If you are in or near New York City, or if you plan to go, you just might want to find your way to the Leopard des Artistes. The frolicking nymphs painted on the walls of the old legendary Cafe des Artistes are still there, but the new restaurant is Italian, with a Michelin star Umbrian chef at the helm. Story here.
I’ve been on my soapbox for years about the fakery of too many products being passed off as Italian when, in fact, they are not. Wisconsin “Parmesan” isn’t parmigiano-reggiano, the true Parma cheese crafted with 800 years of knowhow and tradition behind it. Canned tomatoes are brazenly branded “San Marzano” when they have never been kissed by the Italian sun. It’s the age-old problem of profiteers making off with Italy’s good name — and benefiting from its cachet. No more. Italy has a plan. It’s called the “Made in Italy” campaign and it aims to educate, promote, and protect the genius and high quality of Italian artisanal products abroad. Carlo Calenda, Italy’s […more…]
I’ve been away from blogging for awhile, swept away by my work in Venice and attention to caring for the true love of my life over four years as he died slowly and cruelly from cancer. Now, in the midst of a pandemic with no work but plenty of time to review my life and incubate new beginnings for such time as we can safely all surface, I find myself excavating old files and photos. Some pieces I wrote way back may still, perhaps, be of interest to some of my readers. Here is one, a brief, very brief, bio […more…]
Once upon time, there was Balducci’s, the grocery-cum-take-out market that started people thinking about real Italian cooking at the outset of America’s food revolution. Maybe they even started it, at least the Italian flank. NYC was the epicenter of the foment in those days and it sent shock waves across America. In the 1970s, when other “Italian” grocers were selling the usual American-Italian provisions and Italian-style restaurants were still thinking along the lines of tomato sauce and blankets of cheese on top of everything, or branding their restaurants “Northern Italian” (only the color of the sauce changed, from the perfunctory red to indiscriminate white), […more…]
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