Carlo Rolle is the founder and owner of San Carlo Osteria Piemonte. With more than twenty years of experience in business management, he has developed his professional career working between Italy, Germany and Korea, alongside the managerial activity of investor in the catering sector. Originally from Turin, with San Carlo Osteria Piemonte, he brings his passion for traditional Piedmont cuisine to the United States, reinterpreted in respect of authenticity and gastronomic culture of origin. We interviewed him for IlNewyorkese.
What led you to create San Carlo Osteria Piemonte in New York?
Everything comes from a passion for the kitchen that I had since young, as a kid. I am an adoptive son: my father was from Turin, unfortunately it missed in 2012, and my mother is from Saluzzo. My family is Piedmontese, so I grew up often host of uncles and grandparents, all great lovers of Piedmont cuisine. That’s where my passion for food turned on. The idea of opening San Carlo in New York was born from a friendship with a partner who at the time lived there and worked in catering. Between 2010 and 2011 I started making frequent trips to the United States, even once or twice a year, to understand how the market worked. Then, in 2015, I finally moved to New York and opened the restaurant. Together with me, my sister and two other friends are in the company. In Italy catering for me has always been more a passion than a job: I had a restaurant in Turin, but my main career has always been in industry. Today I am the commercial director of Italy of a Swiss multinational company; in the past I was managing director with working experiences also in Germany and Korea, therefore a sector completely different from the kitchen. Open San Carlo in New York, therefore, was a project that combines my personal passion for Piedmont cuisine with the possibility to bring this tradition to many other cities.
San Carlo was born from the link with Turin but lives in one of the most competitive gastronomic markets in the world, what did you have to learn from scratch in New York?
Compared to a city like New York, I had to learn a lot. We all learn here all the time, but from the beginning I had very clear ideas about the product I wanted to offer. I wanted to propose something different than what already existed: away from South Italy cuisine, pizzerias and everything that has been present in New York for decades. I was interested in offering authentic Piedmont cuisine, faithful to traditions, not contaminated, and personally cared for. To prepare, I followed courses with star chefs in Italy, working with Alfio Ghezzi, chef of Cantina Lunelli in Trentino, linked to the Ferrari Wineries. Thanks to this path, I managed to build the offer I had imagined for the United States. This approach allowed us to arrive at 2026 celebrating the ten years of San Carlo. It wasn’t always easy: we have passed difficult periods, such as Covid’s pandemic, and also internal complications, including the release of two members and attempts to compromise the concept of the restaurant. Remaining faithful to the product and our philosophy, however, we managed to overcome all the difficulties. This allowed us not only to survive at complicated times, but also to consolidate a recognized and appreciated offer in New York.
Piedmont is often less known abroad than other Italian cuisines. How to appreciate a cuisine based on rigor, seasonality and tradition?
It was definitely an added value to choose to propose a cuisine of Northern Italy, Piedmont in particular, with some Ligurian influences rather than Lombardy. Piedmont has always been the “regno” of the gastronomic tradition of the North, Piedmont, Liguria, Aosta Valley, and this choice has allowed us to distinguish ourselves. When I arrived in New York, I tried to figure out who already offered Piedmontese cuisine. The only restaurant Barbetta was in Hell’s Kitchen. The New York Times, at the beginning of our opening, wrote that Barbetta had a kitchen now strongly contaminated by American influences. Instead, we stood out for a very traditional cuisine, faithful to Italian recipes and techniques, without contamination. This gave us an important advantage and helped us to recognize ourselves as a reference point for those seeking authentic Piedmontese cuisine in New York.
How can you maintain a balance between creative identity and business management?
I come to New York every three months, trying to keep a direct and constant contact with the restaurant. But the success of the management today is certainly thanks to the two managers I chose to drive San Carlo: Mirko Mennuni since the opening with San Carlo and Mauro Cerrina, a very valid manager who has worked internationally, in London and Milan. The chef is Davide Iacoboni, a young man with so much passion and still a long way to go, but that thanks to his commitment he manages to the best the kitchen and offer the quality that we want to give to our guests. I still maintain a daily contact with Mirko and Mauro, because the relationship of trust with these people is total. This team, together with direct and constant contact, is the real success of the management of San Carlo.
Looking to the future, San Carlo Osteria Piemonte wants to become an exportable model of Italian regional catering in the world?
We are working with the aim to ensure that San Carlo Osteria Piemonte becomes a reference point for Piedmontese cuisine in the world, not only as a restaurant but as a structured and recognizable concept, capable of being replicated without losing identity and consistency. In this direction the evaluation of a possible opening in Montecarlo, currently under evaluation, is part of a wider growth path. At the same time, we are considering further expansion even within New York, in continuity with the work already started. The idea is that San Carlo does not remain an experience linked to a single location, but is affirmed as a model of catering that faithfully represents Piedmontese cuisine and that can be exported and internationally recognized, maintaining quality standards and a clear vision of the project.
L’articolo San Carlo Osteria Piemonte, ten years of Piedmontese cuisine in New York proviene da IlNewyorkese.
