 |
Executive Chef Ugo Allesina
Ugo Allesina, currently the Executive Chef for Prego Ristorante, brings more than 20 years experience to his position. Born and raised in the region of Piemonte, Italy, his experience at a number of prestigious hotels and restaurants in Italy, Germany and the United States has enabled him to develop his outstanding skills as a premier chef in Northern Italian cuisine.
Chef Allesina began his career in the culinary arts in 1985 as a cook, responsible for creating appetizers and doing the daily meat preparation at Hotel Orta in Orta San Guilio, Italy. During the following years, Chef Allesina held several positions at renowned hotels in Italy. He was cook at the Italie & Hotel Suisse, a 4-star hotel in Stresa on beautiful Lake Maggiore, before becoming a chef at the Regina Palace Hotel, a 5-star hotel also in Stresa. Soon afterward, he was made the chef responsible for preparing the pastas at the Lido Palace Hotel Baveno, another lakeside resort on Lake Maggiore. |
In 1990, Chef Allesina was brought to the united States by the owners of Ristorante Mezzaluna, a well-known upper-class Italian restaurant in Manhattan. He was made Executive Chef at the then-new Mezzaluna restaurant in Corona Del Mar, California and stayed there six years until the restaurant was closed by the owners. Later, he joined Ristorante Il Fornaio, working in their Manhattan Beach, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica locations before joining Prego in Irvine.
According to Chef Allesina, he has learned a great deal since his transition to the restaurant industry in the United States. As he explained, “In the hotel industry in Italy, there as so many different levels of chefs and cooks. Each individual is given a specific range of responsibilities relating to food preparation, and we had no direct contact with customers.” Chef Allesina has found that, by comparison, here in the U.S. he has a greater opportunity to prepare many different types of dishes. He enjoys meeting and talking directly with customers in the restaurant, and many come to Prego not only for the food but also for the tableside visit from the chef. |
