Pizza Making Class with Chef Patrick Curran + Lunch at Casolare
All alumni and their guests are welcome to attend this fun class. We will be making personal pizzas and garden salad and then eat our own creations. Casolare is a neighborhood restaurant in Upper Georgetown serving Italian favorites with fresh seasonal and local ingredents.
Registration
Harvard Club members and their guests: $35/person
Non-members: $45/person
Ticket includes pizza making class, lunch, and valet parking. Drinks are not included and need to be purchased on an individual basis.
About Patrick Curran (Executive Chef, Casolare Ristorante + Bar)
“Italian cuisine is such a rich and passionate food culture — my job is to honor the traditions while trying to still be inventive,” says Chef Patrick Curran, who brings to Casolare his passion for well-prepared, seasonal comfort food designed to make guests feel like family.
Innovating on tradition just happens to be Curran’s specialty. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, he spent seven years doing just that at the venerable Momofuku Group, working his way up from Line Cook to Sous Chef and Chef de Cuisine at Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York (where he debuted the eatery’s now-famous vegetarian hozon ramen), before helming the kitchen as Executive Chef at Momofuku CCDC in Washington. Always up for a challenge, Curran decided to switch gears and try his hand at Mexican cuisine, joining Espita Mezcaleria as Executive Sous Chef in July 2017.
A key theme that Curran attributes to his career success is collaboration. “Every dish that I have ever 'come up with' has always been made infinitely better by working on it with other chefs and incorporating feedback,” says Curran. This approach is also what garnered him recognition as an Eater “Young Gun” in 2016. Schlow Restaurant Group’s Executive Pastry Chef, Alex Levin, who nominated Curran for the honor wrote: “He represents a new breed of chefs that are emerging in the world: He is free of negativity, he operates a tough kitchen with a smile on his face and warm heart full of kindness.”
Prior to joining Momofuku, the Rochester, NY native honed his skills at Oak Hill Country Club — where the then high school student fell in love with the pace and energy of working in a kitchen and decided to pursue a culinary career. He then spent time cooking at the Ritz Carlton in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.
“Most of my early food memories are of my mom making dinner and eating together as a family,” says Curran. “I was very lucky to grow up in a house where there was such an importance placed on sitting down and eating together.” Today, the chef continues that tradition by spending sunny days off grilling outside with friends and family, who say he’s notorious for making “way too much” and providing leftovers for the week ahead.