Chef's old family recipes inspire 200 East Supper Club's Italian menu

Growing up in his family's west suburban restaurant, Pasta Vino, chef Tony Navarro learned his culinary skills from generations of Italian-American cooks, including his parents, Ralph and Theresa Navarro; family friend Angelo Nicelli, proprietor of Chicago's Cafe Angelo; his grandmother Rose Navarro; and his great aunt and godmother Mae Maritote, the former Mafalda Capone. Today, he uses all these family recipes and techniques in his kitchen at 200 East Supper Club, a new Streeterville dining and dancing destination.

Navarro and his family operated Pasta Vino in Schiller Park until 2000, when the property was redeveloped into a hotel, where Navarro ran Pal Joey's, an Italian steakhouse. Navarro also helped his brother Butch at Shoeless Joe's Sports Bar in Rosemont in 1999.

How did you become a chef? Thirty years ago my mom and dad started a restaurant, Pasta Vino in Schiller Park. Instead of letting my brothers and me hang around the bar flirting with the pretty girls, my mom decided we should learn everything about the business. So my brothers and sister and I had our culinary training by Theresa Navarro. She taught us all how to cook.

All of us are still in the restaurant business. My brother Butch and sister operate Cafe Zalute in Rosemont; my brother Joe is at Club Lucky in Chicago; my brother Jerry just sold his place -- he's in between places right now.

Did you ever consider not working in a restaurant? I started out selling equipment when I came out of college, but I was working in the restaurant at night. Then we expanded, and I went full-time in the restaurant.

How would you describe your cooking? I cook Italian-American recipes that have been handed down from my mother and grandmas and aunts. I also develop my own recipes based on that heritage.

What's your family's heritage? My mom is from Naples and other family members came from Calabria. I don't know whether it's good publicity to mention this, but my Great Aunt Mae was Al Capone's sister. Mae was married to my mother's uncle. She was my godmother.

Did you ever meet Al Capone? No, he died before I was born.

But you learned the Capone family recipes? Yes. The lasagna and the eggplant and the sauces we make here -- those were all Mae's recipes. She and my grandmother on the Navarro side, Rose, they all knew each other and cooked together for our family functions. On Sundays, our family dinners could be 30 people.

My grandmother and my mom's aunt were like the stars of the kitchen. Those women were amazing. They'd do everything in a cast-iron skillet. They used to make their own sausage (we do that at the restaurant, too, for our "Melrose peppers").

How much of the cooking do you do? I'm in the kitchen every day. There's two young guys, Manny and Marco Soriano, doing the routine cooking -- they learned from my mother and myself. I'm back there expediting and creating the dishes.

How do you develop your new recipes? Call it an instinct. It's a combination of different things. I take basic Italian ingredients to start with. I watch the Food Channel a lot. Sometimes it's an offshoot; like our cipriani -- it's an offshoot of the vodka sauce. There's so many new things on the market nowadays today; when we created our "Brickhouse chicken" (butterflied chicken cooked under a brick, named to honor the late sportscaster Jack Brickhouse), I combined several different seasonings.

What do you like best about the restaurant business? Seeing the people being happy and satisfied. It's fun when people thank you for having a good time. They walk out feeling better. It's very gratifying.

You have to love it. If you're into it, 12 hours in a day is a short day, sometimes.

What do you do in your spare time? I like to play golf. You like to get out into the open when you're tied up in a restaurant all the time.

Tell us about this recipe. 200 East's Chicken Artichoke. That's a dish we created.

Try this at home or at 200 East Supper Club, 200 E. Chestnut St., Chicago. (312) 266-4500.

200 East's Chicken Artichoke

2 boneless chicken breast halves (4 ounces each)

Flour as needed

Cooking oil as needed

1 cup sliced fresh white-button mushrooms

1 cup diced fresh tomatoes

½ teaspoon finely chopped garlic or to taste

3 tablespoons brandy

¿ cup chicken stock

½ cup seasoned tomato sauce (marinara)

½ cup drained canned artichoke hearts

Salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley

¼ pound angel hair pasta

Heat oven to 500 degrees.

Lightly flour the chicken breast halves. Heat some cooking oil over medium-heat in an ovenproof frying pan, add the breasts and cook until the chicken reaches a nice light brown color on both sides. Remove and set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil.

Meanwhile, add the mushrooms, tomatoes and garlic to the frying pan and saute briefly. Add the brandy to the pan. Carefully set afire. After the flame dies down, add a little more flour to the pan and stir. This will thicken up the sauce. Stir in the chicken stock and tomato sauce, then the artichoke hearts and salt and pepper to taste.

Return the chicken breasts to the pan. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley for a little color. Place the pan into the preheated oven for about 4-6 minutes.

Cook the pasta al dente in the boiling water according to the package directions. Serve the chicken and sauce over the pasta.

Serves one to two.