For the festival-minded Toronto foodie, the months between Winterlicious and Summerlicious feel like an eternity. Luckily, a new celebration of all things Italian promises to make the wait much easier to bear. The inaugural Italian Seasons Spring-Primavera Food Festival launches this week, highlighting authentic ingredients imported from Italy. From Mercatto to Scaramouche, 21 of Toronto’s most popular Italian restaurants have signed on. We caught up with three chefs to talk trattorie, Tuscany and tortellini.

The Italian Seasons Festival Primavera Spring runs May 16 to 31 at various locations throughout Toronto. Contact individual restaurants for details and reservations. Menus available at the festival Web site, www.italianseasonsfestival.com.

Andrew Milne-Allan, head chef at Zucca

1. What imported ingredients will you be using?
Parmigiano-reggiano, prosciutto from Parma, balsamic vinegar from Modena, white polenta, ricotta salata from Sardinia and farro, a grain from northern Tuscany.

2. Are you cooking with unfamiliar ingredients? If so, are you nervous?
Ingredients, no, but there are always a few dishes I create for the occasion. It’s usually a question of a particular twist on a dish—for instance, rabbit with olives, wild leeks, farro cake, which is a combination I haven’t done before.

3. What’s your favourite regional Italian cuisine?
That’s almost impossible for me to answer because each time we do a different regional cuisine, that’s the one I’m most excited about. Last week, we did two evenings with dishes from Maremma and Lunigiana, in northern Tuscany. I did a lot of research and was very excited to work with that regional cuisine.

4. Which Toronto patio are you most looking forward to frequenting?
I live in Little Italy, and my wife and I always enjoy strolling around our neighbourhood and sitting at Il Gatto Nero and having a pizza under the wild apple tree.

5. What’s the best thing about the end of winter?
Products start to change; the vegetables and wild foods start turning up. At this stage, most of them are still being imported from the States—asparagus and wild mushrooms, fava beans, artichokes. All those things we have been without for so long.

6. What is your favourite warm-weather pastime?
I’m from New Zealand, and I grew up next to the sea, so I’d have to say swimming in the ocean. If I get to do it once a summer, I’m happy.

7. Where is the best place to spend your night off?
Quite often I’m happy to spend it at home with my wife and daughter. But if we go out, I’m happy to go to the Niagara Street Café.

8. How flexible can you be with Italian cooking before it’s not Italian anymore?
I’ve been cooking Italian for 20, 30 years, so I think you develop an instinct. I don’t use ingredients that don’t exist in Italian cuisine. The basic impulse of Italian cuisine is very simple. I don’t want to say “rules,” because if Italians see a rule they’ll break it. I think they’re stricter with their cuisine than anything else.

9. Where do you go for the best cheap Italian eats in the city?
There aren’t a great number of places that do genuine Italian food at any price. I always enjoy the sausage sandwich with hot jalapeños at Vinny’s Panini [at Shaw and Dupont]. And they’re $6.50 apiece, so definitely inexpensive.

10. What is the best place to get Italian cooking supplies?
We have a really good Italian deli down the street from the restaurant—La Salumeria, on Yonge. It has all the cheeses and oils. For produce, there’s an organic farmers’ market in Riverdale Farm.

When: a four-course prix fixe menu is available May 16 to 31.
Where: Zucca, 2150 Yonge St. (at Eglinton), 416-488-5774.
How much: $60 for a four-course meal.

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