Chef’s Lab at Refettorio Harlem
39 w 119th Street | New York, NY 10026 I Inside the Emanuel AME Church
CHEFS LAB x A NIGHT ON THE NORTH SHORE
Free Food at Refettorio Harlem welcomes Chef Fabrizio Facchini of Stellina Ristorante and Cardinale Bakeries and Market, Oyster Bay, Long Island, for one night in Harlem.
OCTOBER 19
6:30PM to 9:00PM DINNER (6:00PM VIP RECEPTION)
About the Evening
The best party in NYC is back with our Fall edition. This is someone that is very well known in Chef circles who’s empire of slow food stretches from Long Island to Manhattan.
We bring the sights, sounds and flavors of the North Shore to the Chef’s Lab for this multi-course dinner experience featuring Chef Fabrizio Facchini. Expect the food he puts in front of his own community at 40 seat Stellina Ristorante: handmade pasta, rustic recipes from the hearth, and the same care he brings to his legendary forty-seat restaurant in Oyster Bay.
Fabrizio Facchini has been cooking Italian food for twenty-five years, from the traditions of Umbria to Michelin-starred kitchens in Italy's capitals. He's been listed in the Michelin Italy Guide every year since 2012, and he's a named Ambasciatore del Gusto — an ambassador of Italian cuisine abroad, and is the official chef of the Italian Consulate.
In 2022 he opened Stellina Ristorante on South Street in Oyster Bay with his wife Samira — forty seats, a wood-fired oven, and a menu that changes with the market. Pasta gets rolled every morning. Sauces simmer all afternoon. The name means "little star," a nod to Adriana's family restaurant, Stella Ristorante, that's stood in Floral Park since 1960.
The Chef's Lab is an opportunity to showcase the mission and raise support for Free Food at Refettorio Harlem's three-course dinners with dignity program — currently serving 900 meals weekly across three programs — Wednesday and Friday community dinners, Thursday Night’s Family Dinner, and a Tuesday Farmers Market Style Pantry and Lunch — addressing food insecurity, food waste, and especially social isolation. Every week, our kitchen recovers surplus ingredients from farmers, distributors, and food producers who practice sustainable, responsible agriculture — and transforms them into three-course meals served free to the Harlem community. Since 2023, the program has recovered over 225,000 lbs of food from entering the waste stream. The program also runs a culinary training initiative for justice-impacted individuals, providing professional kitchen skills towards meaningful employment in the food industry.
Free Food at Refettorio Harlem was recently featured in the New York Times and presented on the floor of the United States House by Rep. Jim McGovern.
Collaborators
Fabrizio Facchini- Fabrizio Facchini, with his wife Samira, has run the boutique hotel and restaurant Antico Borgo in Arcevia, Le Marche since 2009, and has been recognized in the Michelin Italy Guide since 2012. After relocating to the US — first San Diego, then New York since 2017 — he's built and opened multiple restaurant concepts including Clandestino & Facchini's (San Diego), Taverna Novo (Saratoga Springs), Cotto at the Renaissance Hotel Chelsea, Stellina Ristorante (Oyster Bay), and Cardinali Bakery/Italian Markets (Oyster Bay & Syosset), and was honored by the Italian American Chamber of Commerce in New York for bringing authentic Italian cuisine to the US.
Fabrizio cooked at the James Beard House in 2018, curated the Italian Kitchen at Slow Food Nations 2019 alongside chefs like Alice Waters and Antonio Starita, and cooked at Slow Food Nations 2018's Zero Waste Family Meal with Massimo Bottura — reflecting his deep Slow Food ties as Co-Chair of Cooks Alliance Slow Food USA and President of Cooks Alliance Slow Food New York State. He's a Brand Ambassador for Urbani Truffles and Pasta Di Martino, was honored by Italy's Minister of Agriculture in 2023, and — most notably — founded the nonprofit Italians Feed America during COVID, which has served hundreds of thousands of meals to Americans and frontline workers with a board that includes Rocco DiSpirito and Cesare Casella..
Supporting Partners
Need to know
Donation ticket is final and non-refundable
Event is wheelchair accessible
Allergens and General Questions to Refettorio team hello@refettorioharlem.org
Location
39 119th Street, New York, NY 10026 (inside Emanuel A.M.E Church )