Eat Your Way Around the World: Chef Frank Cummins and Gabriele Ruggieri, Palermo, Italy

Gabriele Ruggieri is a chef and restaurateur, yes. But throughout the past few years, he has also begun to see his role as raising up the next generation of chefs and restaurateurs to keep hospitality alive and well in Southeast Missouri.

“There is a group of us trying to make it better everyday, something we do,” Ruggieri says. “Whoever belongs to our team is the success of who we are, trying to progress and keep going.”

Ruggieri grew up in Palermo, Italy, on the island of Sicily. He grew up loving to cook with his mother, who often made traditional meals for her family. His father was a postman, and Ruggieri often rode along with him on his routes, both on a quest to not only deliver mail but to also find the best street food around.

Driving through the Italian countryside with his father sparked a passion in Ruggieri for travel; he has lived and worked throughout the world, including time spent in Australia, Egypt and England. Inspired by flavors of places he’s lived, like Tabarka, Tunisia; Istanbul, Turkey; and Marrakesh, Morocco, he shares that knowledge with Southeast Missourians through his restaurants; cooking classes offered to the public; and the team of chefs, servers and other staff who work with him on each of his projects.

“I think traveling is a way of knowledge,” Ruggieri says.

These experiences culminate in Gabriel’s Food + Wine in downtown Cape Girardeau, as well as in Ruggieri’s most recent project, Speck, which will feature authentic Italian street food, woodfire pizza and gelato when it opens later this year at 430 Broadway — the Rialto. Customers can already sample the food that will be featured at the restaurant through the Speck food truck at farmer’s markets and other Southeast Missouri events.

In running his restaurants, Ruggieri draws from the importance of family that is so vital in Italian culture.

“Our team is evolving — we are more people, so we need to start to grow and have the others taking a little bit of charge and [take] chances and become a stronger family,” Ruggieri says. “I try to run the business like a family.”

The lobster ravioli at Gabriel's Food + Wine features a lobster tail served atop a crab and ricotta-filled ravioli coated in a lobster bisque.Photo by Aaron Eisenhauer

One of those family members is Frank Cummins, who has worked at Gabriel’s Food + Wine since it opened in 2017 and is now the head chef. A native of McClure, Ill., Cummins liked helping his mom in the kitchen while he was growing up and got a job washing dishes in a restaurant as his first job.

“I love the restaurant atmosphere, the live, the busy rush and all of that, the sweat, the fire, all that kind of stuff,” Cummins says. “I’ve learned from trying over and over and having an owner that isn’t afraid for us to try new things. Helps out a lot — we’re all pretty open-minded about what we do, and we like to think that this is possible, there’s a way to do it, we’ll give it a shot, and we’ll figure it out.”

As Ruggieri continues to create new restaurant concepts, he hopes to continue mentoring and inspiring the next generation of chefs and restaurateurs in Southeast Missouri. This, he hopes, is the legacy he leaves to the region.

“My father was a postman. … So it’s not like I grew up rich, but I came to U.S. when I was almost 25. … Believing, working, hustling, setting goals ... Thanks to the team, also, their life is a little bit improving, changing, better, everything is becoming a little bit more a better life for all of us,” Ruggieri says. “For anyone who is 15, 18, when they think ... ‘I don’t have this, I don’t have that’ — who said you have to have everything to achieve something? Maybe you don’t have to, you just have to believe in yourself and do things. So I wish that will bring more strength to the younger generation. That’s part of the game.”