EVAN FUNKE, two-time James Beard-nominated chef, is a culinary storyteller, a custodian of Italian tradition, and a master of the old world techniques of handmade pasta. Having learned the art of pasta early in his career, his singular passion as a pasta maker and chef was solidified in Bologna, under the mentorship of Alessandra Spisni at La Vecchia Scuola Bolognese. Widely known for his ardent dedication to seasonality, warmth in hospitality, and reverence for the deeply rooted culinary traditions of Italy, he brings more than two decades of excellence to all of his critically acclaimed restaurants – eponymous Funke in Beverly Hills; his homage to la cucina Romana at Mother Wolf in Hollywood and Las Vegas at the Fontainebleau Hotel; the beloved Felix on Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice; Tre Dita at the St. Regis Hotel in Chicago; and the forthcoming Mother Wolf in Miami’s Design District, slated to open Fall 2024.
Felix Trattoria, which holds court on famed Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice, was the first restaurant to feature a pasta laboratorio in the center of the restaurant, with a menu highlighting the time-honored techniques of making pasta fatta a mano from various regions of Italy. At Mother Wolf, Funke pays homage to the Eternal City of Rome and La Cucina Romana, where the menu features Roman classics and wafer-thin pizza Romana. Funke, which is chef’s eponymous flagship, is a culmination of his culinary experiences and a 3-story love letter to Italy and the nonnas who have shared their knowledge and techniques with him over the years. At Tre Dita, Funke turns his attention to la cucina Toscana, highlighting the region’s pastas and reverence for grilled steaks. The name ‘Tre Dita’ means “three fingers” in Italian, and is a nod to the precise thickness of a perfectly cut bistecca Fiorentina, which succinctly complements the Windy City’s love for steak.
American Sfoglino, Funke’s critically acclaimed cookbook, was published by Chronicle Books and released in fall of 2019. The tome delves into the beauty and tradition of the sfoglia, a sheet of pasta rolled by hand, sharing classic techniques that are distinctly from the region of Emilia-Romagna. The book won the 2020 IACP Award for Best Cookbook, Chefs and Restaurants and received a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Photography in 2020.
On the small screen, Tastemade produced a feature-length documentary film titled ‘Funke’ which recounts his journey as a chef through to the opening of his restaurant Felix in Los Angeles. The film premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2018 and is now streaming on Tastemade, as well as Amazon Prime and Hulu. In the spring of 2020, the 8-part docu-series, Shape of Pasta, produced by Ugly Brother Studio, features Funke’s journeys throughout Italy as he works to preserve the rare and obscure traditional pasta shapes of Italy. Shape of Pasta can currently be found streaming on Roku.
Notably, since 2022, Funke is currently the official chef of the legendary Vanity Fair Oscar Party.
