Beginning next month, Chef Todd Villani is returning to Bergen County as Executive Chef at Vesta Wood Fired in East Rutherford.

Probably best known for his now shuttered farm-to-table restaurant Terre a Terre in Carlstadt — named one of New Jersey Monthly’s Top 20 New Restaurants in 2015 (View List) and 30 Best Meals by the Star Ledger’s Inside Jersey magazine the same year — will begin with the spring menu launch in May for Vesta (View Current Menu), which focuses on Italian and contemporary American dishes created with local and seasonal ingredients.

Villani is aiming to “expand and elevate its menu further” to include many of his “signature dishes”, prepared using their wood-fired hearth. This matches the restaurant’s recent move towards a wood-fired concept, rather than just a wood-fired pizzeria — Vesta has frequently been named among the best pizza in the state, topping the NJ.com Pizza Power Rankings in 2016 (View Rankings) and runner-up for best pizza in Bergen County earlier this year (View List).

“This is really a fantastic opportunity for me to experiment with new flavors that only a wood-fired hearth or grille can give you,” said Chef Villani. “We can marry seasonal ingredients with the wood-fired heat and flavor to create distinctive flavors. We intend to bring this romantic, rustic method of cooking to ordinary dishes and combine them with my fine dining technique to create a special experience. I’m looking forward to charring, smoking, even burning some of our dishes to bring out new flavors.”

Vesta
64 Hoboken Road
East Rutherford, NJ
Website

[photo source: Vesta]