Chef commits to O.C. eatery

Award-winning chef Grant MacPherson, who has cooked for the likes of Princess Diana and Nelson Mandela, will open a high-end Italian restaurant at Fashion Island in June as part of an ongoing, $100-million renovation project at the Newport Beach shopping center, Irvine Co. officials announced Thursday.

Called Rustica, the new eatery will have an expansive patio and a menu featuring homemade breads, pasta and gelato.

“The concept is taking modern Italian cooking techniques with seasonal California ingredients,” MacPherson said.

Rustica will be MacPherson’s first restaurant in Orange County.

The chef won a gold medal at the 1992 Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt, Germany, and has served as executive chef for Las Vegas resort casinos, including the Bellagio and the Wynn Las Vegas.

MacPherson will take over a 3,700-square-foot restaurant space next to the new Nordstrom’s at Fashion Island.

The space was originally intended for prominent Los Angeles restaurateur Celestino Drago.

“It happened very quickly — over the last two or three weeks, I’ve been planning everything and I’ve committed my self to spending the whole summer in Newport Beach,” MacPherson said of plans for Rustica.

The Irvine Co. announced this week that plans for a new Drago venture, called Osteria Drago, have been scrapped.

Osteria Drago was to be Drago’s first restaurant outside of Los Angeles, featuring a menu laden with wood-fired pizzas and fresh pasta.

Nina Robinson, a marketing executive for the Irvine Co., wouldn’t say much about dropped plans for Drago’s restaurant Thursday, other than Drago had decided to focus his energies on his Los Angeles restaurants.

Bob Sutcliffe, a representative for Drago, said the chef was pursuing “other opportunities.”

MacPherson’s new restaurant will be a welcome addition to Fashion Island, Robinson said.

“We’re constantly looking for great concepts, and this was the right timing and the perfect opportunity happy to have him.”