If not for a sobering ‘ah ha’ moment in a hospital ward, Vancouver’s highly decorated chef Pino Posteraro would have been fixing hearts instead of fixing up his signature, award-winning dishes.

“While I was studying to become a doctor, I worked summers in a restaurant,” explains Posteraro. “And every time people left the restaurant, they were smiling, because they were satisfied. When I was doing dialysis with patients, on the other hand, I saw how unhappy they were, and it was hard to watch them suffer. That’s when I realized that there was nothing more rewarding or energizing than working in [foodservice].”

This realization led him to Canada to work in his brother’s restaurant, and then on a world tour to hone his craft at a number of well-known restaurants in Europe and Singapore. In 1999, Posteraro decided to branch out on his own, opening Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill in Vancouver’s trendy Yaletown, and a year later opening Enoteca, Cioppino’s wine library next door. In 2007, Posteraro won the prestigious Gold Medal Plate for Vancouver.

Voted Vancouver Magazine’s Best Formal Italian Restaurant nine years running, Posteraro obviously has Italian cuisine down pat, which is why he gets frustrated by the way Italian dishes are often presented in North American restaurants. 

“There are so many misconceptions,” he says.  “A huge one is dividing the cuisine into North and South. There are 21 different authentic regional cuisines in Italy! And each region does things differently, so that division is way too reductive. It’s like watching the Sopranos and saying that all Italians eat with spoons.”

What makes something a truly authentic Italian dish? Here are a few key things: