Even Eats SICILY

A research trip to the island with chef Evan Funke is a deep dive into Sicilian foodways.

- Khushbu Shah

"It's time to smuggle some s---," chef Evan Funke jokes as we climb into the Land Rover Defender, arguably the largest vehicle the majority of Italy's streets have ever seen. Funke, the chef behind Los Angeles pasta temples Felix Trattoria and Mother Wolf and the recently opened Funke, is not talking about drugs or antiquities. He is speaking of seeds-more specifically about seeds from bergamot, the bright and fragrant citrus fruit that punctuates the landscape of Calabria, the final stop on our road trip down the boot of Italy before we journey to the island of Sicily. There, Funke hopes to further his collection of seeds for plants like cedro, a lemon with a thick, white edible pith with the flavor and texture of a perfectly tart Granny Smith apple.

In the past, Funke occasionally lifted seeds from Italy and brought them back to the U.S., at times giving them to multiple farms across Southern California, to see which plants might thrive in the local terrain. The effort was worth it for Funke, who remains determined to preserve Italian foodways as close to their original form as he can, from the rhythm of the hands that taught him to make a pasta shape to the ingredients themselves, even though he is thousands of miles and an ocean away from Italy.