Rigatoni with Asparagus-Pistachio Pesto

Andrew Zimmern’s Kitchen AdventuresWhen I moved to Minnesota in the 1990s, I was in treatment for chemical dependency and alcoholism. After six months, I got out and eventually found a job washing dishes and busing tables at a French restaurant in the Twin Cities called Café Un Deux Trois. It was two weeks old and already coming off the rails. Packed to the gills, it was the biggest thing to hit Minnesota since sliced bread. Literally. The owners would fly in from New York and swear at the customers (not very Minnesota Nice!), and the kitchen was run by an earnest and talented young chef hot off a few years spent in NYC cooking with David Bouley. One day a line cook called in sick, and since I had been watching his station for a few days from the vantage point of the dish room and the busers’ station, I thought I could put out his food. I did, got a job as a line cook immediately and within a few weeks was asked by the owners to take over the kitchen. I brought in my own team; then Michael, the restaurant manager, bought out the NYC crew (thanks Georges, Gerard and Billy!); and for the next five years, we had a huge hit on our hands. It was restaurant heaven. The only dish that survived the first menu changeover was this amazing asparagus pasta, which the old chef swore he got from Bouley. While that may or may not be true, if it’s not Bouley’s, it should have been—it’s that delicious.—Andrew Zimmern