The Rural We: Francesco Buitoni

Mercato Osteria Enoteca in Red Hook, New York is undeniably in league with any of the best restaurants in the Hudson Valley. Mercato’s founder and chef Francesco Buitoni cooks with a soulful dedication to the classic Italian flavors he grew up with outside Rome, using only the best ingredients whether they’re the greens from down the road at Sky Farm or the olive oil imported from the family farm back in Italy. Buitoni broke some news to RI today, letting it slip that he and his wife are in the process of opening a second, casual restaurant in nearby Tivoli in the coming months.

I grew up in Rome. I was born in New York but I moved back when I was five. My whole family still lives in Italy. As a kid, I spent my summers here. I was always cooking, I’ve always liked the energy of the kitchen. I came back here full time for college but it wasn’t my thing. It took me nine years to graduate. I just wanted to cook.

Even with a restaurant and three kids I still love to cook at home for my friends and my family. It allows me to nurture them and I get a lot back from cooking for people. It’s a lifestyle. I never planned to open a restaurant. It just sort of happened because I loved food, I was cooking in great restaurants and one thing led to the next.

We are looking to open a new space in Tivoli, in the fall. It’s going to be exciting. A restaurant with a prepared foods part and a little market — like a very Italian-style place of nourishment. You can come and eat or get something for dinner.

I worked in restaurants in the city, I sold wine in the city and I said okay, I really want to get out. I always wanted to be in the country. My grandmother had a farm outside of Rome, where I spent a lot of time (we still get our olive oil from there). It was natural for me to find a place like the Hudson Valley where you’re close to a metropolitan area but you’re in a natural setting.That’s key for me and the way I cook. I first moved to Tivoli to work at a restaurant called Stony Creek.

We are so close with the farms. Even though it’s a short season, it’s exciting. I go down to Montgomery Place every day and today it’s eggplant, tomorrow it’s something else. It happens so fast it’s almost scary. I’m like, "I can't use everything! I want to make everything!" It all looks so good.

Whatever I do in the restaurant, it’s always very natural, it’s just the way I grew up eating. It’s not this buzzword “farm to table,” it’s a lifestyle — you enjoy it or you don’t.

The beautiful thing about my menu is I can change it every day. If something new comes in, I can just print new menus. We are not dictated by a menu, we are dictated by what’s good and what’s fresh in the markets, which I think makes for better cooking. We don’t even have a walk-in refrigerator.

I just get really excited about the seasons. When I get the local mesclun, the local arugula — nothing is like that connection you get between where you are in the community and the farmer you’re helping support. You get a box of greens that will last you ten days. The freshness! There’s nothing like the feeling when I go down to the farm and get squash and they’re still warm from the sun.