About
Pat Pascarella
Your favorite chef,
Atlanta and beyond.
Chef / Owner – The Porchetta Group
My life
1984 – The day the whole world changed. I was born!
1989 – While playing a game of tag, I ate my first piece of pasta off the floor while my grandma was making it, and while it was one of the best times of my life, it was also the worse ‘cause I got smacked for eating it lol.
1992 – My first trip to Italy and when I realized I wanted to be a chef. I know you guys are probably saying to yourself, “Yeah, ok, at 8 is when you realized it?” Just shhh and listen. We were walking the street fair of Caserta and saw some cool meat hanging from a cart and they cut it up and tossed with some lemon and salt and I was in love. Best thing I ever tasted. Found out later that it was the cow’s mouth and feet and that made me love it more. This is also the year my cousin “Sous Pat” was born.
1994 – My sister was born, and I wasn’t KING of the house anymore (that sucked!)
1999 – Got a job at Bella Luna restaurant in Stamford, CT and started my restaurant life. I started off as a dishwasher and then a bus boy and then eventually a line cook. This is where I learned how to cook.
2002 – Graduated high school at WESTHILL HIGH in Stamford, CT (go Vikings) and was going to college to be an accountant because my parents wanted me to.
2002 (three weeks after I started college) – I dropped out of college and drove myself to NYC and applied at the French Culinary Institute and never looked back.
2003 – Attended French Culinary Institute and while in school I interned at various NYC restaurants (L’impero, Lupa, Babbo) and fell in love with pasta!
2004 – Accepted a line cook position at ESCA working for David Pasternak (the king of fish).
2005 – Moved to NYC and fell even more in love with the city. Now that I lived there, on my days off I’d stage at various NYC restaurants almost every day off I had.
2008 – Moved back to CT and accepted a position as head chef of two restaurants: The Saltwater Grille and g/r/a/n/d. I became a partner at The Saltwater Grille and when I left the restaurant closed.
2010 – Opened my first pizzeria, PIZZERIA ROSSO, in Norwalk, CT.
My grandfather (one of the men who raised me) passed away. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever dealt with.
Six month’s later, opened my second Pizzeria Rosso location in Bridgeport, CT.
2014 – Married the most amazing woman I could have ever met, my wife Megan.
2014 – My grandma (my world) passed away and it changed my life forever. She was an amazing woman and I owe a lot to her.
2012 – Both pizzerias closed.
2012 – Opened BAR SUGO. This is the restaurant that put us on the map. Within a few months we were on every list for Best Food, Best Pizza, Best Pasta, Best Chef, etc. etc.
2015 – Went to Italy to get reinvigorated with Italian cuisine and fell in love with Italy all over again. Visited Amalfi and found my love for simplicity and great ingredients.
2015 – My son Colin was born, one of my favorite humans. He is so smart and a huge pain sometimes lol.
2017 – Packed everything up and moved to Atlanta and sold my restaurant in CT. It was time to be in a big city again, and Atlanta was ripe for the picking when it came to Italian cuisine.
Worked for about a year for a local chef and then decided to leave.
2018 – The White Bull was born. A reference to what Ernest Hemingway named a blank piece of paper. In a way, that restaurant was my clean slate, my blank page. After a few months, we won Best New Restaurant in Atlanta and were on every list for Outstanding Everything lol.
2018 – Sophia, my baby girl, was born. A complete basket case of a girl, but still my baby girl.
2020 – COVID hits and we open GRANA–great timing, I know.
