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CUISINE with Mario Carbone and Jeff Zalaznick

Business partners and friends, native New Yorkers Mario Carbone and Jeff Zalaznick sit down to discuss their restaurant empire, Major Food Group, the iconic Carbone restaurant, and what it takes to make it in the competitive hospitality world.

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Mario Carbone and Jeff Zalaznick at Assouline's Madison Avenue boutique in New York City.

Mario Carbone and Jeff Zalaznick, both Native New Yorkers, developed their love for food and the hospitality business amid the city's rich culinary landscape. Growing up surrounded by Italian cuisine and frequenting intimate, yet excellent restaurants like Chanterelle and Parkside, after crossing paths in the mid-2000s, they took a bold entrepreneurial leap by founding Major Food Group (MFG) in 2011 along with restaurateur Rich Torrisi. Since then, the business has blossomed into a hospitality empire, holding an impressive portfolio of restaurants and venues around the US, including Carbone, Torrisi, Sadelle's, ZZ's Club, and Parm. For the Culture Lounge's cuisine episode, Carbone and Zalaznick retell old tales, share their favorite dishes at Carbone, and talk about the creation of Carbone.

EPISODE VII: CUISINE with Mario Carbone and Jeff Zalaznick

On The Making Of Carbone

Zalaznick: "My idea was, 'let's do this food the best way possible.' We love Italian-American food already. It's our favorite thing to eat."

Carbone: "We ate at every old school, Italian-American place in all five boroughs. We fully downloaded what was going on at all of them. All the little quirks, the little moves that each one did that made them unique. There's a bit of all those places in Carbone and a style of service that we grew up loving."

On What Their Last Carbone Meal Would Be 

Carbone: "Definitely a prosciutto and mozzarella to start, then the spicy vodka rigatoni, the pork chop and peppers, and obviously, some carrot cake." 

Zalaznick: "I would probably have a Caesar alla ZZ, I'd have burrata with caviar. Then, I'd have my posillipo pan roast AOP. And then I'd have a branzino."

On Creating Experiential Fine Dining 

Zalaznick: "Every detail has been paid attention to, from the art to the music to the service, the way they talk to you, to the best food being the main pillar at the same time. But it's an experience. It's a night out. Carbone is your night out. Carbone is the show. It's not the dinner before the show."

Carbone: "We only build things that we want to be in, we want to hang out in, we want to have fun in."

Discover Carbone
The Classics Collection Carbone
$120 USD

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