In a country with an inordinate number of beautiful cities and towns, Lucerne stands out even in Switzerland.  Most of its allure is the sheer location of the city within sight of the Alps and on the banks of the crystal blue Lake Lucerne, which appears to have been pushed into the cityscape by a water god’s huge index finger.  The silver-white clouds seem meticulously painted in each morning, then smeared into fiery orange and deep violet at twilight.
    As the central Switzerland capital of the German canton of Lucerne, it is a small city, with only about 82,000 people, compared with Lausanne’s 140,000 and Zurich’s 1.5 million residents. For that reason, and because the local government rigorously maintains the historic appearance of a city whose buildings are painted in a form of whimsical graffiti, Lucerne appears largely immutable, not least the famous 14th century wooden covered Chapel Bridge that spans the River Reuss. Sadly damaged by a fire in 1993, much of it had to be replaced and replicated, but you can still see the 17th century painted scenes in the supporting woodwork, which I trust are now well protected from the ravages of time.
    The Chapel Bridge (left) is Lucerne’s most endearing landmark—with two others downriver, the Spreuer Bridge and the Mill Bridge—along with an adjacent watch tower, but there is hardly a street or plaza that appears when you curve past a church that does not hold considerable architectural and artistic interest.
    The city has been Catholic for centuries, so in addition to the usual excess of small churches, including the sober-sided Jesuit St. Paul's (right), whose interior is gussied up as of the 17th century with an effusive baroque interior you would never find in a Protestant church.
    One of the city’s beloved landmarks is the “Lion of Lucerne” monument by Bertel Thorvaldsen, in memory of the Swiss guards slain while defending the Tuileries in Paris in 1792. There is a museum devoted to Richard Wagner, who lived in Lucerne for six years, which includes the Erard grand piano on which Wagner completed “The Mastersingers of Nuremberg” and other works.
    The History Museum is devoted to the artifacts of the cultural-historical and folkloristic past of the canton, while the Glacier Garden takes you all the way back to the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago and beyond to a time 20 million years ago when the area sprouted palm trees as a subtropical ocean region.
    The website for the Museum of Art Lucerne (left) poses the question, “Do  the names Hodler or Vallotton mean anything to you? These gentlemen are two of Switzerland’s best-known artists [and] they and their artist compatriots are the focus of the collection of the Museum of Art Lucerne.” So be it, but the very modern museum has a great deal more to offer to those open to learning about Swiss art from the Renaissance to the present day.
    Usually the idea of visiting a Museum of Transport (below) sends me in the other direction, but I found myself astounded by the richness of a collection sprawled over acres and several floors, with many interactive features, that gives an in-depth history of everything from the earliest river boats and massive steam locomotives to horse drawn carriages and a fantastic array of automobiles that includes dozens of the finest Italian sports cars. Inside there are flight simulators, exhibits of space exploration and aviation movies, and outside a  number of historic airplanes. There is also Switzerland’s largest cinema screen showing 3-D documentaries on the achievements by man in the field of transportation that have taken us to the moon and back. It is not a museum to be missed.
    As everywhere in Switzerland, the arts count heavily in a civilized society, and Lucerne holds arts festivals throughout the year, including summer’s Lucerne Festival for classical music whose musicians are chosen from around the world to join the city’s Festival Orchestra. In June the “B-Sides” pop music festival takes place, showcasing alternative music and indie rock; the following month brings in The Lucerne Blues Festival.
    The best way to get around and to visit these attractions is with The Visitor Card, which gives you free use of buses and trains within the city,  as well as a range of discounts for cableways, mountain railways, museums and excursions in the Lake Lucerne Region.
    As remarkable and varied as these cultural attractions are, however, if you removed them all from Lucerne, you’d still have a city whose principal appeal will be along the waterfront promenade and throughout the streets and plazas in the old part of town. You can take a one-hour yacht cruise (left) on Lake Lucerne (there’s an audio guide in 11 languages) and a boat across the lake and a tram up to the magnificent Bürgenstock Resort (which I shall be writing about soon).
    Zigzagging across the Reuss River on Lucerne’s three bridges brings you to different neighborhoods, each with its own compact charms. Streets might be broad or narrow, but their connecting passageways and few grids always make the next turn a surprise. You may find a block of buildings with their facades gaily painted, including the Old Town Hall overlooking the Kornmarkt, built early in the 17th century.  To the left there is a building called the Am Ryhn House in which the Rosengart Collection shows its Picasso holdings. Nearby is Stag Square, where Goethe stayed and wrote at the Goldener Adler hotel, though now very modern and without a trace of 19th century décor. There is a Wine Market with very pretty buildings, and outdoor food markets are held with weekly regularity.
    Everyone walks in Lucerne—I never saw a taxi or Uber car—and that makes it a marvelously quiet city, day and night. You have to listen carefully to hear the babble of the water break on the Reuss that quickens the flow from the widest part of the river. It’s the kind of gentle, calming rippling well worth remembering long after you’ve left Lucerne, when you find it hard to fall asleep.

        At a time when the New York food media go giddy over ramen shops, tacquerias and pizzerias, there are certain high-end restaurant openings that cannot be ignored, especially if the chef has the name recognition of Jonathan Benno, first as chef de cuisine at Thomas Keller’s Per Se, then as executive chef at Lincoln Ristorante at Lincoln Center. At both places, refinement was the order of the day, along with an attention to precision, color and invention without pretension. So his appearance at a restaurant in The Evelyn Hotel with his name on the door made it requisite for the New York media to pay court. He won three stars from the Times.
    At the hotel Benno runs three places—a casual trattoria named Leonelli Taberna, a bakery named Leonelli Focacceria & Pasticcieria, and his fine dining spot and bar, Benno. It’s a big operation within small spaces, the last up a few steps and through a separate doorway. The greeting by Manager Andrea Verardo will be affably cordial, as is the staff. The chef de cuisine is Justin Skribner.
    At Lincoln Ristorante Benno’s menu was dedicated to modern Italian cuisine, but here he is drawing on classic and modern Mediterranean and French concepts as well, all based on the finest ingredients he can obtain, whether from Montauk or  Monterey Bay. There are five sections to the menu— Vegetables & Grains, Seafood & Meat, Pastas, Mains and Desserts—available at three- ($105), four- ($135) or five-course ($155) options, with added wine pairings available. You may choose from any of the categories in whatever order you wish.
    Dinner begins with filaments of grissini breadsticks while you peruse wine director Aaron Rock’s 20-page wine list, rich in Nebbiolos, Brunellos and Bordeaux, with 20 labels from the 2005 vintage. Rock is as knowledgeable as he is passionate and will guide you to the right wine in your price range.
    Among the starters, a coddled egg sounds a little dull until you taste Benno’s with buttery fingerling potatoes, young leeks, porcini mushrooms and a lush black truffle mousseline. So, too, the addition of mustard seed and marigold adds to the flavor and texture of a fluke crudo, whereas the yellowfin tuna is of such superb quality that the accompanying cucumbers and radish register only subtly. A salad of roasted beets is really an amalgam of sunchokes, amaranth, radishes, pomegranate, garnet yam and vadouvan yogurt.
    The pastas could be the star items on the menu, from a risotto with celery root, red walnut, black truffle and castelrosso cheese, and cansoncelli ravioli from Veneto with roasted artichokes, black truffle, brown butter and pecorino romano, to garganelli verdi with a rich veal and porcini ragù and a spaghetti of the roasted grain called gran arso tossed with clams, sea urchin and scallion.  A large raviolo comes with vegetables, ricotta and brown butter, while Sardinian malloreddus is in a hefty sauce of braised lamb, tomatoes, capers and oregano. Agnolotti del plin, a kind of Piedmontese ravioli, is stuffed with duck foie gras and juniper for its aromatic character.
    But there’s every bit as much flair and innovation in the main courses, starting with yellowfin tuna with fingerlings, a confit of tomatoes, picholine olives and a pistou, along with lobster with peas, carrots, chanterelles and mustard sauce.  Skate, too rarely seen on menus, shows its mettle with sliced almonds, butter and a lovely, light peeky toe crab mousse and acorn squash. Another neglected species, sea trout, is poached carefully in olive oil to become lustrous, with Moroccan olives, butter endive, sweet currants, pink-fleshed cara cara orange and grapeseed-based arak liquor—not just an imaginative dish but the makings of a classic to come.
    Pig’s trotter is made into a garlicky sausage, served with beans and quail eggs, and Benno uses a Long Island Pekin duck to combine with foie gras, a complex mix of North African seasonings called ras el hanout, turnips and a pistachio-date brik pastry, perhaps the heartiest item on a menu that ranges far and wide around the Mediterranean.
    Desserts by Lindsey Bittner are deceptively simple, though never simplistic, like apple sorbet with dates, pears with goat’s cheese and saffron, almonds and pear brandy sorbet. There is also a selection of cheeses available.
    This splendid cuisine and wine deserve an equally refined dining room, but sadly it is done all in browns and beige, with off-white rough brick walls, blue and maroon chairs and banquettes, the tables uncovered, the lighting flat, the tiled floor without visual interest. Tablecloths and a few gallons of paint might help to brighten the place, but for now, the décor does not match Benno’s cuisine.
    Still, by diverting slightly from the Italian food he prepared at Lincoln Ristorante and the overly detailed food at Per Se, Benno has come wholly into his own and sets a standard for New York chefs everyone else should try hard to meet.

Benno is open for dinner, Tues-Sat. 

ITALIAN WINE'S GREATEST ADVOCATE,
LUCIO CAPUTO, PASSES AWAY
By John Mariani

    All those who love Italian wine, style and culture have lost one of the most influential advocates. Dr. Lucio Caputo, founder and president of the Italian Wine & Food Institute, a non-profit organization established in 1983 to promote and improve the image of Italian wine and food in the United States, passed away last week at the age of 84, after  succumbing at last to cancer, having survived it twice before.
    Caputo was the epitome of the tall, handsome, impeccably dressed Italian gentleman, with a sly wit that belied his serious professional demeanor. As a promoter of Italian wine, fashion and textiles, no one did more for those industries in so short a time.
    Born in Monreale, Sicily,  Caputo received a doctorate in law, a degree in journalism and a doctorate in political science from the University of Palermo. He served as a correspondent then editor of the Giornale di Sicilia, one of Italy’s major daily newspapers, completed courses in public relations and was admitted to the bar and began a legal career with a major law firm.
    After completing his tour of service as a lieutenant in the Italian Air Force, Caputo joined Italy’s Foreign Trade Institute in Rome, and in 1964  was appointed deputy director of the Institute’s London office, traveling extensively throughout Europe, Africa and Asia, where he was able to defuse a dangerous trade war between Italy and the People’s Republic of China.
    Appointed Italian Trade Commissioner in New York in October 1967, he opened the new office in the World Trade Center, then in 1981 moved it uptown to Park Avenue, where it became the largest trade center of any foreign country in the United States, with a stunning enoteca wine library designed by the architect Piero Sartoro —complete with a Giorgio di Chirico painting, “Le Muse Inquietanti” (below)— that served as an invaluable resource for Italian winemakers and exporters for showing their products to an American wine media that at the time had little knowledge beyond the few imports of Chianti, Valpolicella and Soave then dominating the market.
        At the same time Caputo also promoted Italian fashion and textiles, but wine was his passion, and by inviting wine journalists to Italy on press trips he exposed them to the enormous variety of his country’s wines when Italian viticulture had taken leaps in quality and consistency, championed by a new generation of vintners who included Angelo Gaja of Piedmont, Marchesi Piero Antinori of Tuscany and Mastroberardino of Campania.
    Owing to his efforts, Italian wines came to dominate  the U.S. market for imported wine, bringing it from the insignificant presence of about 360,000  hectoliters for a value of about $37 million in 1974 to the dominant position of 2.5 million hectoliters for a value of $244 million in 1983.
    In 1982 Caputo left his government position and moved to the private sector as president of Ital Trade USA corporation.  The next year he founded the Italian Wine & Food Institute, a non-profit organization for the enhancement of the image and prestige of Italian wines, gastronomy and food products in the U.S., and in 1985 started the “Gala Italia,” a star-studded, headline-winning event that brought together some of the most illustrious names in Italian wine, food, fashion and entertainment. It has been held annually ever since.
    In 1984 Caputo left the Ital Trade USA corporation to become president of the International Trade Center, specializing in international promotional activities and public relations and in consulting services to large corporations based in New York and operating worldwide. He also became the U.S. representative of the “Ente Autonomo Fiere di Verona,” promoting the Fair’s wine, marble and furniture trade exhibitions to the U.S. and Canada and bringing American delegations to Verona to participate in these exhibitions.
    For years, he organized Italian promotional campaigns in department stores throughout the world, including Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Avenue, The KaDeWe Group and Harvey Nichols.
    On the morning of 9/11, Caputo was inside his office on the 78th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center when the first plane hit the building, escaping with his life but losing his office and all of his working records. He immediately relocated to Midtown Manhattan and was up and running soon afterwards.
    In recognition of his outstanding work in favor of Italy, the president of the Italian Republic awarded Caputo the title “Cavaliere Ufficiale” in 1972,  “Commendatore” in 1981, “Grande Ufficiale” in 1996 and “Cavaliere di Gran Croce”—the highest decoration in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
    He was a tough negotiator and could afford to be one. Whenever Italy balked at increasing his budgets at the New York Trade Commission, Caputo would shrug and say he’d quit.  Given the extraordinary success Caputo had in promoting Italian products, the bureaucrats couldn’t say no. He was worth every penny they paid for his services.
    Yet such sterling achievements and such professional honors do little to assess Caputo’s personality, one I came to know more than 40 years ago when he invited me on one of those press tours of Italian vineyards. We quickly became fast friends, and, while his English curiously never improved much over those decades, he became the most American of Italians, once telling me he had no desire to work again in Italy because of the dreary inefficiency of its bureaucracy.
    His sense of humor among friends and colleagues was every bit as effective as his lawyerly skills in persuading you to agree with his side of a dispute, and his refinement—he always kissed a woman’s hand upon greeting her—and gentility were as genuine as his intellect.
    I remember him once, back in the early 1980s, inviting a group of Sicilian winemakers to New York to meet American wine media for a tasting. Shockingly, most of the wines were oxidized, but afterwards the Sicilians complained that they had always made their wines that way and that the Americans simply could not appreciate them. Upon hearing such ignorant boasting, Caputo—in Sicilian dialect—told them, “Go out and buy a good bottle of Bordeaux or Burgundy and taste what wine is supposed to be. If you ever want to sell your wines in America, you have to change your attitude immediately.”
    That was pure Caputo: direct, informative and insistent that his highly conservative compatriots get the point as quickly as possible. What happened within the next decade, of course, is that Sicilian winemakers took his advice and today produce high quality wines all over the island.
    There is an old Sicilian proverb that goes, “Cu nesci arrinesci”—who leaves succeeds—which for me sums up the character of Lucio Caputo, who left behind what was safe and secure to tell the world how wonderful it was.

KEEP THE CHANGE
Following a fight with her boyfriend, Serina Wolfe of Buffalo, NY, used her boyfriend's credit card to get revenge after they'd had a fight by tipping a waitress in Clearwater Beach, FL, $5,000 on a $60 check. Wolfe was charged by police with grand theft.

FOOD WRITING 101: BLOCK THOSE ADVERBS!

"Alluringly sweet with currants, allspice and cinnamon. . ."
"The lamb’s job is to be obligingly tender. . . "

"The meat has been seasoned just forcefully enough. . . " 

"The butternut squash that has been languorously baked in its own juices with nothing but sugar. . . "
            --Pete Welles, "At Lokanta, Sheep’s Head Soup and Other Turkish Delights," NYTimes (7/3/19)