Join Mario for hands-on cooking lessons in the open kitchen at Mario i sentieri, where Mario guides a small class (only nine students) through the preparation of a four-course meal (appetizer, pasta, main dish and dessert) using seasonal ingredients.

After the meal, everyone sits down together to eat the delicious food the group has prepared, and to drink three kinds of wine! Attendance is limited to nine students, and the cost is only ¥10,000, so phone 03-6418-7072 today to book your place!. Classes run from 12:00-3:30 p.m. and next month will be held on February 6th and 20th.

Hi everyone!

A new year and a new decade is more than enough reason to create a new menu, don't you think?

There are lots of goodies on the new menu, and we've kept a few of the old favorites (pistachio gnocchi, anyone?). See the new menu here and if you bring the above "change" poster in before February 10, Mario will pour you and your companions a free glass of spumante to start off your meal!

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Mario and the team

Coming later this month is change you can believe in. It's a new year and a new decade and time for a new menu. If you've got any favorite dishes you want to taste one more time, come on in soon (and lobby Mario to keep it on the menu, if you really love it!). Keep an eye on our blog for the announcement.

In December, Mario was a guest chef at Isetan, in Shinjuku, preparing a special menu in the two weeks prior to Christmas Day. The special menu included a choice of cartoccio with sea bream, field mustard and olives or pork and white bean cassula. Also offered were a dessert set featuring orange rum-flavored panettone and a pasta set feauturing tagliatelle with scampi, porcini and mascarpone cheese in cream sauce. 

Isetan in December can get pretty crazy, and Mario's 'pit stop' was busy refueling the power shoppers!

Mario i sentieri will be closed from Wednesday, December 30 through Monday, January 4. 

See you in January!

The holidays provide a chance to get out of the city, to visit friends ... and to find fresh vegetables at the source! 

These days, everyone wants to be "green", to use more and waste less. Grappa, the distilled liqueur Italians drink after meals to aid digestion, is the greenest drink, we think, because it is made from pomace, the grape seeds, stalks and stems that are normally discarded during the winemaking process. Grappa has been around since the Middle Ages, and has until recently been a working man's drink, good for warming you up on a cold day but not, if the truth be known, particularly tasty.

That changed in December 1973, when a lady named Giannola Nonino started making grappa from the pomace of a single grape, rather than a combination of all the winery's leftovers. Giannola also started bottling grappa in beautiful bottles (you can see some at the restaurant the next time you come in), in an effort to convince Italians that it was possible for grappa to taste good and that it was not "just" a working man's (and woman's) drink. 

Today there are many fine grappas, and there is no better time to drink it than on a cold winter's night, after a delicious meal. You can also have it in your coffee, a drink Italians call a Café Corretto, or "corrected" coffee. The next time you come in, ask about our grappas, and try one!

Think green! 

Italians don't need an excuse to eat good food, but Christmas gives us a chance to eat even more good food than usual. In the weeks before Christmas, as people stock up on the things they'll need to prepare delicious holiday meals, in the shops (including some here in Tokyo) you can see small mountains of panettone, a light and airy cake made with raisins, nuts and candied fruit. 

One story goes that panettone is named for the daughter of a baker from Milano, and that the original name was pan di Toni (the young lady's name was Toni, and she lived during the 15th century) ... but we don't really know.

What we do know is that if we're not careful, we can eat lots of panettone, and be forced to live like monks for several weeks after Christmas in order to continue to fit into our clothes! Buon Natale!

On Sunday, December 2nd, Mario i sentieri was pleased to host The eigoTown Dining Club's "Chef's Round Table". eigoTown's Thane Camus led a discussion with Mario, who also cooked a four course meal featuring a carpaccio of scallops, penne with seafood ragu, roasted pork with polenta and mushrooms, and our famous tiramisu. It was a great evening, and Mario noted it was the first "Chef's Round Table" he'd ever attended in English!