Chef Biba Caggiano

 

Biba has eight best-selling cookbooks, her latest book is in Food & Wines “Best of the Best”.  She has hosted 100 episodes of her cooking show Biba's Italian Kitchen, on the TLC and Discovery Channel. Biba currently has a weekly segment which airs on the KCRA News at Noon.  Food Network Canada will air a new series “At the Table With” in the fall of 2007 which will include an episode on Biba.  She is also a contributor to Italian Cooking & Living, Taste of Italia and Fine Cooking Magazine.

In 1986, Biba opened BIBA Restaurant and has received glowing reviews from publications including Gourmet Magazine, Travel and Leisure, Conde' Nast Travelers and the Wine Spectator. Named as Best Restaurant in Sacramento and voted “Best of the Best” by Sacramento Magazine readers for the past several years. BIBA is also a DIRONA Award recipient.


In 1998 Biba was chosen as one of the six national recipients of the prestigious Robert Mondavi Culinary Award of Excellence. In 1999, The Governor of California and the California Travel Industry selected her as Northern California Chef of the Year. In 2000, she received Sacramento Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business Award.  In 2004 Biba was an honoree at WIND Youth Services 10th Anniversary Sacramento Stars Gala.  In 2005 she participated as the national spokesperson for the “Strength of Living” program sponsored by Ortho Biotech Products, L.P. and PROCRIT.  Biba is the Honorary Chair of “The Fairytale Town After Hours” event sponsored by the Sacramento Area Emergency Housing Center.  In 2006 both the Senate of the State of California and the California Legislature Assembly presented Biba Restaurant with Resolutions celebrating the 20th anniversary of Biba Restaurant.

Biba lives in Sacramento, California with her husband. She has two married daughters and four grandchildren. She can be found daily at her well known restaurant.

Biba Caggiano was born and raised in Bologna, Italy.  In 1960 she moved to New York, with her American-born husband, Vincent.  During those first years of living in New York City, she made an effort to recreate the everyday meals that her mother used to make, striving to make food an integral part of her new family life.

In 1969, the family moved to Sacramento, California. After a couple of years of making simple and elaborate meals for family and friends, she was asked to teach a series of cooking classes at a newly opened cooking school in Sacramento. Over the last 35 years, her teaching career has taken her with numerous study tours throughout various Italian regions.

Q:  What is your dearest pasta memory? 
A:  My mother rolling out a large sheet of golden pasta with a long rolling pin, then she would loosely roll up the sheet and cut it into tagliatelle or tagliolini.

Q:  What pasta cut do you prefer cooking with? 
A: Tagliatelle, because it takes me back to my childhood.

Q:  What do you think is the best thing about cooking with pasta?  
A:  Its immediacy, and the feeling of well being I have after I eat a bowl of fragrant pasta.

Q:  Of all the pasta dishes you cook, which one do think people enjoy the most? 
A:  The one I just cooked and brought to the table.

Q:  What is your all-time favorite pasta dish? 
A:  Tagliatelle or pappardelle with a classic Ragu alla Bolognese.

Q:  What do you think it is about pasta that makes people like it so much? 
A:  Because it is straightforward comfort food at it’s best.

Q:  Do you have any tips for enjoying pasta more at home?  
A:  I love to pair pasta with vegetables or with ingredients that I keep in my pantry.  Tuna, capers, olives, anchovies, olive oil, canned tomatoes and, of course dried pasta.  With these ingredients at hand, you’ll never go hungry.

Q:  What do you think are the qualities of a good brand of pasta? 
A:  A good pasta should have a nice texture, a rich color and a subtle flavor and, when cooked correctly should not go limp.

Q:  What’s your “pasta philosophy”?  
A:  My philosophy?  I only know that pasta makes me (and my family) very, very happy.

Q:  Imagine you've been banished to a deserted island and can only bring one kind of pasta.  Which cut would you take with you and why? 
A:  Probably Penne because they are not as delicate as string pasta and interact with most sauces very well.

Chef Biba Caggiano's recipe:

Penne with Lobster and Fried Zucchini