About Us
“At Rosalie, the world feels like a bubbling Italian Restaurant, with an infinite strand of pasta connecting everything and everyone.”
– Chris Cosentino –
About Rosalie
Arguably Top Chef Masters winner Chef Chris Cosentino's most personal endeavor to date, Rosalie Italian Soul is named for and inspired by Chris' great-grandmother Rosalie Cosentino, a first-generation Italian immigrant who he credits for his career in cooking.
Rosalie delivers old-school Italian soul with a playful, intentional edge. Old-world Italian traditions meet bold, chef-driven interpretations and local influences to deliver a fresh, upscale take on the beloved "immigrant cuisine" that put Italian-American food on the map.
The stunning 145-seat restaurant is located in Downtown Houston’s C. Baldwin Hotel, named after Charlotte Baldwin Allen, known as the “Mother of Houston.” The story of Chef Cosentino's memories with Rosalie is told through the menu - from the dough he learned to knead for tomato pie and the carefully hand-cranked pasta to the smell of exquisite home-canned tomato Sunday gravy that would fill her home. Family legend has it that even as a small child, young Chris would escape his crib to play make-believe "making pizza with Rosalie."
The menu features familiar Italian-American comfort food from Houston's kitchen – just like no two nonna's cuisine is exactly alike, Rosalie puts its own irreverent, approachably upscale, regional spin on the classics: red-sauce dishes and Italian starters like house-made focaccia, Italian chopped salad and local vegetable fritto miso alongside fresh pasta made daily, made to order pizza stretched, sauced and fired in the oven, and larger shared plates like bistecca Fiorentina and whole chicken Milanese. The menu blends local Houston ingredients with Chris' family traditions to create unique plates like blue crab manicotti, eggplant parmesan with Rosalie's Sunday gravy, gulf shrimp fra diavolo and Texas wild boar ragu.
“This food represents immigrant cuisine in America,” says Chris. “When Italians immigrated to the U.S., it was difficult to acquire the same product that they had at home in Italy. This is why Italian-American food was created. Ingenuity happened. I’m taking a lot of the dishes that I grew up with and breathing in a little bit of new life—in this little region of Italy known as Houston.”
Chef Chris Cosentino is also the co-owner of San Francisco’s Cockscomb, Jackrabbit in Portland, Oregon, and Acacia House in the Napa Valley with his business partner Oliver Wharton.
Chef Chris Cosentino
Passionate author, chef, cyclist and philanthropist, Chris Cosentino is co-owner of, Jackrabbit in Portland, Acacia House in Napa Valley, and Rosalie in Houston Texas with partner Oliver Wharton and parent company Delicious MFG & CO.
A graduate of the culinary program at Johnson & Wales University, Cosentino cooked at some of the country’s most beloved restaurants, including Red Sage in Washington, D.C. and Rubicon, Chez Panisse, Belon, and Redwood Park in the Bay Area, before Incanto, his first executive chef position. At Incanto, Cosentino drew critical acclaim for his innovative Italian and whole animal cooking. During Incanto’s twelve-year tenure, Cosentino mastered the art of hand-crafted cured meats and helped raise awareness about sustainability & utilizing the entire animal.
In 2014, Cosentino opened Cockscomb, showcasing a range of sustainable meat cuts and dishes inspired by the city’s rich culinary and artistic history. His cooking at Cockscomb earned a glowing 3-star review from San Francisco Chronicle’s restaurant critic Michael Bauer, who noted of the restaurant: "There’s nothing else like it, and Cosentino has a consistent, unwavering vision."
2017 brought growth for Delicious MFG & CO. Drawing inspiration from Portland’s history, Cosentino and Wharton opened Jackrabbit to highlight the Pacific Northwest’s rich ingredient palate and talented artisans. Acacia House opened in 2017 to rave reviews “Cosentino strategically blends his bold style with a more refined approach” offers a modern interpretation of classic focusing on the origins of the amazing grape varietals found in Napa; France, Portugal, Spain, Italy & Germany. Fall of 2019, Cosentino opened his latest restaurant, Rosalie Italian Soul, named after and inspired by his great-grandmother, Rosalie Cosentino. The restaurant, located in Downtown Houston, is arguably Cosentino’s most personal endeavor to date. The menu features classic red – sauce dishes reminiscent of Cosentino Italian American upbringing, as well as his own interpretations.
Cosentino is author of the James Beard Award nominated cookbook for a Single Subject, Offal Good: Cooking from the Heart with Guts (2017), celebrating whole-animal cooking, and 2012 cookbook Beginnings: My Way to Start a Meal. Cosentino also collaborated with Marvel and wrote Wolverine: In the Flesh. Cosentino won season four of BRAVO's "Top Chef Masters,” earning over $140,000 for The Michael J. Fox Foundation, and he is a member of Chefs Cycle, a 300-mile annual bicycle ride that raises funds and awareness in support of No Kid Hungry. An avid cyclist, Cosentino also founded CampoVelo in 2017, an annual weekend-long culinary and biking event that raises money for Chefs Cycle.
Cosentino lives in San Francisco with his wife Tatiana and son, Easton.
Oliver Wharton
Oliver Wharton was born and raised in the culinary wonderland of Manhattan. After graduating from the esteemed Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, he worked abroad in Italy and with several of the U.K.’s finest chefs. He was a part of the critically acclaimed team at Jean-Georges in New York City that earned a coveted four-star review from The New York Times followed by a stint as general manager of the celebrated Vong restaurant in London. Wharton was then tapped for the Director of Restaurant Operations position at Michael Mina’s Aqua Development Corporation, where he oversaw the launch and execution of several new concepts in California and Las Vegas.
Wharton established A Perfect Bite, Inc., a restaurant management company, in 2002 with a clientele that included MGM, St. Regis, Marriott International, and Mina Group. He followed with a consulting position for The Light Group in 2004, directing the conceptual development of some of Las Vegas’ most popular dining destinations, and has been sought out by some of the world’s most renowned chefs including Michael Mina and José Andrés.