Chef Shuffle at Poggio: Peter McNee Goes Solo, Jonathan Benno Protégé Balesteri To Replace Him

The Inside Scoop reports that the chef’s last day at will be next week Poggio, February 3. But there’s little chance that the Sausalito Italian, owned by Il Fornaio founder Larry Mindel, will fall into any malaise with McNee’s departure. His successor, Ben Balesteri, the current senior sous chef at Poggio, who left for a while to be the opening sous chef of Thomas Keller’s protégé Jonathan Benno’s modern Italian Lincoln in NYC, has been working side by side with McNee for the past year, which bodes well for a smooth transition and then some. We’re excited to see Balesteri puts his own stamp on the menu in the coming months. Note: the current tableside Bollito Misto cart promotion will continue as scheduled for the remainder of the winter.