Cavagnaro Named to Connecticut Hospitality Hall of Fame

When he talks about food, it’s easy to see why Stephen Cavagnaro has been named to the Connecticut Hospitality Hall of Fame.

Even after a lifetime of hard work and long hours in the kitchen, the owner of restaurant in Manchester has not lost his passion for good food.

For this veteran chef, preparing a meal “is an attempt to make something wonderful.” He understands the “pleasure of the table” and the emotional power of a good meal. “Food and wine can transport you to someplace else... a moment, a celebration.”

“I love food… for myself,” he adds, but it is even better “when it is shared.” He speaks of his diners literally as guests to his home, even though they pay.

So it is little wonder that a restaurateur with such reverence for his craft has been identified by the 330-member Connecticut Restaurant Association as deserving of recognition for a lifetime of achievement.

Cavagnaro's is among three Connecticut eating establishments whose excellence and longevity have made them “institutions” in the state, said CRA Executive Director Nicole Griffin. Cavagnaro received his hall of fame award late last year along with the Caiazzo family of Frankie’s Hot Dogs in Waterbury and the Grelak family, longtime owners of the Hawthorne Inn in Berlin.

This latest recognition is especially meaningful, Griffin said, because it is bestowed by Cavagnaro’s peers in the business around the state. He was nominated by Richard Rosenthal, founder of the Max Restaurant Group. It is by no means Cavey’s only award, however. The eatery has been listed among the best restaurants in Connecticut by Zagat, and Cavagnaro was nominated last year for a James Beard Foundation “Best Chef in the Northeast” citation.

Not that he is especially impressed by such things. In a business where ratings are so “subjective,” he says, “success and failure are both imposters.” These days, he says, with customer loyalty largely a phenomenon of the past, “you are only as good as your last meal. You just hope to get it right.”

He also acknowledges that his wife, Kate, who helps run the restaurant through the years, has been “my anchor.”

Cavey’s is actually two restaurants – one Northern Italian, the other classic French – and Cavagnaro is executive chef of both. Thirty-five years ago, after a brief stint as a high school English teacher, he took over the Italian restaurant run by his father, and eventually added the more elegant French eatery that has won him such praise.

He had no formal culinary education, but was a keen student of food.

“When I’d find something in a restaurant I liked, I’d try to replicate it.” He continues to read and study both food and wine, but no longer does much cooking (“You’ve got to have younger legs,” he says). He spends a lot of time in the kitchen tasting everything and evaluating ingredients and recipes with his chefs.

Cavey's makes most everything -- including breads, pastas and cheeses -- from scratch.

 Years before it was widely popular (and in keeping with his Italian roots), Cavagnaro was big on using fresh, seasonal, high-quality ingredients obtained from local farms. Early in his career, he’d drive his pick-up truck to markets in New York and Boston where he could get products impossible to find in Connecticut.

He still spends a great deal of time searching area farms and food producers for the finest ingredients.

He also has a soft spot for wine, as his collection of 11,000 French labels might demonstrate.

“When I found a wine I liked, I bought it,” he says. “And I bought a lot of it sometimes.” He recalls getting into “terrible fights” with his father over the wisdom of such collection, and admits that his acquisition might not have been the smartest business move.

Cavagnaro’s affinity for Burgundy and Bordeux wines seemed smarter in 1991, however, when the TV news program 60 Minutes did a show about the French Paradox -- how the consumption of red wine by the French helps protect their cardiovascular systems from the harmful effects of a high-fat diet.

“That changed everything,” he said. “My huge investment began to pay off.”