About: Christopher Rafter

Chris Rafter is a fanatical home cook, tinkerer and [often unsuccessful] experimenter. According to his wife, he’s a terrible cook, because he can never make the same dish twice. His culinary influences are Alton Brown, Chris Kimball and the Soup Nazi. He cannot stand Guy Fieri. He will always pull over for a roadside dive with smoke coming out of the windows and zero Yelp reviews. His favorite cooking methods are sous-vide, smoking, and drinking. He likes to eat out “when forced”, by his lovely wife Diane. He spends his free time trying to score day-passes at Restaurant Depot on a never-ending search for fresh truffles and Italian cured meats. By day he is a technology executive, hedge fund consultant, husband, and dad to two boys, two cats, (only one of which he likes) (the cats, not the boys) and one Cavalier King Charles spaniel. Originally from Long Island, New York, he spent the last 16 years in Scottsdale, Arizona and recently relocated to Saint Petersburg.

Pasta Diane (Pasta with Pancetta, Basil and Mozzarella)

Chefs will tell you, always use the finest ingredients you can find. That’s sound advice, no doubt. But there is also a lot to be said for understanding those ingredients, cooking them with techniques that get the most out of each. The special thing about this dish is how its flavors - the fragrant fresh basil, crispy fried pancetta,…