Fabio Trabocchi, Chef, Fiamma Resturant Manhattan (NY)

A: From a gastronomic viewpoint, there are a tremendous variety of ingredients to play with: great seafood, good beef and game, truffles, artichokes and other produce. Ancona was always a major port so there was seatraffic but for multiple reasons, including the mountains, the region was secluded and the cuisine developed independently.

Q: Where did your culinary education begin?

A: My father was a farmer when I was growing up, and a good cook--from him, I gained a tremendous respect for food.

Q: Prosciutto di Parma comes from Emilia-Romagna, to the northwest of Le Marche. Did you eat it when you were growing up?

A: Yes, but having the opportunity to savor it was for special occasions. When I was small, my Aunt Lina let me help make a dish that calls for layering Prosciutto di Parma with fillets of red mullet, a Mediterranean fish. We used a lot of prosciutto because my routine was to eat a slice almost every time I placed one on the fish!Eventually, once I got myself into wearing a white jacket, I could have Prosciutto di Parma any time I wanted.

Q: Prosciutto di Parma is used in many of your recipes, including soups.

A: That’s right. In Italy there’s always a debate about the best part—the center, end or side,but the truth is that every part is used. The center slices are perfect for the fish dish. You can slowly render the fat in a clay pot to use as a base for soup. The end, which we call the gambuccio, has an intense flavor, whether you throw a chunk into a soup or finely dice it. And the bone, added to a bean soup, produces a great flavor.