Vincenzo gabriele louisville biography

In recognition of Vincenzo and Agostino Gabriele and their storied legacy of mentorship and influence upon the Louisville culinary scene, we honor them, fittingly, with a dinner to toast to their legacy and support a scholarship fund to assist young chefs to train and study in Italy. 

Presented by Sullivan University, the Italian Cultural Institute of Louisville, and the Italian-American Association of Louisville, the dinner will feature five Italian wines and five courses, each prepared by a local chef whose career was shaped by the Gabriele brothers. 

The dinner will be held at the Sullivan University campus on May 22 from 5:30pm - 8:30pm. Tickets are $125 per person, and all proceeds will benefit scholarships at Sullivan University in the name of Vincenzo and Agostino to support young chefs as they study culinary arts in Italy. 

Event Information

Dress for the event is business casual. 

Arrival

• The event be held in the student cafeteria of Sullivan University at 3101 Bardstown Rd, Louisville, KY 40205.
• Parking is available on-site.
• Entry to the event is through the administration building main entrance (please see map below). Please be courteous that classes are ongoing in other parts of the campus.
• Guests are invited to arrive around 5 pm to mingle before dinner.

Check-in

• Upon arrival, guests are invited to check in at our registration desk. We did not mail physical copies of the tickets but rather will have your registration information on-hand.
• Table assignments will be posted for individuals to view and locate seating.

Schedule of Events

• Dinner will begin at 5:30 pm.
• We will host a special recognition ceremony for Vincenzo and Agostino Gabriele and will announce the scholarship recipients, who will partake in an intensive 10-day course at the Bivero Pizza Academy in Florence.
• Dinner will continue with five courses

• Vincenzo Gabriele, a renowned restaurateur in Louisville, is celebrating his 50th anniversary in the city.
• Gabriele, originally from Italy, moved to Louisville in 1975 and opened his namesake restaurant, Vincenzo's, in 1986.
• His restaurant, Vincenzo's, is known for its upscale Italian dining and warm hospitality.

For a man who has lived more than 28,000 days, you’d think it would take a lot to make his day. 

For Vincenzo Gabriele, the restaurateur whose popular Italian restaurant has been a staple of Louisville's dining scene for more than three decades, all it took this day was the surprise of seeing an old friend. 

He hadn’t seen Tina Choi in at least two decades, since she worked at the downtown restaurant that shares Gabriele’s first name.

Back in town for one day, Choi, who now lives in Atlanta, knew she wanted to visit Vincenzo’s, 150 S 5th St., for lunch. She didn’t expect to reunite with the man who gave her a job, a chance to get ahead, and a roof over her head. 

When she walked in and saw Gabriele, happy disbelief turned into instant reminiscing. 

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Seeing each other again on that recent February afternoon, they both brought up the word, “blessing.” For years, while Choi was studying at the University of Louisville and serving at Vincenzo’s, she lived in the cottage on his property, rent free, and helped look after Gabriele's young daughter, Rosa. 

“I feel so indebted,” Choi, a native of Korea, told the Courier Journal. “He was so important to me in getting my start. I just remember that he not only helped me, but many of my friends who were struggling to make ends meet.” 

After one more hug and one more “thank you,” Choi left. But, Gabriele couldn’t stop talking about seeing her “out of the blue.”

“The Lord sent this woman today,” he said. “My heart is rich, because I saw her.”

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Agostino Gabriele was born in 1949 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy and at age 14, he was hired as kitchen help at Rosticceria Domore in Palermo. For the next four years, he trained under European and Italian chefs in several fine restaurants and at 18, operated a resort restaurant, Desire, for one season.

In 1969, he came to St. Louis, Missouri to work at his uncle’s restaurant, for two years before returning to Europe to gain more experience at the Park Hotel in Düsseldorf, Germany, followed by a year at The Secondo Matteo restaurant in Milan, Italy.  Upon returning to St. Louis in 1974, he worked with his brother, Giovanni, at Giovanni’s on the Hill for a year.  In 1975, he opened his own little restaurant christened Agostino’s Little Place, with just nine tables. It was voted one of the top six restaurants in St. Louis, and received the Best Restaurant Award for 8 consecutive years from 1977-1985.

In 1985, Agostino and his brother, Vincent, were approached about assuming the lease at Humana, for the restaurant and catering facilities inside their corporate headquarters.  Humana was Louisville’s largest medical insurance operator and is located on the Ohio River in downtown Louisville.  The Gabriele brothers merged, signed the lease, and on June 16, 1986, Vincenzo’s Restaurant began operations.  Ten years later, in May of 1996, the Great Chefs television team showed up to tape Chef Agostino Gabriele for the Discovery Channel’s Great Chefs of America television series.

Today, August 2016, over 20 years later, Chef Agostino is still running the kitchen of Vincenzo’s in Louisville.