Mama Mia, Who’s Minding the Kitchen?

The Fennel idea seems to be catching on. As has been widely reported, Fennel, the innovative Santa Monica French restaurant, imports a selection of big-time chefs from France on a rotating basis. Now Pino Luongo, a prominent Italian restaurateur in New York, has announced plans to try something similar. But instead of polished professional chefs, he plans to bring in an ever-changing population of practiced, old-fashioned Italian “mammas” who will work with an American kitchen crew to bring authentic, regional home-style food to downtown Manhattan.

Luongo is a longtime co-proprietor of the popular Tuscan-style Il Cantinori on East 10th Street and owner of the new Sapore di Mare in Bridgehampton. Two months ago, Luongo sold his interest in Il Cantinori (he remains sole proprietor of Sapore di Mare) and found a new location in Chelsea (18th Street at 7th Avenue) in which to install his mammas. He and architect Peter Moreno are designing an interior that will suggest a 16th-Century Italian palazzo , and Luongo hopes to have the place open by February. And the name of this new mama-packed restaurant? Why, Le Madri, of course--Italian for “The Mothers.”

MORE FROM GOTHAM: Larry Forgione is in the news again. The noted all-American chef, who recently announced plans to open a country inn just north of Manhattan, revealed that he is also moving his top-rated Upper East Side establishment, An American Place, from its current berth on Lexington Avenue near 70th Street to the site of the former Ritz Cafe on 32nd Street near Park Avenue. The new American Place will be substantially larger than the original, says Forgione, and will offer lunch and an early evening bar menu in addition to a la carte dinner selections. (The present American Place menu is prix fixe only.) Forgione expects to be set up in his new home later this month. Jean-Jacques Rachou, chef/proprietor of Le Cote Basque, who recently shuttered his second restaurant, an elegant seafood emporium called Le Festival, now plans to reopen it as an informal French country-style bistro. . . . And Michael Romano, the talented American-born, French-trained chef of La Caravelle, has taken over the kitchen at the Union Square Cafe, replacing Ali Barker, who is heading off to Europe to get some French training of his own. Romano’s former sous-chef, David Ruggiero, takes his place at La Caravelle. . . .

TABLE SCRAPS: The proprietors of Angeli and Trattori Angeli have a third restaurant in the works--Angeli Mare, scheduled to open early next summer in Marina del Rey. The menu will feature basic Angeli fare, but with an emphasis on seafood (including fried calamari , a variety of seafood pastas and lots of grilled fish). . . . Gary-Jacques Hinshaw is the new owner of the Fine Affair on Sepulveda Boulevard in Bel-Air. His new menu is said to put “a California complexion on classic Continental cuisine,” and he is quoted as saying that, in his opinion, “fine dining should be gracious, not pretentious”--this despite the fact that the appetizer portion of the aforementioned new menu is headed “First Flavors”. . . . The proprietors of the Marquis West in West Los Angeles have taken over the landmark Tracton’s in Encino and will rename it Marquis Encino. Many of the previous establishment’s signature dishes (presumably including their prime rib and Green Goddess salad) will remain on the menu. . . . Scott Kirkwood, a veteran of Michael’s and the Rose Cafe, is the new chef at Cafe Montana in Santa Monica. . . . And El Encanto Hotel in Santa Barbara just opened a very private dining room, adjacent to their wine cellar. The room seats two, by candlelight.

RESTAURANT DATEBOOK: Lalo and Brothers in Encino sponsors its second annual Autumn Festival today from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Plaza de Oro Shopping Center, which surrounds the restaurant. Fifteen restaurants (among them Celestino, Joss, Chez Melange and, of course, Lalo and Brothers itself) will participate, and the wines of a dozen producers will be served. Tickets are $35 each for adults, $10 each for children 11 and younger, with proceeds going to the Woman’s Care Cottage of Van Nuys, a nonprofit shelter for homeless women and children. For more information, call (818) 249-1864. . . . Noted author and cooking teacher Paula Wolfert will be in town for a few days next week. Next Sunday she designs a dinner to benefit the reopening of Harvard’s extraordinary Schlesinger library. Curator Barbara Haber will speak on “America’s Romance With Food.” The dinner will be at the Four Seasons Hotel at 6 p.m.; tickets are $125. On Monday, Nov. 14, Wolfert will autograph copies of her latest work, “Paula Wolfert’s World of Food,” at Wally’s in Westwood. A selection of appetizers from the book will be served. . . . Steven Singer, who was chef at the Parkway Grill in Pasadena before migrating to Dallas to become chef first at the Beau Nash restaurant in the Crescent Court Hotel and now at Sfuzzi, returns to the Parkway to present a special menu Tuesday through Thursday. . . . The California Fettuccine Bar in Agoura celebrates its second anniversary this week by offering a free glass of champagne and a piece of anniversary cake Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings.