NOTES
FROM THE WINE CELLAR
MASCIARELLI WANTS MONTEPULCIANO D'ABRUZZO
TO GAIN RESPECT AMONG ITALIAN WINES
By John Mariani
❖❖❖
DINING
OUT IN PARIS
By John Mariani
There are three things to know
about dining out in Paris right now.
First, anyone who says Parisian
cuisine has fallen behind that of cities like
Barcelona, Copenhagen and Lima have clearly not been
to France in this century.There is currently more
excitement and innovation in Paris restaurants than
at any time in its history. Second, prices have
never been more reasonable for better food and
service. As mentioned in last week’s Virtual Gourmet,
scores of very good restaurants offer three-course
meals--some with
wine and all
including
tax and service--for under $40. Third, Parisian
service, even at the three-star level, has never
been friendlier and more helpful, and any traveler
showing a sincere interest in what makes a
restaurant special will be treated with the utmost
hospitality.Speaking
French is not a requisite for fine service.
Of course, what Parisians don’t care
for is the American tourist who books a table then
proceeds to order a salad as a main course, asks for
ice in the red wine, and shows no interest
whatsoever in the specialties of the house.They
figure, rightly, that you might as well have stayed
home.In
France, the customer is not always
right, not by a long shot.
As for dress codes, almost
none exist, even in the three-star restaurants,
where most gentlemen will wear a jacket but a
necktie has become something of a rarity, even in
Paris, tant
pis. Even Jules Verne, the stellar
ultra-fancy restaurant within the Eiffel Tower, only
requests "Appropriate dress. . . T shirts, shorts
and sports clothes will be refused."
On my latest trip to Paris a few
weeks ago, along with my older son, who is in the
restaurant business, I went from bistro to
three-star dining, always being enchanted at how
good the food was, how superb the ingredients, how
impeccable the service, and how just plain enjoyable
it was to dine out. Joie de vivre never tasted so
good.
Our
first meal, under the gloom of jet lag, was at a
favorite old spot, Le Grand Colbert,
on a side street near the Palais Royal Gardens, La
Place des Victoires and the Stock Exchange.Named
after Louis XIV’s principal minister, who bought the
space in 1637--his bust looks out on all that goes
on in the dining room---it has been a restaurant
since 1900.
Closed in the 1980s, Le Grand
Colbert has been managed since 1992 by Joël Fleury
and has grown in popularity by attracting people from the Exchange
and the nearby theaters, and you may recognize it
from the scene in the 2000 film “Something’s Gotta
Give” (right)
when Jack Nicholson surprises Diane Keaton on her
birthday at the restaurant.(There’s
a poster on the front door.)
When you walk in you’ll be well
greeted, and, if you arrive on the early side, have
your pick of tables. Impeccably renovated, the room
retains its buoyant fin de siècle décor, with
sculpted pilasters, Pompeian-style paintings (a
rarity in Paris restaurants), mosaic floor, brass
railings, blackboard menu and etched glass, all of
which qualifies it as a Grande Brasserie and
Historic Monument.
Of course, La
Grand Colbert offers all the classics, from frogs’
legs rich in garlic butter (€19) to a generous slab
of duck foie gras terrine engelée
(€24), and a bubbly onion soup in white ceramic pot
(€11).They
serve eight icy pink shrimp (left) from the
Indian Ocean (20 €) that are sweet and very pretty,
and there are variously priced seafood trays mounted
with crab, oysters, whelks, and much more.
My son had an enormous portion of
calf’s liver with caramelized small white onions and
steaming hot potatoes gratin (€26), while I had an
old favorite, blanquette de veau with morels (€24),
which was all right, but whose cream sauce was a bit
thin.For
dessert we had delightfully rummy baba cake(€9.60)
and the always irresistible profiteroles drenched in
hot dark chocolate (€12.70).
The wine list could use updating.
Le Grand Colbert offers three
courses at a remarkable €37 at lunch and after 10:30
p.m., making it a good spot for after theater.
That
night we took the Métro over to the 11th
Arrondissement of the Left Bank to dine at Aux Prés,
a year-old spot run by chef-restaurateur
Cyril Lignac, who also owns the posh but
unpretentious Le Quinzieme.At Aux
Prés, on the Rue de Dragon, formerly a hot spot
called Claude Sainlouis, Lignac clearly wants to
have some fun within the small space with its
fuchsia-colored awning, a tiny back room with red
banquettes (the front is not as loud), pretty
flowered wallpaper, and a sleek white marble bar
overseen by an extremely affable, English-speaking
fellow whom you should trust to choose your wine.
The black sandstone flatware is by Les Guimards.
There are two prix fixe menus
here: three courses at €39 or two at €29. They also
serve brunch on weekends.
Aux Prés gets a neighborhood
crowd, and it tilts young, but the music in the
background never blasts out at you as you’d find in
a similar spot in the U.S., so conversation fills
the ambiance with a cheeriness you get when people
are finding their food deliciously different.
There is, in fact, a hamburger
with frites
on the menu--increasingly popular all over town--but
you may want to start with a salad of soft egg, kale
(even Paris has kale on
its brain these days), orange slices and carrots
scented with cumin.You don’t expect tacos in a Parisian bistro,
but Aux Prés’s, filled with tasty roasted chicken in
a satay sauce, leaps at least three continents in
culture, and they’re very good. So, too, are the empanadas of
beef with eggplant and a spicy tomato sauce. For a
novel turn onthe classics, sweetbreads come with
bittersweet condiments and carrots are recommended.
Charmingly plated desserts
include a rich pain perdú with summer cherries,
pears and caramel vanilla ice cream (left);
strawberry Melba; and a salted butter caramel
éclair.
I returned
to one of my old favorites that looks brand new, the
charming Les
Bouquinistes, set on the Seine near
Notre Dame.Although
more than a decade old, this modern bistro by master
chef Guy Savoy (who has a 3-star namesake restaurant
in Paris and a restaurant in Las Vegas) has shiny
black surfaces that never look drab, helped by tall
windows that let in the Paris sunlight, twilight and
night lights along the Seine and its beautiful
bridges. There’s a spectacular glass wine wall above
a dining counter,and, since a “bouquiniste”
commemorates the used book sellers located along the
river, books hang every which way in the room. There
are table mats on white tabletops, which bespeak the
nouvelle décor
of Paris's casual restaurants. Les Bouqinistes’s
manager, Cedric Jossot, wait staff and sommelier are
all in black and white, young and good looking. The wine list is
excellent but fairly expensive.
The best way to go here is
with the fixed price menus, which include a glass of
wine.
The
chef here is Stéphane Perraud, and his cooking
shares the lightness of Savoy’s rendering of classic
French cuisine in thoroughly modern ways. Every dish
we tried was not just beautifully presented and
executed but suffused with essential flavors,
starting with a tartare of salmon and crevettes
atop a pretty round of crushed cucumbers (left). Soups
are gossamer, slightly foamy and include wild
mushrooms or foie gras. Translucent ravioli
are packed with prawns and vegetables in a verbena
emulsion. Marvelously juicy and flavorful lamb chops
come with spring onions and peas, and gaufrette
potatoes (€36), and suckling pig is
braised slowly, the meat becoming velvety, served
with mashed potatoes (€35). This is hearty
food--no in Paris thinks eating meats like duck is
too heavy for summer--and here it is sliced into
pink slabs and accompanied by confit potatoes,
broccoli and a vinaigrette that cuts the fattiness
of the fowl (€34).
For dessert he'll make meringue
from tea and place them with tea sorbet and
strawberries (€15), and perfect peaches are
marinated in verbena syrup and sided with
cherry-basil sorbet and red currant cake (€14).
Yet all of this splendor is
served up with an attitude that you are there to
have fun, marvel a little at the food, and enjoy
yourself in the surroundings of refined but casual
chic--one that has remained so for well over a
decade.
Open daily for lunch and
dinner. Set menus include six courses at €89, lunch
€32, €36 and €45 (with a glass of wine), as well as
a la carte, with starters at €19-€25 and mains
€34-€36, all including VAT and service.
In
recent years I have championed dining in the world’s
best hotels, because, rather than merely offering a
dining room as an amenity, hotel restaurants are now
expected to draw guests and profits, which can be
done only with superior food and service.
I shall bespending an entire column next
week on the three-star L’Èpicure at Le Bristol
Hotel, because there is so much to say. But here are
three others where I would as soon dine in Paris as
anywhere, not least for the atmosphere each
possesses and the commitment to high quality,
difficult to achieve in a free-standing restaurant.
Alain Ducasse
has a three-star restaurant at the gloriousHôtelPlaza Athenée,
whose renovation has given it a high polish without
losing any of its classic luxury, but I instead
dined at Le Relais
(which Ducasse also oversees) on the same premises.This is
one of Paris’s most glamorous dining venues, sleek
and swank from the glossy lighted bar to the main
dining area (left),
another three steps up. There’s
a distinct worldliness in the air here, with an
international crowd that enjoys the pamperingit
receives from a fast-paced waitstaff. The bar is a
place any man should consider for first meeting a
beautiful woman.
The white asparagus had just come
into the market, so we gobbled them up with their
rich sauce (€32).I’ve always loved the rosy slab of foie gras
mi-cuit
here, served with cherry chutney and warm brioche
(€34).As
everywhere in Paris now, Le Relais offers Italian
dishes à la française, like risotto with Périgord
truffles (€72) and rigatoni with morels and fava
beans in a sauce of vin jaune and cream (€32).Even the
bouillon of artichokes has green ravioli bobbing
about (€24).
There are six seafood main
courses and nine meats on the menu, including the plats du jour.Dover
sole meunière with very buttery potatoes mousseline
and sautéed spinach (€72) is always listed and one
of the richest seafood dishes in the city, perfect
with a glass of Champagne. Brittany turbot (€64) is
a splendid example of a fish that never seems to
travel well across the Atlantic.Here it
comes with green cabbage and red wine matelote sauce.The lamb
at Le Relaisis
milk-fed and very tender, served with eggplant
caviar, crushed potatoes and a drizzle of olive oil
(€46).
One must have the signature “religieuse
caramel au beurre sale” (€18), an éclair-like
pastry with ganache and crème patîssière (I’ll let
you wonder why it’s named after a nun) and the
liquid-centered moelleux of
dark chocolate (€20) is highly recommended. There
are fixed price dinners at €46 for two courses, €58
for three, and a Menu Jazz at €78 for three.
Certainly
one of the loveliest of locations on the Champs
Elysée is Hôtel
Barrières Le Fouquet, whose
silvery awning and blue carpet lead to a chic
check-in desk and lobby whose walls are decked with
scores ofblack-and-white
photos of the great movie stars who have stayed
here.With
just 81 rooms with butler service, the hotel is
discreet and seems removed from the bustle just
outside. The rooms are a marvel of modern Parisian
design and comfort, full of light, with bathrooms
one could get lost in.
The hotel offers several dining
options, including a café along Rue Georges Cinq;
the Provençal-inflected La Maison de Nicole (named
after owner Nicole Rubi); an interior Fouquet’s
restaurant with its lovely terrace dining area on
the Champs Elysée; and a superb gastronomique restaurant, Le
Diane, with an outdoor garden.
The fine
interior dining room, called Fouquet's (left) that
leads to the terrace, is done in rich red
fabrics and polished wooden décor, with white roses
on the hefty linen tablecloths, along with fine old
silverware and wineglasses. Here, too, the
walls are hung with movie star photos from Charles
Boyer to Carole Bouquet.
We began with asparagus lavished
with watercress cream, set with a quivering poached
egg whose yolk was as golden as the Parisian
sunshine. Tomatoes with basil and burrata
cheese was an unexpected surprise on a menu so
thoroughly French. A nicely seared filet of beef was
finely grained and very toothsome, accompanied
by a creamy Béarnaise, buttered and firm but tender
green beans, and fat fried potaoes. Merlan Colbert--a
very classic dish--was perfect: crisply fried and
buttery whiting with boiled potatoes, a raft of
chopped parsley and sauce tartare.For
dessert I recommend the luscious caramel chocolate croustillant and the brightly
colored meringueswith fresh
berries
(right). Fouquet’s wine list is
buoyed by its long history, and there are a dozen
wines by the glass.
Simply to stay and dine at Hotel
Barrieres Le Fouquet is to join in the experience of
its very long history, but to do so now is also to
partake of what is a high degree of modern
refinement.
À la carte, a
three-course meal will run about €95, with a Menu of
the Season at €90.
❖❖❖
NEW YORK
CORNER
By John Mariani
ibis
151 East 50th Street (near Lexington Avenue)
212-753-1144 ibis-nyc.com
Nothing
quite prepares you for entrance into Ibis,
a new Turkish restaurant on the site of
what was once a 1920s East Side opera
house, then a famous and lavish nightclub
called Versailles.
The new bar is spacious and well-lighted but beyond
it is a room of daunting size with tall tufted
booths, a winding staircase, cathedral dome, a
railed mezzanine, a splendid wall of back-lighted
wines, and a main floor that was once clearly meant
for dancing the night away.There is,
too, a mural depicting chanteuse Edith Piaf, who
performed here in the late 1940s when this was
Versailles, which also played host to the Desi Arnaz
Orchestra, Bob
Hope,
Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and many other top bananas
of the 1950s.Back then you could even have your fortune
read by Doris the Palmist.The continental food had
names like Chicken Maison.
I’m not old enough to remember
any of that history, but upon entering, I took in a
good sense off what the room must have been like
back then, and I’m glad the current owners have
maintained some of that art deco swank, right down
to the patterned carpets.White tablecloths would help
complete the nostalgic ambiance but they are nowhere
to be seen.
Without
ever having eaten at Versailles, I can still
guarantee its stultified cuisine would be no match
for Chef Ferhat
Aydin’s
wonderful Turkish cuisine featured at Ibis.Raised in
Istanbul, Aydin (below)
learned to cook from his grandfather, at whose
restaurant he began working at the age of 28, then
moving in 2000 to NYC, where he opened Taksim, then
to West Palm Beach to open Agora Mediterranean
Kitchen in 2012.I am happy to have him back in New York,
doing some of the finest food of its type in the
city.
Turkish
cuisine is not very different from others around the
Eastern Mediterranean, though it can be delightfully
spicier--as anyone who has been to the Spice Bazaar
in Istanbul will recognize.Our group
of four asked our superb and congenial waiter named
Kaya to choose an assortment of mezes ($21), and the
result was a lavish spread of sun-dried stuffed baby
eggplant, rice
and tomatoes, aromatically scented with fresh mint
($13 à la carte) ; lightly pan-fried, nice and
crispy phyllo rolls of cured beef tenderloin, kashkaval
cheese, tomatoes ($12); a traditional hummus and
more--all of it accompanied by some terrific hot
lavash bread of just the right texture and pull.
Lamb figures large in Turkish
cuisine, and much cooking is done on skewers, so I
was very happy with the juicy lamb brochette ($32),
as well as with the doner kebab
($28),
sliced generously from a rotisserie round of
grilled, seasoned lamb, with pita bread, tomato
sauce and yogurt. Spicier still was grilled
lamb with harissa chile pepper sauce ($27),
whose fiery heat was cooled down by creamy yogurt. Simply
grilled succulent lamb chops (below) were set
over aromatic rice pilaf dotted with sweet currants
and pine nuts ($38).And just to see how the kitchen does beef, I
ordered a fine grilled Prime beef
tenderloin with lemony potatoes and a whiff of thyme
($38).A
fillet of branzino with baby arugula ($28) was as
good as many at Italian restaurants around town.
The desserts ($9-$11) stay
traditional, with almond pudding, halva with ice
cream, and lovely stuffed apricots with clotted
cream and pistachio dust. And while the baklava was
good, its layers might have been crispier.
Ibis’s wine list, if not
extensive, is notable for having several Turkish
wines of top quality on it--this at a time when in
Turkey itself being able to buy alcohol of any kind
can be difficult.
I doubt
many people would expect a Turkish restaurant of
these dimensions and refinement would be found in a
former nightclub where Desi Arnaz led the band, but
with or without the musical ghosts of NYC’s cabaret
history, Ibis would stand out anywhere in Manhattan.
Open for
dinner Mon.-Sat.
❖❖❖
NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
MASCIARELLI WANTS MONTEPULCIANO D'ABRUZZO
TO GAIN RESPECT AMONGITALIAN WINES
By John Mariani
One of my fondest
memories from my salad days is of lounging
under a wild oak tree with my wife in the
National Park of Italy’s Apennine region
of Abruzzo, eating country bread and smoky
scamorza cheese with a full liter of
montepulciano d’abruzzo wine. After a well deserved nap, we woke up,
pointed to each other and said in unison, “Your
teeth are purple!” That was pretty much the way it was with
montepulciano d’abruzzo back then, when this
workhorse grape (which is not the same varietal as
the Tuscan vino nobile de montepulciano) had
little or no reputation for quality beyond its
ability to quench thirst and induce sleep. Indeed, for most of the past two decades
the only montepulciano d’abruzzo you could find in
wide distribution in the U.S. was the deservedly
cheap Casal Thaulero, available in big screwtop
bottles. The most you could say about about it was
that it was an inexpensive, sturdy red wine that
was okay for a casual meal. Since then, with the amazing rise in
quality throughout Italy of its regional wines,
montepulciano d’abruzzo and its white wine sister,
trebbiano d’abruzzo, have improved dramatically
among a handful of producers who make wines of
complexity, distinctive character and a certain
refinement. Abruzzo is a very diverse region east of
Rome and extending to the Adriatic. It has
impressive mountains, a great plain, a
tourist-rich coastline, and a history of fine
cooks. Twenty
years ago the only Abruzzese vintner of note was
the legendary late Edoardo Valentini, whose
long-lived trebbiano d’abruzzo is considered one
of the great white wines of Italy and his
montepulciano d’abruzzo every bit as good. But his
wines are not easy to find, and, if you can find
them, they cost a small fortune--with some
vintages going for $700 and more. Next to Valentini, the most respected
Abruzzese vintner right now is Masciarelli Tenute
Agricole, founded in 1978 by the late
Gianni Masciarelliand now headed by Belgrade-born Marina
Cvetic Masciarelli (below), who married him in 1989.
I met Ms. Masciarelli--whom I soon was
calling Marina--for dinner in New York and found
her ebullience (and impeccable English) is not
just part of her charm but of her intent to make
montepulciano d’abruzzo as famous as Italy’s
finest, including the so-called Super Tuscans and
the Piedmontese wines of Angelo Gaja.She is
convinced this once workhorse grape of Abruzzo can
rival the illustrious sangioveses and nebbiolos of
those regions. Marina grew up
in the wine estate of her grandfather, who
produced wines in Croatia. After marrying Gianni
Masciarelli, she became involved in every aspect
of the business, including production and
marketing, and she has helped to expand the
company’s holdings to 350 hectares of vineyards in
all four provinces of Abruzzo--Chieti, Teramo,
Pescara and L’Aquila.The company’s headquarters
are in San Martino. Marina knew
immediately upon taking full control in 2008 after
her husband’s death that modernization of the
estate, vineyards and winery was needed to extract
the best from the grapes.She
also has been a big promoter of wine tourism in
Abruzzo, inviting visitors to stay at the estate’s
baronial but rustic Castle
of Semivicoli (above).Her
motto is“Land,
sky and vineyards are a life therapy.”
Over a dinner that ranged from
pizza to sausages and roast chicken, I sampled
several of Masciarelli’s current releases,
including a very impressive Villa Gemma Bianco
Colline Teatine 2013 ($15), a blend of
trebbiano d’abruzzo, cococciola and chardonnay
that, despite its youth, had remarkable richness,
intense bouquet, and a creaminess not too distant
from Angelo Gaja’s much-praised chardonnays. Masciarelli also
makes its standard-bearer 100% trebbiano d’abruzzo
2011 ($43), fermented in new oak. The
alcohol in this bottling reaches an amazing
14.5%--not a level I find appealing in most white
wines--but I could tell this had tremendous
potential for aging, and with its acidity and
honeyed fruit, it’s a wine I want to taste again
in five years. I also sipped a delightfully rosy Villa Gemma Cerasuolo
d’Abruzzo 2013 ($15), an easy-drinking
deep rosato with plenty of cherry flavor and
color; it is ideal as a summer aperitif as well as
with grilled poultry, pizza and salmon.
Turning to the montepulcianos,
I found the Marina
Cvetic San Martino 2010 ($28) an
excellent way to introduce wine lovers to the
varietal and the brand.It’s not likely you’ll
mistake this for a chianti or vino nobile di
montepulciano, for the intensity of bouquet and
big fruit and spice is forceful right at the first
sip, expressive of the Abruzzese terroir.This
wine has been made for many years at the estates
and is its most available, with 400,000 bottles
produced annually. If that wine converts you to the varietal,
you may pay your deepest respects to Villa Gemma
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2006 ($86) now
in the market, which is made from grapes from
30-year-old vines that have been stressed to find
water deep in the soil, resulting in smaller
grapes richer in sugar, which explains its 14.5%
alcohol.It
is a massive wine, best for continued aging, and I
would certainly rank it with Valentini examples at
five times the price.Masciarelli makes about
19,000 bottles each year. And, since
Masciarelli makes a certain number of magnums of
Villa Gemma,that is certainly something I want to let
age for at least a decade, when it will prove the
longevity of a varietal that once was famous for
turning one’s teeth purple.Ten
years from now montepulciano d’abruzzo and
trebbiano d’abruzzo should enter with dignity the
pantheon of Italy’s most respected wines. “You have to accept what the gods give you
in the vineyard,” said Marina, “then you work hard
to make the best wines you can.”
❖❖❖
COMING UP ON THE
NEXT MENU, "STOCKHOLM
ROADKILL"
A
"gourmet food truck for dogs" named Wonderboo
opened in Stureplan, Sweden, created by Magnus
Rosengren, who says, “I want to help dog owners
give their dogs the best conditions for a long and
healthy life while making it convenient.” Dishes
include Swedish Ox, which is made with oxblood, and a
“light” version for smaller pets.
ACTUALLY WE WERE JUST
IN THE MOOD FOR A LOBSTER ROLL
"If you're looking for a little unce-unce in your
Hampton's dining experience, Beaumarchais' Jonathan Rapillo
recently opened Sienna, which is a collaboration with
Pink Elephant."--Grub
Street, New York
Magazine.
❖❖❖
Any of John Mariani's
books below may be ordered from amazon.com.
I'm proud and happy to announce that my
new book, The Hound
in Heaven (21st Century Lion Books), has just
been published through Amazon and Kindle.
It is a novella, and for
anyone who loves dogs, Christmas, romance, inspiration,
even the supernatural, I hope you'll find this to be a
treasured favorite. The story concerns how,
after a New England teacher, his wife and their two
daughters adopt a stray puppy found in their barn in
northern Maine, their lives seem full of promise. But when
tragedy strikes, their wonderful dog Lazarus and the
spirit of Christmas are the only things that may bring
back his master back from the edge of despair.
“What a huge surprise turn this story took! I was
completely stunned! I truly enjoyed this book and its
message.” – Actress Ali MacGraw
“He had me at Page One. The amount of heart, human insight,
soul searching, and deft literary strength that John Mariani
pours into this airtight novella is vertigo-inducing.
Perhaps ‘wow’ would be the best comment.” – James
Dalessandro, author of Bohemian
Heart and 1906.
“John Mariani’s Hound in
Heaven starts with a well-painted portrayal of an
American family, along with the requisite dog. A surprise
event flips the action of the novel and captures us for a
voyage leading to a hopeful and heart-warming message. A
page turning, one sitting read, it’s the perfect antidote
for the winter and promotion of holiday celebration.” – Ann
Pearlman, author of The
Christmas Cookie Club and A Gift for my Sister.
“John Mariani’s concise, achingly beautiful novella pulls a
literary rabbit out of a hat – a mash-up of the cosmic and
the intimate, the tragic and the heart-warming – a Christmas
tale for all ages, and all faiths. Read it to your children,
read it to yourself… but read it. Early and often. Highly
recommended.” – Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling
author of Pinkerton’s War,
The Sinking of The Eastland, and The Walking Dead: The Road To
Woodbury.
“Amazing things happen when you open your heart to an
animal. The Hound in
Heaven delivers a powerful story of healing that
is forged in the spiritual relationship between a man and
his best friend. The book brings a message of hope that can
enrich our images of family, love, and loss.” – Dr. Barbara
Royal, author of The
Royal Treatment.
Modesty forbids me to praise my own new book, but
let me proudly say that it is an extensive
revision of the 4th edition that appeared more
than a decade ago, before locavores, molecular
cuisine, modernist cuisine, the Food Network and
so much more, now included. Word origins have been
completely updated, as have per capita consumption
and production stats. Most important, for the
first time since publication in the 1980s, the
book includes more than 100 biographies of
Americans who have changed the way we cook, eat
and drink -- from Fannie Farmer and Julia Child to
Robert Mondavi and Thomas Keller.
"This book is amazing! It has entries for
everything from `abalone' to `zwieback,' plus more
than 500 recipes for classic American dishes and
drinks."--Devra First, The Boston Globe.
"Much needed in any kitchen library."--Bon Appetit.
Now in Paperback,
too--How Italian Food Conquered the
World (Palgrave Macmillan) has won top prize from the
Gourmand
World Cookbook Awards. It is
a rollicking history of the food culture of
Italy and its ravenous embrace in the 21st
century by the entire world. From ancient Rome
to la dolce
vita of post-war Italy, from Italian
immigrant cooks to celebrity chefs, from
pizzerias to high-class ristoranti,
this chronicle of a culinary diaspora is as
much about the world's changing tastes,
prejudices, and dietary fads as about
our obsessions with culinary fashion and
style.--John Mariani
"Eating Italian will
never be the same after reading
John Mariani's entertaining and
savory gastronomical history of
the cuisine of Italy and how it
won over appetites worldwide. . .
. This book is such a tasteful
narrative that it will literally
make you hungry for Italian food
and arouse your appetite for
gastronomical history."--Don
Oldenburg, USA Today.
"Italian
restaurants--some good, some glitzy--far
outnumber their French rivals. Many of
these establishments are zestfully described
in How Italian Food Conquered the World, an
entertaining and fact-filled chronicle by
food-and-wine correspondent John F.
Mariani."--Aram Bakshian Jr., Wall Street
Journal.
"Mariani
admirably dishes out the story of
Italy’s remarkable global ascent
to virtual culinary
hegemony....Like a chef gladly
divulging a cherished family
recipe, Mariani’s book reveals the
secret sauce about how Italy’s
cuisine put gusto in gusto!"--David
Lincoln Ross,
thedailybeast.com
"Equal parts
history, sociology, gastronomy, and just
plain fun, How Italian Food Conquered the
World tells the captivating and delicious
story of the (let's face it) everybody's
favorite cuisine with clarity, verve and
more than one surprise."--Colman Andrews,
editorial director of The Daily
Meal.com.
"A fantastic and fascinating
read, covering everything from the influence
of Venice's spice trade to the impact of
Italian immigrants in America and the
evolution of alta cucina. This book will
serve as a terrific resource to anyone
interested in the real story of Italian
food."--Mary Ann Esposito, host of PBS-TV's
Ciao
Italia.
"John Mariani has written the
definitive history of how Italians won their
way into our hearts, minds, and
stomachs. It's a story of pleasure over
pomp and taste over technique."--Danny Meyer,
owner of NYC restaurants Union Square
Cafe, The Modern, and Maialino.
❖❖❖
FEATURED
LINKS: I am happy to report
that the Virtual
Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites:
I consider this the best and
savviest blog of its kind on the web. Potter is a
columnist for USA
Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury Spa Finder,
a contributing editor for Ski and a frequent contributor
to National
Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com
and Elle Decor.
"I’ve designed this site is for people who take
their travel seriously," says Potter. "For
travelers who want to learn about special places
but don’t necessarily want to pay through the nose for
the privilege of staying there. Because at the end
of the day, it’s not so much about five-star
places as five-star experiences." THIS WEEK: SWISS TRAINS AND THE
ITALIAN LAKE DISTRICT
Eating Las
Vegas is the new on-line site for
Virtual Gourmet contributor John A. Curtas.,
who since 1995 has been commenting on the
Las Vegas food scene and reviewing
restaurants for Nevada Public Radio.
He is also the restaurant critic for KLAS
TV, Channel 8 in Las Vegas, and his past
reviews can be accessed at KNPR.org.
Click on the logo below to go directly to
his site.
Tennis Resorts Online:
A Critical Guide to the
World's Best Tennis Resorts and Tennis Camps, published
by ROGER COX, who has spent more than two decades
writing about tennis travel, including a 17-year stretch
for Tennis magazine.
He has also written for Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, New York Magazine, Travel &
Leisure, Esquire, Money, USTA Magazine, Men's Journal,
and The Robb
Report. He has authored two books-The World's Best Tennis
Vacations (Stephen Greene Press/Viking
Penguin, 1990) and The
Best Places to Stay in the Rockies (Houghton Mifflin,
1992 & 1994), and the Melbourne (Australia) chapter
to the Wall Street
Journal Business Guide to Cities of the Pacific Rim (Fodor's
Travel Guides, 1991).
nickonwine:
An engaging, interactive
wine column by Nick Passmore, Artisanal Editor, Four
Seasons Magazine; Wine Columnist, BusinessWeek.com;
nick@nickonwine.com; www.nickonwine.com.
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John
Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani,
Robert Mariani,Misha
Mariani,
John A. Curtas, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein,
Andrew Chalk,Dotty Griffith and Brian Freedman. Contributing
Photographers: Galina Dargery, Bobby
Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.