Expect the same taste of Italy at Fulio’s, along with a little more of the Mediterranean. Longtime proprietor Peter Roscoe recently transferred the restaurant to Allan LaPlante, who with new chef Sean Whittaker is planning an expanded menu beyond the Italian peninsula to the more than 20 countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

Whittaker, made famous locally through two wins at the Iron Chef Goes Coastal cooking competition, started his career in an Italian dinner house, where he said he was first thrust into the kitchen after a co-worker didn’t show up for a shift. But Whittaker’s culinary philosophy has been informed by years of world travel and working at restaurants around the country.