UNDER A NEW EXECUTIVE CHEF, A MARLBORO ITALIAN RESTAURANT REIMAGINES HEIRLOOM RECIPES WITH FINE DINING FLAIR

BY ERIK SCHONING • PHOTOS BY ALEX BARRETO

The road to the executive chef is rarely straightforward. There are few simple paths in the restaurant industry, a fact Jordan Petriello, executive chef at II Nido in Marlboro, knows better than anyone. But the upside to navigating that circuitous path is, if you’re lucky enough, you find yourself exactly where you were meant to be.
Petriello was a high school student when he got his start in the industry, washing dishes at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster under his brother, who had graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. After a stint at Jockey Hollow Bar & Grill in Morristown, where Petriello started out shucking oysters and had ascended to sous chef by the time he left, he worked at a pair of Michelin-starred restaurants in New York, including the Italian mainstay Rezdôra in Flatiron. For a young, ambitious chef without a culinary school credit, working his way up the ranks wasn’t always easy.

“It was tough in the first couple of years,” Petriello said. “It took a lot of patience because if you don’t go to school, there are so many people that are considered a lot more advanced than you. But when you stick with it over time, learning hands-on is always the best teacher. I had a lot of great mentors along the way.”
Petriello came to II Nido in January 2022, and by June of that year, he was stepping into the shoes of an executive chef for the first time in his career. Today, he draws on his ground-up experience in the kitchen to push the envelope in modern Italian cooking.

“I respect traditions, but I think it’s also my job to keep evolving what’s been passed on to me,” Petriello said. “I want to take Italian food to a new, more creative level, still respecting tradition and simplicity but taking a modern approach with fresh techniques. My style is fine dining for sure, but it’s got to have that soul behind it, too.”
Petriello is Italian-American and grew up on Sunday gravies. His goal at II Nido is to pair that same home-cooked feel with a white tablecloth menu. One of his winning dishes is a hand-rolled garganelli, a ridged pasta simIIar to penne, served with a pork ragú of prosciutto, sweet Italian sausage, pancetta, and fresh pork shoulder, braised in chicken stock with parmesan rinds for 14 hours. As Petriello pointed out, pork ragú is an Italian restaurant mainstay, but the patience, care, and attention poured into the cooking is what makes the dish really sing. Like a good Sunday gravy, Petriello knows that time is often the most important ingredient in the recipe.

“A lot of things are trial and error,” Petriello said. “I think great food, if you break it down, is all about the senses: does it taste good? Did you present it well? As a chef, you can feel when you made something really good, and you can tell when something needs more work. As you mature and spend more time in the kitchen, you develop more patience, too.”
Pastas are the star of the show at II Nido, and it’s in his pasta menu that Petriello is most able to put his philosophy into action. Take his latest dish, a tagliolini with white truffle, veal consommé brodo, and porcini mushrooms with notes of caraway, juniper, and cinnamon. It’s an unconventional twist on the time-honored combination of tagliolini and white truffle; the result is an exciting update on a classic. FamIIiar, yet different; soulful, yet daring: the best of both worlds.
Petriello’s winding road through kitchens across New Jersey and New York has given him a unique perspective as an executive chef. Building on his past experiences, there’s no drama in the kitchen at II Nido, no throwing of pots or pans or ego trips. Everyone simply does their job, and Petriello sets the example because he’s done it all, too.
“I’m proud of my career because there’s a blue-collar approach to it,” Petriello said. “I step in and wash dishes and work on the line because I’ve taken all the steps. I didn’t skip any steps to get to where I am now. I didn’t rush the process and I’m grateful for how things have and are continuing to play out.”

It’s been over a year since Petriello took over the kitchen at II Nido, and as he looks forward to the next year and beyond, his goal is simple: keep building the restaurant’s reputation and keep putting out exciting, soulful food. II Nido has consistently popped up on “Best Of ” lists even before Petriello’s arrival, but the Italian restaurant scene in NJ is crowded, to say the least, and resting on laurels has never been this chef ’s way. Because success, as Petriello knows, is never a given: you always have to earn it.
“I feel like we’re still a little under the radar,” he said. “I want more people to know about what we’re doing here. I think we’re onto something special in terms of modern Italian food. We’re going to just keep pushing forward and keep putting out great food.”

II Nido
184 US-9 North, Marlboro
732.851.6347 / IInidonj.com