Tastes of Italy

Membership Has its Rewards

Teatro del Sale 028We’ve written before about Teatro del Sale, the Florentine members-only social/supper club operated by the owner of the city’s renowned Cibreo restaurant. But the opportunity to have lunch at Teatro is one of the main reasons that drew us back to Florence for our brief two day, beginning-of-the-trip excursion. That and trying to unlock the mystery of what makes Teatro del Sale so special and how we could translate its concept into the new Bella Italia. Continue reading Membership Has its Rewards

We’ve written before about Teatro del Sale, the Florentine members-only social/supper club operated by the owner of the city’s renowned Cibreo restaurant. ...

Labor Olive

Day 19 030We bill our Umbria Food & Wine tours as an opportunity to spend harvest time in Umbria. And these weeks in October are truly the heart of harvest time in this area. Grapes have usually just been picked and are fermenting in tanks in cantinas, tractors and combines move from one plot of land to another at all hours of the day and into the night. And the first olio novello is being pressed in mills in this olive crazy region. Continue reading Labor Olive

We bill our Umbria Food & Wine tours as an opportunity to spend harvest time in Umbria. And these weeks in October ...

As Nature Commands

Day 17 005Our second Umbria Food and Wine Tour began this Saturday with our group gathering together from various places throughout Italy to Santa Maria degli Angeli, the small town below Assisi where Saint Francis originally established his Franciscan order. True to its name, our first activity – at the Casa di Norcia restaurant – centered around food and wine. Continue reading As Nature Commands

Our second Umbria Food and Wine Tour began this Saturday with our group gathering together from various places throughout Italy to Santa ...

Good Morning

20130917 004Often – well, pretty much always -we take for granted the little stuff, the daily stuff, the routine stuff. And this is certainly true when talking about our first activity of the day here in Italy – breakfast. Continue reading Good Morning

Time for Breakfast Read more

Often – well, pretty much always -we take for granted the little stuff, the daily stuff, the routine stuff. And this is ...

Peel Me an Onion

20130915 002Returning to Italy today, to our home town of Cannara, brought a tear to my eyes. Literally. Continue reading Peel Me an Onion

Festa della Cipolla (the Onion Festival) Read more

Returning to Italy today, to our home town of Cannara, brought a tear to my eyes. Literally. Welcome to the 33rd edition of ...

Sea-quel

Cucinapalooza 2 001On yet another perfect evening, lapped by cool rustles of soft sweet Umbrian nighttime air, under a blanket of darkness lit by thousands of tiny pinpricks of brilliant luminescence we dined. We dined al fresco as we had the night before and many previous nights over the past weeks. But tonight the food arrived at the table not plate by plate on Alvaro’s sure hands, but wheeled in on wave after wave of gigantic carts, like some culinary Trojan Horse. And make no doubt about it, while the offerings on the carts were meant as gifts to our group of 25 assembled around the table, they just as surely they were planned as a means of conquest. Beware of Italians bearing gifts. Especially if they are offered by Giuliano Gilocchi. Continue reading Sea-quel

On yet another perfect evening, lapped by cool rustles of soft sweet Umbrian nighttime air, under a blanket of darkness lit by ...

Cucinapalooza

[Note – this post was started back in April to record our special Cucinapalooza Throwdown dinner at the villa.  The draft was put aside and not finished, a perfect allegory for my life.  However, with Round II of the Throwdown coming up this Sunday, I felt compelled to resurrect the draft and complete it.  I apologize for the confusing chronological effect it may have on readers.  So just try to cast your mind back to where you were on April 25 and if you can’t free your mind that way, check out our April archives to read about the five days that preceded our Throwdown dinner.]

 

Cucinapalooza 001After five days of preliminaries, the big day had arrived. Up until today we had butchered pigs, made sausage, tried our hands at pizza dough and pasta, shopped for fresh vegetables and foraged in fields for their wild brethren, we had baked, broiled and boiled, kneaded, preheated and weeded. We had broken bread and baked it too with Danilo, Moreno, Gabriella, Jennifer, Simone, Salvatore, Ernesto and Mauro. Tonight, however, we were on our own. Dinner was ours to imagine, conceive, develop, design and execute. Tonight we were cooking – cooking with gas. And with wood and carbone. Preparing a dinner for the ages. Dinner for 30. Continue reading Cucinapalooza

[Note - this post was started back in April to record our special Cucinapalooza Throwdown dinner at the villa.  The draft was ...

Starita – Part Due

Starita 019Like unrepentant recidivists, Suzy and I returned to Italy today and returned right to the scene of the crime. A crime that we masterminded and executed just three months ago, a crime against sensible nutrition and moderate diet. Back in April we engaged in a two and a half day whirlwind pizza tour of Naples. This morning we arrived back in Italy, landing two and a half hours north of Naples in Rome, our first order of business to drive as fast as the Italian autostrada would allow us (and it has, in essence, no speed limit) to Naples. To return to the scene of the crime. And to commit it one more delicious time. Continue reading Starita – Part Due

Like unrepentant recidivists, Suzy and I returned to Italy today and returned right to the scene of the crime. A crime that ...

Italian Memories: For Pizza’s Sake

pizza 041

Once in a while an idea comes to you that is so perfect in its elegance, so suited for time, place and people, and so darn delicious that everyone wants to take credit for it.  Such was Pizzapalooza, my very own brainchild.  My idea that we take our final few days in Italy after the conclusion of our Cucinapalooza cooks tour and spend them in Naples in search of the perfect pizza napoletana.  This is the story of our pizza odyssey, which Suzy, Pete and Nancy can all agree – was my idea.

Continue reading Italian Memories: For Pizza’s Sake

Once in a while an idea comes to you that is so perfect in its elegance, so suited for time, place and ...

Italian Memories: A Little Dinner Music

ettore3

That sense of peace, which we had not experience up to that point in this most frenetic city, was also the case as we arrived at Ettore, a well known establishment that had been on our list of restaurants to visit and which had come highly recommended by Giuseppe our tour guide that morning.  So excited was Giuseppe for us to try Ettore, in fact, that he phoned the owner, a friend of his, and arranged an outdoor table for us.  We arrived a half hour late, which in Naples is impossibly early, and our table was waiting. Continue reading Italian Memories: A Little Dinner Music

That sense of peace, which we had not experience up to that point in this most frenetic city, was also the case ...

Simone Says

20130423 001Tuesday, the fourth day of our Cucinapalooza cook’s tour, saw our gang of six beginning to bring the various elements of what they have been learning to the task of preparing a full meal.  From beginning to end.  From shopping to menu design to preparation, execution and service.  From plating to wine pairing to entertaining.  And what better coach could we have for this soup to nuts experience than our good friend Simone, with whom we spent the better part of the day. Continue reading Simone Says

First Planning, Then Cooking Read more

Tuesday, the fourth day of our Cucinapalooza cook’s tour, saw our gang of six beginning to bring the various elements of what ...