Renowned chef finds a home for her latest restaurant in this Fort Worth suburb
Ask chef Carla Pellegrino how she ended up leading a restaurant in Grapevine and you’ll get a simple answer.
“Grapevine chose me. It is a beautiful town and beautiful people live here,” she said with a smile reinforcing her happiness.
Pellegrino, who speaks four languages (English, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish) has been in a lot of places, so her attraction to her new community is quite the compliment to the city.
Pellegrino, 56, was born Carla Madeira in Rio de Janeiro to a Portuguese father and a second-generation Italian mother. Her professional career has taken her to some of the most renowned cities for dining.
And now she’s the executive chef at Teatro Bistro and Cocktail Lounge at 120 S. Main St. She opened the restaurant, whose name means “theater” in Portuguese, in early March of 2024.
“Chef Carla Pellegrino’s culinary expertise and dedication to her craft are unparalleled,” said Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau Board Chairman Joe Szymaszek. “Her commitment to creating exceptional dining experiences aligns perfectly with Grapevine’s reputation as a destination for world-class cuisine.”
Coming to Grapevine
Pellegrino’s original destination wasn’t Grapevine. She came to Dallas to help get Urban Italia off the ground.
That restaurant is set to open soon in Victory Park. She will also serve there as executive chef with small equity as a partner.
While construction was going on in Dallas she made her way down the road and fell in love.
“My company (Bianco Restaurant Group, LLC) owned this space in Grapevine and needed a hand to open it,” she said. “While waiting for Victory Park I offered myself to help backstage, but it organically has become mine as I am here daily and fell in love with this community, who has chosen me.
“We have a large amount of regulars, and at this point I took over as the executive chef and GM at Teatro, and am loving it!”
She’s been all over
Pellegrino developed her love for cooking when she was 10, working with her mother to help run a catering business.
“Cooking professionally was an organic evolution and a lifetime talent,” she said. “I tried to do other things, but the kitchen call is a strong pull. All chefs know that very well. This is a profession directly linked to passion.”
Pellegrino, then Madeira, moved to Italy at 16. There, she owned a small store where her passion for cooking inspired her to give cooking demonstrations daily.
In 1997, travels brought her to the United States, where she attended the French Culinary Institute in New York, graduating with honors in 2000. Immediately after, she and her now ex-husband Frank Pellegrino Jr. opened the tremendously successful Baldoria Restaurant at Eighth Avenue and Broadway, the heart of New York’s Theater District.
In late 2006, the Pellegrinos relocated to Las Vegas and opened Rao’s Italian restaurant at Caesar’s Palace, a sibling establishment to the legendary East Harlem location that has been around since 1896.
Her talents have also taken her to Miami, California and back to Las Vegas before landing in Grapevine.
“They treated me as royalty, and I am grateful for that. I am always connected to my former projects,” she said. “Every professional experience directly helps the next.”
Pellegrino is also featured as one of the nation’s top 75 chefs by renowned cooking instructor and author Marie Isabella.
TV appearances
Pellegrino has been on numerous TV cooking shows, including “Throwdown With Bobby Flay” (which she won) and “Top Chef.” While she called “Top Chef” a “very vibrant point” in her career as a chef, it was also memorable for another reason.
“It was fun despite the serious right hand cut accident that happened in the first episode, which spelled me from the season episodes later due to my impossibility to cook, much less to endure cooking challenges using only my left hand. I am a righty,” she said.
“What was funny on the show ‘Topf Chef,’ they had to give her subtitles when she spoke as she was always so excited about her cooking and would sometimes share her passion in two languages in one sentence,” her publicist and longtime friend Jennifer Bradley, a Duncanville native, said with a chuckle.
She has also displayed her skills on “The Today Show,” “CBS Morning Show” and “Fox News Nation.”
She even wrote a guest column for the late Robin Leach, former star of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” who began his own career as a print journalist. She had a special seat for him in her Bratalian restaurant in Henderson, Nevada and always made his favorite vegetarian dishes.
“You never knew who would show up at her restaurants, whether to dine, perform, or just have fun, from Frankie Moreno, Taylor Hicks, Claire Sinclair (former Playboy Playmate of the Year) ‘Bachelorette’ star Ben Flajnik ... she was consistently in the celebrity sighting magazines/papers,” Bradley said.
Her specialty
Pellegrino became well known and respected through her Italian cuisine, and that is what she calls her specialty, though her background by education is French cuisine.
Also, her heritage makes her fluent in Portuguese and Brazilian cuisine.
But her favorite might come as a surprise.
“My personal food preferences brought me to learn and master some great Japanese dishes,” she said. “I had a sushi bar in Miami and won the Best Sushi in Town by ‘Where’ magazine.”
Why she loves it
Bradley said Pellegrino has a simple philosophy, “The best way to show someone you loved them, is to cook for them.”
Pellegrino said that even after these years there is nothing like seeing people enjoy the food she created.
“The feeling is humbling, but marvelous,” she said. “The optimal purpose of becoming a chef is to achieve customer satisfaction. It is all we want, people to enjoy what you are cooking.
“Mission accomplished… that is the feeling.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2025 at 3:45 PM.