When Andrea Bocelli calls …

 

By SCOTT BEWICK

Times-Herald Newspapers

What do you do when you get a call from one of the world’s most famous tenors on a Sunday morning? If you’re Patrick Rugiero, co-owner and executive director of Roman Village Restaurant Group, you drop everything and make brunch for everyone in the entourage and deliver it personally to their penthouse atop the MGM Grand.

Rugiero faced that situation when he received a call from Veronica Bocelli, wife of tenor Andrea Bocelli, who was in Detroit on the last stop of his North American tour. The concert was that evening at Little Caesars Arena, and Roman Village was precisely what the Bocellis and extended family wanted.

“So I get a call Sunday morning from Veronica Bocelli, Andrea Bocelli’s wife, asking me if I could make brunch for the family which I immediately said yes to,” Rugiero said. “I shot down to Roman Village at 9 a.m. and began preparing the feast for them.”

Made to order, it turns out.

“Andrea requested minestrone soup with no pasta in the soup to stay light for the show, and a nice light Parmesan cheese and butter risotto,” Rugiero said. “Andrea said it was the best minestrone soup he’d had the entire North American tour.

“Their daughter, Virginia, wanted our good homemade meatballs and actually ate four of them during lunch.”

 

Virginia Bocelli, who recently turned 12, was part of the concert, singing “You Raise Me Up” solo, and then a duet with her father of their recent release “Dare To Be” from the motion picture “Cabrini.” “That stole the show,” Rugiero said.

“I brought the spaghetti carbonara along with some linguine for Sara (Formicola),” the Bocellis’ assistant, Rugiero said, and a Chicken and Cheese Calzone for Veronica Bocelli.

Spaghetti Carbonara Alla Bocelli is a dish Andrea Bocelli personally prepared in the Roman Village Kitchen and is on the menu at all their restaurants.

“And even though there was about 12 people there in total in the penthouse suite at the MGM, I brought food for over 20 people,” Rugiero said. “They had so much food left over that they actually brought most of it on the jet for the flight home back to Italy later that evening.”

The Bocellis invited Rugiero and his two children, Isabella and Patrizio, to the concert, sitting them in the front row.

“They also asked us to come backstage during the intermission to say hello and thank us once more for the great food and hospitality here in Detroit,” Rugiero said.

“It was a real honor and privilege to cook for Andrea, Veronica, Virginia and the entire Bocelli extended family.”