Chef profile · 1 win vs. Bobby Flay

David Benstock

Mezzelune
  • Il Ritorno · St. Petersburg, FL
  • St. Pete Meat & Provisions · St. Petersburg, FL
@benstockdavid

Mezzelune means "half-moons." They are the stuffed pasta you see on the menus of Italian-American restaurants that want to signal seriousness without committing to ravioli. A round of pasta, folded over a filling, sealed in a crescent. Fillings vary; the technique does not.

David Benstock runs Il Ritorno in St. Petersburg, Florida — a thirty-six-seat Italian room that has been on every "best of Florida" list for the better part of a decade — plus St. Pete Meat & Provisions next door, which is the butcher-shop-with-a-bar that exists so the kitchen has somewhere to dump its salumi program.

He brought mezzelune. Bobby brought a pasta dish that, per the broadcast, did not have the seal. Stuffed pasta that opens in the water is a stuffed pasta that no longer has filling. The judges saw which plate had filling on it.

2 0
S27E8
Round 1
vs. Nicole Karr · advanced to face Bobby
W
S27E8
Round 2
beat Bobby with Mezzelune
W