Chef Michael Schlow’s Secret to a Long-Lasting Love With Chicken Parmesan | Eater DC

"I've watched chef Michael Schlow — a James Beard Award–winning restaurateur — embrace chicken Parmesan after initially refusing to serve it; he added it during COVID because it's comforting and travels well, and it now averages about 750 chicken Parm orders per month at Alta Strada's Mt. Vernon Triangle and Fairfax locations (surging to 1,000 during Restaurant Week), making it the menu's top seller ahead of homemade garlic bread and penne vodka. Open since 2016 and expanded to the Mosaic District in 2017, Alta Strada's menu is split: the right side showcases Tuscany with dishes like wild boar pappardelle and slow-cooked cannellini beans stewed with sausage, while the left leans into Italian American favorites such as garlic bread, Nonna's meatballs, baked ziti, and that top-selling chicken Parm. For the chicken Parm he pounds the cutlet to just the right thickness so it doesn't dry out, grinds panko with Italian breadcrumbs, fries it in olive oil and thoroughly pats it dry to avoid grease, lightly tops it with a spicy San Marzano tomato sauce and restrained amounts of fresh mozzarella and Parmigiano to keep the exterior crispy, serves it with olive oil–tossed broccoli rabe, encourages pairing it with one of six pasta courses instead of plain spaghetti, and prices it at $29. Schlow says he learned the simplicity of authentic regional Italian cooking working for Pino Luongo but now embraces both regional Italian and Italian American traditions, and he plans a winter menu update focused on Bologna that will keep the popular chicken Parm." - Nicole Schaller