Feeling Superstitious

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Feeling Superstitious

... which is not a bad thing when you're the owner and chef of one = of=20 Vancouver's top restaurants

Mia Stainsby, Vancouver Sun

Published: Wednesday, = October 17,=20 2007

Is lobster linguine the secret behind Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo's = amazing=20 saves?

It's the meal the hockey star regularly eats prior to home games and = the chef=20 who prepares it for him is Pino Posterero, of Cioppino's Mediterranean=20 Grill.

"If he doesn't come in to the restaurant, then he does takeout," says = Posterero, owner/chef of Vancouver's finest Italian-Mediterranean = restaurant. In=20 fact, when I phone him, it's game day and Luongo had come in to pick up = his=20 linguine and stayed for a private lunch with five teammates (Cioppino's = isn't=20 currently open for lunch). Since they had lost the last game, Posterero = sat them=20 at a different table.

Pino Posterero of Cioppino's

Mark van Manen/Vancouver Sun Files

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Italians are a superstitious people, he says, and although he won't = say the=20 lobster linguini is Luongo's good-luck meal, he does note that "it's a = certain=20 ritual."

Posterero has a few rituals himself. For instance, today is not Oct. = 17. It's=20 Oct. 16 plus 1. He's banned the number 17 from his restaurant. Staff = know better=20 than to utter that number, and there's no Table 17 in his restaurant. = "The Roman=20 numeral anagram is the Latin word for death," he explains.

If he sees a black cat, he steers around it, and he's even adopted = Asian=20 beliefs -- he's partial to the number eight (good luck in Asia) and he = won't=20 seat Asians at Table 4 (bad luck). He delights in the fact his first = child was=20 born on the eighth day of the eighth month. And the address of his = restaurant,=20 1133 Hamilton, is very very lucky, he says. "They are multiples of each = other=20 and that's very, very good," he says, adding that another star = restaurant in=20 Vancouver, Tojo's, is at 1133 West Broadway.

Who can argue? By all accounts, he's in the good-luck club. There's = an=20 extended family he loves, a majorly successful restaurant, and a passion = for=20 cooking which bloomed into a restaurant with loyal name drop-able = fans.

And now, he's celebrating his first cookbook, Cioppino's = Mediterranean Grill.=20 Nine years ago, when he approached the publisher to do a cookbook, he = wasn't=20 enough of a "somebody." But two years ago, it was the publisher who = approached=20 him.

And it's a beauty of a cookbook. Keep a hand towel nearby because the = photos=20 by John Sherlock will have you drooling like a St. Bernard. There are = 100=20 recipes and 100 photos, a lot more than most cookbooks. Posterero = insisted on=20 photos with every recipe and agreed to pay for half the cost of the = extra=20 photos. The book includes the lobster linguine recipe and other dishes = he's=20 served in the restaurant. Of course, there's the namesake cioppino with = a spicy=20 bouillabaisse broth.

This isn't a beginner cookbook. For dishes to taste as good as they = do at his=20 restaurant, there are a lot of stages that blend seamlessly into a dish. = There=20 are recipes within recipes. I'd love to have printed Luongo's favourite = lobster=20 linguine recipe, but you'd first have to make a fish fume which goes = into a=20 lobster broth (brandy and wine are part of the broth); you also need to = make a=20 tomato sauce and a court bouillon in which to cook two live Nova Scotia=20 lobsters. Still want to tackle it? I didn't think so.

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Feeling Superstitious

... which is not a bad thing when you're the owner and chef of one = of=20 Vancouver's top restaurants

Mia Stainsby, Vancouver Sun

Pino Posterero of Cioppino's

Mark van Manen/Vancouver Sun Files

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McCartney's divorce woes

Report: = Bloom investigated

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