Vinny Altadonna is about the most colorful person I have interviewed since starting this column and certainly the most expressive. Altadonna recently opened Chefs of New York in downtown Modesto. The restaurant is an offshoot of Chefs of New York on Oakdale Road, which Altadonna bought in 2006, almost on a whim. At the time, Altadonna said, he didn't know anything about the restaurant business. "I only knew I liked good food."

And he'd had an opportunity to taste a lot of it, with a mother whom he described as a "Michelin chef" and a career in the airlines that gave him access to restaurants worldwide. Altadonna regaled photographer Andy Alfaro and me with tales of his childhood in New York, his family's history in Italy and his disdain for Italian restaurants that mix canola oil in with the olive to save money. "I'll go broke before I go cheap," he said.

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Source: http://www.modbee.com/