May 16, 2017

Meet Marco Conte of Cafe Amano in Downtown Elmhurst

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marco Conte.

Marco, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My family always told me that I was almost born on the kitchen counter. My mother went into a very fast labor while she was waiting on tables at my grandparent’s restaurant called Rina’s Pizzeria in Detroit, Michigan. My very young years were spent in my grandmother’s arms while she would be stirring the pot of tomato sauce. To this day, I believe that was the reason for my love of good food. My favorite toys to play with were fresh tomatoes and herbs, cheeses, pasta and dough.

As a child, my grandparents would bring my brother and I to Ponza, Italy for the entire summer. This is where my grandparents began to shape my culinary style. The Island of Ponza is small and located in the Mediterranean Sea. My brother and I would go out to play on its shores and catch seafood. When we returned home my grandmother would teach me how to prepare it. During our summer trips, we would travel to different areas of Italy where I was amazed by the quality and tastes from the different regions. Returning home from Italy was always fun. My grandmother would pack her suitcase with Salami’s, Prosciutto’s and Cheeses…I remember the day they opened her suitcase and confiscated everything like it was yesterday. The wrath of an Italian grandmother is a fate I would not wish on anyone!

I was always excited to go to my Uncle Adriano’s hometown family farm in the northern Italian city of Cortina. My uncle was another influence to my style and technique of cooking. Everything cooked for dinner there was grown or raised on the farm. I think it’s where I realized the importance of serving fresh food…it all tasted so different and didn’t require a lot of seasoning. In my cooking, seasonings and herbs are used to enhance the flavors of food, not to cover them. My uncle always taught me that the ‘star’ of the plate is what you are selling, not the things around it…they just enhance.

At 12 years old, I began to help and work at my Aunt Rina and Uncle Adriano’s restaurant, Café Cortina in Farmington Hills, Michigan as a dishwasher. I then went onto cold salads and appetizers, followed by the prep station and hot line. I felt at home and comfortable in the kitchen. When a position opened as a bartender, I jumped at the chance and began to learn of the ingredients, herbs and styles of different liquors. I was barely old enough to drink and loved the prospect of combining the different flavors of food together with wines and liquors to enhance their taste profile. I was always lead by my uncle in the kitchen and my aunt in the dining room… two of the best teachers that anyone could ever dream of having. I left Cafe Cortina as general manager to pursue my dreams of opening my own restaurant. Cafe Cortina has just hit the milestone of 40 years in business and is one of the most highly acclaimed restaurants in the state of Michigan with numerous local and national awards. I am forever grateful for my time there.

Most of my training in the food industry was done on the job in my family’s restaurants. I attended a culinary arts program in Michigan for two years right out of high school. Schooling taught me all of the logistics, temperatures, proper sanitation and some service. But the most important part of my training came from my grandmother and uncle. They showed me the basics of preparing fine food and let me use my imagination to create something that reflected my style…they gave me the ingredients and let me run wild with it.

At 25, I opened Marco’s Restaurant in Downtown Farmington, Michigan. This restaurant was a stepping stone for what I believe shaped my career in cooking and restaurant management. After working very long hours and having no social life, I began to think…was this really a job that I wanted to do for the rest of my life? Then something amazing happened…the local media began writing about what I was capable of doing in a kitchen; awards for best Italian restaurant, most romantic and best desserts began to come in. I took a long hard look and realized that I did have a career creating and serving food. But I also had to figure out how to integrate my huge love of travel into my job. Marco’s was in business from 1989 to 2003.

In 2004, I moved to Elmhurst, Illinois to serve as the Chef at Café Amano. Café Amano originally opened as a Coffee / Wine / Dessert restaurant in the downtown area of Elmhurst. It was a new concept and people weren’t as trusting as we thought. Before opening, I traveled to Paris and then onto Montreal to get a feeling of what classic French style bistros were serving. I learned so much from both trips and figured out offerings I really liked as well as items I didn’t care for, and implemented the ideas into the creation of the original Café Amano. Being brought on as Chef during the conception stages enabled the Cafe to fine-tune its entrance into Elmhurst. As business went on, the investors behind the Cafe realized it wasn’t possible to sustain a restaurant in a very high rent neighborhood on desserts, coffee and wine alone. I began to add additional larger plates to the menu and was applauded for my efforts. We were featured on the weekly television series called 190 North and then named as one of the top ten restaurants in the western suburbs of Chicago. Our menu continued to grow. We added steaks, unique sea food, lamb and chicken dishes. My largest challenge was the size of our kitchen. The original restaurant was planned as a dessert bar but we were now a full-service restaurant with an 8’ x 12” kitchen consisting of one 6-burner stove, a convection oven and very little counter or prep space. The maximum number of cooks able to work in the kitchen was three with one dishwasher.

Approximately two years into Café Amano we began to cater parties outside of the restaurant at different venues, homes and businesses. I handled all of our outside catering personally and our clients quickly spread the word around that we could create personalized menus, provide exceptional service and dream up whatever atmosphere desired. Café Amano catering has been a large part of the Elmhurst community for many years.

In 2014, the lease was going to expire at our original location and the decision was made to move just one block north. The new location restaurant was a long-time goal of mine. The dining room was twice the size, the state of the art kitchen was four times the size and offered a very large bar area. Cafe Amano was only closed for one month for the move and opened on time. The new restaurant amazed our long-time patrons with its size and décor. I’ve always enjoyed a European style dining room with a comfortable and unstuffy atmosphere. Large Chandeliers, white linen, candlelit tables, fresh flowers and incredible food and service along with romance is what we offer our guests. We do not have any televisions in the restaurant or bar area…we want our patrons to engage in each other rather than watching TV over a shoulder.

Another strong belief of mine has always been to give back to the community that you do business in. In every community, there are people in need. We have donated our time and service to just about any charity organization in the area. We have never really donated cash but always food, service and experiences – the areas we excel at.

In 2015, Café Amano was named business of the year recipient by the A.J. “Toche” Terrones organization which is affiliated with the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce.

A lifelong goal of mine was to see as much of the world as possible and experience it like I lived there rather than a tourist. Mixing with the locals, figuring out what they love to eat and drink. Learning the ingredients and flavor profiles of foods from the people that make it is one of the most challenging and fascinating aspects of my life. Language barriers can be a challenge at times but food is always the international language. A few years ago, I was watching a Discovery Channel program about the building of the Burj al Arab Hotel in Dubai, it was slated to be the world’s only 7-star hotel. I traveled to Dubai and stayed at the hotel in 2014. The building, the history, the restaurants and the service all played a part in one of the greatest memories of my life. Walking into the hotel for the first time is a feeling no one could ever forget…you are treated like royalty every step of the way.

Visiting Egypt and the pyramids was another childhood dream. The feeling that comes over when you see the pyramids on the horizon is breathtaking and mind boggling. I had never been to an area of the world that was so plagued with political tension and uncertainty. The vast number of people, the poverty and the way of Egyptian life was another experience that will remain in my mind forever. I did have a different experience than most…everywhere that I went, the Egyptians thought that I was a professional boxer from the United States. I had a crowd of 50 people around me at all times asking for my autograph. To this day, I still don’t know who they thought I was. Another one of the most memorable parts of Egypt was hiring a driver…we ended up spending time with his friends for tea and back to his family home for dinner with his family. It was a real look into the lives of how people live in a completely different world from ours.

Travel is the vessel that created Café Amano and fine-tuned my different cooking styles. I have been given the freedom as Chef by the owners of Cafe Amano to transform our kitchen into an International fusion kitchen over the years. Our menu includes dishes from Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Asia and the Middle East. Most of our dishes are layered with flavor and have profiles that contain a minimum of three different tastes…a favorite flavor combination of mine is sweet, salty and spicy. The world revolves around good food and drink. I am honored and humbled to have had the opportunity in my lifetime to be able to ‘do’ what I love; to create and present incredible cuisine made from my heart for over 40 years.

Has it been a smooth road?
Being in business in Detroit and witnessing the automobile companies laying off thousands of workers. Being realistic and knowing that business in the suburbs of Detroit would very quickly deteriorate. Making the decision to leave my family, sell my home, business and move to another state.

Arriving to Chicago and opening a business with no knowledge of food purveyors, Chicago business practices and restaurant politics. One large restaurant supply company would not sell me food unless I paid cash for every order because they didn’t believe that a new business would survive in the Chicago market.

Another large challenge was the national housing / stock market crash in 2008. This was a time that many businesses closed, especially restaurants. The general public was afraid to spend money and everything suffered. In order to survive, I made changes to the menu and brought pricing down. I always made sure that my employees were paid and didn’t take a pay for quite a long time. When the economy began to take shape for the better, the restaurant came back bigger and stronger.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
My commitment to providing our guests with an incredible evening of food, drink and service. How each and every event that we do takes on the personality of the guest or guests of honor. My obsession for bringing foods from around the world to one place where my guests can enjoy it.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Chicago is an incredible city for restaurants and the service industry. The city is filled with people that love to try and experiment with unique a different foods. Chicago offers everything from the best hot dogs in the US to molecular gastronomy for the very daring. The food scene in Chicago is for one and all. I couldn’t think of a better area in the world to be in the restaurant business. My recommendation for any new chefs that are tossing around the idea of an opening a restaurant in Chicago is to be unique, search your mind to create dishes that challenge all of the taste sensations.

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