Allen, U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Bush Sr. and Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II have all eaten and how Italian food has conquered Americans’ hearts.
"What made the difference 30 years ago”, said Maccioni, “was the un- availability of ingredients and now instead “real Italian” products can be found in New York, so the quality of the cuisine depends on the chef, not only on the ingredients.
Of course, he continued, “I am proud to have been the first one to bring some Italian ingredients here, like the white truffle. A food critic in New York described it "a strange looking potato that smells". The thing that really sets "Le Cirque" apart from the other restaurants is that we pay attention to the customer. And we know that our customers are more informed and careful about what they eat and they distinguish restaurants with good or bad food. People who go to restaurants do not ask "what's new", but rather, "what's good".

"Le Cirque" was also among the first restaurants in New York to include many Italian wines on the menu, and now 50% of the wines are Italian. Antinori”, Maccioni recalled, “sent me 1971 Tignanello. I was the only one in the entire United States that had it. Italian wines are”, he noted, “ very good, but exporters to America must stop thinking that there consumers do not understand anything about wine. Presumption does not pay, and it is the same thing for a restaurant: to do well one must offer good and genuine food, let go of artsy experiments and give the customer really good food to eat”.

“40 years ago, the Italian restaurant in New York”, said the communicator and Maccioni’s friend, Gianni Mercatali, “identified with spaghetti, a flask of wine and mandolins, and Maccioni has succeeded, with calm and wisdom, in introducing Italian dishes on his menu, presenting them at high levels and making people appreciate our cuisine. He was also a pioneer of Italian wines on the menu. "Le Cirque" was (and is) an important contribution to Italian wine and food as well as conquering the market and American palates”.