Cooking Channel Will Feature Douglaston Restaurant Il Toscano

DOUGLASTON, QUEENS — A popular Douglaston restaurant is getting a shot at culinary stardom.

Cooking Channel's show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate!" will feature Il Toscano's signature lobster dish in an episode airing this summer, according to co-owner Alessandro Privilegi.

The television program, a spinoff of the Food Network version, highlights dishes from across the United States nominated by chefs and other culinary stars.

Il Toscano's namesake lobster dish consists of two-plus pounds of lobster cracked in its shell, then coated in corn starch and sauteéd in olive oil with garlic, lemon, white wine, butter, parsley and a pinch of hot pepper, Privilegi said.

"This is a very labor intensive way to make the lobster," he told Patch. "Most restaurants aren't willing to pay the expense."

The family-owned Italian restaurant opened in 1985 at 42-05 235th Street in Douglaston. Privilegi, who grew up in Douglaston and attended the Culinary Institute of America, runs the restaurant with his dad, Mauro, and his two sisters.

Privilegi is rarely in the kitchen anymore, he said, but he still visits the Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx twice a week to shop for the restaurant.

"It's a validation of all the work that we do," Privilegi said of the upcoming Cooking Channel feature. "We give up a lot to run the restaurant, so it's nice to be recognized for that."

Il Toscano's episode of "The Best Thing I Ever Ate!" airs on June 17 at 9 p.m. on the Cooking Channel.