Frank DeCarlo is interested in basics. The menu at Peasant, the New York restaurant where he is chef/owner, offers the simple pleasures of life. And as a student at the Institute, DeCarlo discovered that the straightforward foundations of cooking were key. "Good understanding of basic technique is the most important thing you can know," he says. "If you understand a concept and how it works, from there you can go in any direction you want."

Much of DeCarlo's cooking style is inspired by that of the Italian region of Puglia, where he has worked periodically over the years, and he strives for an almost naked simplicity. "My dishes are two- and three-part dishes for the most part, and most of them are served in terra cotta," he reports. "They're non-contrived. There's no food styling, no garnishes going on. I don't have infused oils and emulsions and pretty colors in squeeze bottles for decorating dishes. For instance, now I'm doing 7- and 8-pound suckling pigs on rotisseries, and they're served over a roasted potato baked in the coals. That's a two-part plate. It's pure and beautiful."

Peasant features an open kitchen where almost all of the cooking is fueled with either wood or coal. "My pasta cooker is really the only thing with gas," says DeCarlo. "Even the three sauté burners are infused with a gas ring on top, so they burn both charcoal and gas."

Since opening a year and a half ago, the restaurant has developed a reputation as a chefs' hangout, and DeCarlo thinks he knows why. "I've had Bocuse, Boulud, Ducasse and Palladin in my kitchen," he says. "They all started out in kitchens in the basement working with coal and wood, and they come and hang out in my kitchen and talk and reminisce. And like everybody, they love the simplicity."