An Evening at Cento

Just before I left for a recent trip to France I found myself alone and hungry in Madison. Having heard about a new Italian fine dining restaurant and wanting to pitch the idea of them having our cheese on their menu, I wandered into Cento.

I actually love dining alone, you never have to share and there’s no one there to judge you for having a second glass of wine (or third)! I decided to order a smorgasbord of dishes starting with simple olives (which went great with my martini), the olives were marinated in an olive oil from Italy infused with orange peel, garlic, rosemary, thyme and a hint of chili.

I then went on to taste burrata cheese and olio verde on rustic bread, basically a fancy term for the best open-face grilled cheese you’re ever going to find.

As I dove head first into my lamb entrée, Chef Micheal Pruett joined me at my table. He treated me to delicious chocolaty desserts. We ended up talking for an hour about our shared passion of local food and the problems our farmers face, I tell you one more glass of wine and I think we would have had all the issues resolved.

Then I went on my merry way into the cold Wisconsin evening to walk a few laps around the Capital to work off dinner.

After returning from France I realized that one doesn’t need to cross the Atlantic to find great food, just head down to Madison and see what Michael’s cooking up at Cento … and maybe you’ll even find some of our cheese on their menu!