Posts Tagged ‘fine dining’

Did you know that a true “foodie” is someone who loves gourmet cuisine, great food, and enjoys a fine appreciation of spirits? Foodies love fine dining and are always seeking new fare and epicurean experiences as both a diversion and a wonderful pastime. If anyone in the Triangle is a true Italian foodie, and has not visited Mia Francesca Trattoria of Mid-town Raleigh at North Hills yet, these passionate food lovers just have to head to North Hills and find out what they have been missing. Italian foodies always make an adventure out of finding the best Italian social drinking and eating experiences.

In fact, let’s define inexactly and just for fun what the Triangle Italian foodie is by definition:

• Has visited Italy (or has lived there) and knows its wonderful food, history, and culture
• Has toured vineyards and are fine connoisseurs of wine, beer and spirits
• Has enjoyed fine Italian restaurants like Mia Francesca Trattoria
• Has watched the Food Network to learn from Italian chefs like Mario Batali and Giada De Laurentiis
• Has learned to cook new Italian recipes for its simple pleasure

Mia Francesca Trattoria offers only the finest of Northern Italian dining experiences for all of our guests. We are the best authentic Italian restaurant in the Triangle!

Our classic Tuscan-Italian “foodie” menu includes:

• Delicious pizza: We have several varieties of Italian pizza to choose from or you can custom order your pizza to come with toppings like: Sausage, Olives, Mushrooms, Artichoke, Spinach, Meatballs, Onion, Broccoli, Gorgonzola, Mozzarella, Swiss, Fontina, and Roasted Peppers
• Tender pasta: Penne, Fettuccine, Spaghetti, Linguini, and more and served Italian style with Meatballs, Chicken, or Lobster

Be sure to check out our long and selective Wine List for our fine Italian wines, including our Pinot Grigio. This is Italy’s most popular white wine and it hails from the northeast region of Veneto and Friuli. Complete your divine meal with one of our authentic Italian desserts like our Tiramisu (Espresso and kahlua soaked ladyfingers with lightly sweetened mascarpone cream and cocoa powder).

Italian foodies unite at Mia Francesca Trattoria! It is all about the food and the good times!

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Please check out the video demonstration of our IRON CHEF Zach’s making traditional Italian Biscotti! 

Check out all of our Italian Food recipes!

Visit us here at http://miafrancescaraleigh.com

Lunch Menu | Dinner Menu | Dessert Menu | Gluten Free Menu | Brunch menu | Weekly Restaurant Specials | Wine List

Mia Francesca Trattoria

4100 Main at North Hills Street

Raleigh, NC 27609

Phone: (919) 278-1525

Everyone in the Triangle knows that there are a wide variety of kid-friendly places here in Raleigh area. Each restaurant typically offers quick food, tokens, crayons, and a fast experience. Here in North Hills, we want each family member dining with us to enjoy great Northern Italian food, great service and a simple family focus that welcomes children at every table. We know that each and every day, the main ingredient at Mia Francesca in North Hills is always you!

Children who dine with us love our awesome choices on the Kid’s Menu, which features our authentic Italian pasta, our “made from scratch” pizza, and our deliciously tender chicken.

If the kids like savory pasta and what youngster does not, Mia Francesca prepares it one of three tasty ways; and it’s always their choice. They just pick a wonderful flavor like rich butter, homemade tomato sauce, or subtle cream sauce and then sit back, twirl the fork and love it. If they are in the mood for pizza, each child can have a special and unique pie with cheese, mushrooms, or sausage.  Our moist and delicious chicken is always a huge favorite and comes with the choice of either fries or broccoli. Every kid’s meal arrives at tableside with the choice of a soft drink, milk, or juice.

Finally every child finishes their meal with a free scoop of gelato.  Gelato, as many know, is the Italian word for “ice cream”.  We offer special varieties of this wonderful treat made in authentic Mia Francesca style; very unique and traditionally Italian. Our gelato consists of milk, cream, various sugars, and flavoring usually blended with our fresh fruit and nut purees.

It is kid trivia time! The Florentine cook, Bernardo Buontalenti, is said to have invented modern ice cream in 1565, as he presented his recipe and his innovative refrigerating techniques to Catherine de’ Medici, an Italian Duchess who then introduced it to France after she married the French King, Henry II. Soon the news and tastes of gelato spread to the rest of Europe.

It is very interesting to note that the popularity of gelato increased in the 1920’s and 1930’s in the northern Italian city of Varese, where the very first gelato cart was pushed down cobble stone streets.  The popularity of Mia Francesca’s version of the famous gelato in Raleigh is amazing!  Come see and then taste first-hand why every youngster loves dining at our always kid-friendly Northern Italian restaurant, Mia Francesca Trattoria.

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Get ready for the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day and make your reservations early for good times at Mia Francesca in Midtown Raleigh. The season of fun has just begun!

Please check out the video demonstration of our IRON CHEF Zach’s making traditional Italian Biscotti! 

Check out all of our Italian Food recipes!

Visit us here at http://miafrancescaraleigh.com

Lunch Menu | Dinner Menu | Dessert Menu | Gluten Free Menu | Brunch menu | Weekly Restaurant Specials | Wine List

Chef Zach preparing his Rabbit dish. The rabbit was raised and provided by Walk Ahead Farms from Youngsville, NC

If you have ever watched the television show Iron Chef, you know that two chefs battle it out by cooking with the same required ingredient for all three different courses.  Well, The North Hills Farmers Market had it’s own Iron Chef competition in Midtown Raleigh on Saturday September 28.

Mia Francesca Trattoria, one of the five Raleigh area North Hills restaurants, competed.  The required announced ingredients (announced at 9 a.m.) were rabbit and green beans. The rabbit was provided by North Carolina farm – Walk Ahead Farms – who offers fresh eggs, pasture raised meats, seasonal produce, herbs, and cut flower arrangements to the Raleigh area. Using fifty dollars worth of “Midtown Farmers Market bucks,” the four chefs purchased their fare; in a timed one hour period, all five chefs prepared two dishes containing the required ingredients.

Mia Francesca Trattoria Executive Chef Zachary VanGaasbeek was reportedly being very “mysterious” in his preparation. He wanted to truly surprise the judges. The competition had an official panel of five culinary adjudicators who (in addition to tasting it for themselves) took into consideration twenty-five very lucky market patrons who each tasted the second dish and gave their opinions. Who said this was easy?    

The Judges:

• Fred Thompson, Publisher and Food Writer for Edible Piedmont Magazine
• Kathy Hanrahan, Editor of WRAL Out and About
• Liza Roberts, Editor and Chief of Walter Magazine
• Tara Robbins, Director of Midtown Raleigh Alliance
• Travis Appt, Creative Director for Midtown Magazine

The Competitors:

• Mia Francesca Trattoria, Executive Chef, Zachary VanGaasbeek
• Coquette Brasserie, Executive Chef, Beth Littlejohn
• The CowFish, Head Chef, Ryan Stewart
• Flights at the Renaissance, Executive Sous Chef, Anthony Zinani
• The Q-Shack, Head Chef, Rodney Lloyd 

Chef Zach used the green beans to prepare a mixed green, fig, grilled eggplant, squash salad with Fig Vinaigrette. For the Rabbit he used local stone ground grits, sauteed swiss chard, tatsoi with hot chilies, and the pan grilled rabbit with a muscadine gastique.

Chef Zach won the competition for the Best Overall Dish. The crowd-pleasing entree was plated Grilled Rabbit over Grits.  Even if you missed this year’s Iron Chef Competition, you can always enjoy fine dining in our authentic Italian restaurant or take advantage of our private catering services.  Make sure you save room for our out-of-this-world desserts!

About Iron Chef Zach VanGaasbeek

Chef Zach VanGaasbeek first discovered a desire for cooking at the young age of 14 while a dishwasher at a local restaurant in his home town of Kingston, N.Y.  A natural curiosity to understand flavour profiles and the chemistry of food, would soon fuel a desire for a career in culinary arts.

Chef Zach attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. and graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Hospitality management and associates in culinary arts.

After graduation he spent two years in the gulf coast of Florida working for a locally owned restaurant group Culinary Concepts.

He then moved on to Sonoma county, California, where he worked with private country clubs that focused exclusively on local California wines and “farm to fork” produce.  It was here garnered an affinity and respect for seasonality, terroir, and the use of micro-local ingredients.

Now in Raleigh, at Mia Francesca’s Trattoria in North Hills, an authentic Italian restaurant – part of Francesca’s Restaurant Group – Chef Zach showcases that early love affair of local fresh food with the wonderful rustic foods of Northern Italy & Tuscany.

Drop by for lunch or dinner and enjoy the best that the Iron Chef Champion can offer at Mia Francesca!

**Make Mia Francesca in North Hills a part of your weekend memories, your Autumn gatherings, and your business meetings and networking events. Show us off to your favorite out-of-town guests and business associates by letting them experience the “Best in the Triangle” Northern Italian cuisine right here in North Hills, the heart of Raleigh’s Midtown.

If you like recipes, you should check out the video demonstration of our Executive Chef Zach’s making traditional Italian Biscotti! 

Check out all of our Italian Food recipes!

Visit us here at http://miafrancescaraleigh.com

Lunch Menu | Dinner Menu | Dessert Menu | Gluten Free Menu | Brunch menu | Weekly Restaurant Specials | Wine List

Mia Francesca Trattoria

4100 Main at North Hills Street

Raleigh, NC 27609

Phone: (919) 278-1525