MARIANI’S

Virtual Gourmet


  January 16,  2022                                                                                            NEWSLETTER



Founded in 1996 

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"Maxim's, Paris" by Victor Guerrier

        

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IN THIS ISSUE
WHEN IT COMES TO TASTE,
THE CHILD IS FATHER TO THE MAN

By John Mariani

NEW YORK CORNER
MACELLERIA,
ARMONK, NY
By John Mariani

ANOTHER VERMEER
CHAPTER THREE
By John Mariani

NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
A NEW LOOK AT GEWÜRZTRAMINER
By Geoff Kalish




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On this week's episode of my WVOX Radio Show "Almost Golden," on Wed. January 19 at 11AM EST,I will be interviewing  Siân Evans, author of the new book Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them. Go to: WVOX.com. The episode will also be archived at: almostgolden.













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WHEN IT COMES TO TASTE,
THE CHILD IS FATHER TO THE MAN

By John Mariani


 

        The nostalgia for favorite foods from our childhood drives most of us either to occasionally indulge in, or consistently purchase, those that gave us pleasure in forms that extend well beyond the mere flavors of, say, a Milky Way bar, a Hostess Twinkie, a hot dog at a summer amusement park or a bowl of farina. Such favorite foods connect us with the people, places and things of a time when all coalesced in happiness and contentment—the most salient example being Marcel Proust’s tasting his mother’s madeleine cookies and lime tea, which caused him to go off and write seven volumes of  In Search of Lost Time (also called Remembrance of Things Past). 
       
Yet, so often, when, after many years, we decide to treat ourselves to one of our childhood favorite foods, we are disheartened to find they don’t taste the same as they once did. The assumption is that our taste buds have changed and that we really don’t remember clearly those tastes of our childhood. The reality is, in so many cases of processed, canned and packaged foods, the formula of ingredients has been changed over decades, especially after a conglomerate took over a small food company that had no control over the cuts in ingredients to be made in the future, usually as a cost-saving measure.
       Some time ago I interviewed a marketing person from Campbell Soup Company who, when I complained that when I’d recently had a hankering for its tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich I found the flavor of the soup like nothing I remember, admitted that the formula had been changed, because to use the original ingredients would have meant an increase in price that Americans had gotten so used to that they’d balk at paying just a few pennies more. The back of the can now reads that the contents are (in order of the percentage of ingredients) water, tomato paste, glucose and fructose, wheat flour, salt, soybean or canola oil, citric acid, “flavour” and spice extracts.
       I found wholly distasteful my first spoonful in decades of My*T*Fine chocolate pudding, which is now made from sugar, corn starch, cocoa (processed with alkali), modified food starch, and “less than 2%” natural and artificial flavors. Sounds yummy, doesn’t it?
       As a textbook lesson in how to truly screw up something every fan of Coca-Cola loved, the company released New Coke in 1985 with a different, sweeter formula that people hated. Its flop caused the brains in the marketing department to change its name to Coke II in 1990, before getting rid of the bomb entirely. Did they really think no one would notice the  change? The original formula returned as Coke Classic, once called “The Real Thing” every kid in America knew well.
        It should come as no real surprise to realize that the tastes of childhood are both intense and indelible, especially since children tend to eat so many of the same foods day after day, year after year. That flavor is imbedded in the memory forever, as much as the aroma of a mother’s perfume or the color of a doll’s dress. But there is an even deeper reason that children develop the tastes they do, and it is largely biological. Both children and adults have about the same number of taste buds—50,000—and since adults’ degenerate over time, children get to know flavors early on for reasons of natural development.
     According to “The Sweetness and Bitterness of Childhood: Insights from Basic Research on Taste Preferences” by Julie A. Mennella and Nuala K. Bobowski in the National Library of Medicine (May 20, 2015), “Children are born preferring sweet tastes, which attract them to mother’s milk and even act as an analgesic. They prefer higher levels of sweet than do adults, with preferences declining to adult levels during middle to late adolescence, which coincides with the cessation of physical growth. . . . In contrast to sweet taste, children dislike and reject bitter taste, which protects them from ingesting poisons. This heightened bitter sensitivity is also evident in the taste of the foods (green vegetables) or medicines (liquid formulations of drugs) they dislike and reject. Children’s heightened preference for sweet and dislike of bitter, though often detrimental in the modern food environment, reflects their basic biology.”
   
A study
conducted by the University of Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, comparing young male subjects between the ages of eight and 10 with adult males found that the adolescents had a higher anterior papillae density than the adults, making them more sensitive to sucrose or sweet flavors. In fact, after forty, we may lose half of them as we age, so that foods may taste less flavorful. That might explain why, as we age, we find some foods sweeter or saltier than we did in the past, but that’s different from finding a flavor has changed from what we remember.
      
While most people’s tastes greatly expand as we get older—as 18th century satirist Jonathan Swift observed, "He was a bold man that first ate an oyster"— there are certain flavors people may never find to their liking if they hated them as a child, which may or may not be the result of childhood allergies. I was never allergic to peanuts or tuna fish as a child, but to this day I cannot eat peanut butter or canned tuna without gagging. Oddly enough, I eat peanuts and love Asian peanut sauces as well as fresh tuna, both as sushi and cooked. I suspect my distaste had to do with my having gotten sick from my first peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich or tuna salad sandwich, and I never got over it. I recall living in fear a friend’s mother might invite me to stay for such a lunch. But there it is. Such food experiences stay with a person, and it’s impossible to forget the flavor of something you once loved and craved. But, with all the different foods and flavors out there to try, I can’t say I feel deprived.



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NEW YORK CORNER




MACELLERIA
111 Bedford Road
Armonk, NY
914-219-5728

By John Mariani




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      It is easy enough to come to the conclusion that the truest expression of the American restaurant’s largess—one I would tell a foreign visitor not to miss—is the Italian steakhouse. The reasons should be obvious. The menus, which differ little by region, are sure to include the most representative dishes in the American culinary canon, from crabcakes and a wedge salad to bone-in ribeyes and cheesecake, accompanied by wine lists rich in U.S. bottlings. Add in the Italian part of the quotient, there will also be fried calamari, a few pastas, a form of chicken alla parmigiana and tiramisù for dessert.
     Steak-and-chop houses date back to the 19th century, and a few, like Keens in New York and the Buckhorn Exchange in Denver, haven’t veered much away from the model set before the Civil War. The Italian steakhouse emerged in New York during Prohibition, when places like the Palm and Christ Cella added Italian specialties to the menu. This model has since become the paragon for nearly all steakhouses in the U.S., as surely as Paris set the mold for the French bistro.
     That said, the influence of established places like Peter Lüger in Brooklyn and Wolfgang’s in Manhattan is evident, and many of the new owners once worked for those restaurants. I am always delighted when the genre is carried on by new immigrants, many who began as waiters and rose to ownership of big, gregarious Italian steakhouses like Macelleria, which has branches in Armonk and Pelham, NY, and Greenwich, CT.
      Key to them all is a commitment to first-rate ingredients, large portions, personalized service, solid wine lists and the expectation that you’ll take food home. Owner Anthony Lala and  chef Joe Fusco (right) wouldn’t have it any other way.
      Macelleria  Armonk, in the beautiful lake country of northern Westchester County, is a big place, with 200 seats, but so divided to seem more intimate, with widely spaced tables, wooden floors and a stone fireplace now in operation as the cold weather takes hold. The finer details are the smaller ones: The tables are spacious, the linens of good quality, the stemware thin, the knives by Laguiole. All portions are large, and sharing or taking food home is a high probability. The wine list has real substance, and, by the glass, you get a very generous pour.
      You could certainly share a seafood salad, abundant with shrimp, scallops, crab meat, octopus, calamari and arugula in lemon vinaigrette ($24). But anyone ordering the generous crab meat cocktail ($26), made with colossal jumbo lump crab—which I’ve priced in seafood stores at $55 a pound—will greedily want to keep it all to himself. The Maryland crab cake ($24) is also a fine size, although the crab itself is closer to basic lump, not jumbo. It comes with a herb mustard sauce.
       The Italian steakhouse must get its pastas just as right as its steaks and chops, and Macelleria most certainly succeeds with dishes like spaghetti alla carbonara ($24), which begins with good pasta mixed with Italian bacon, onion, egg yolks and parmesan cheese. So, too, cavatelli ($24) have real bite when tossed with broccoli rabe, sausage and garlic and oil, while the heftiest I tried was the short rib pappardelle ($28). Each would make a main course or starter for two.
     There are no surprises among the entrees, for all are made with integrity and the same first-rate ingredients as everything else, including a gigantic portion of branzino with seasonal vegetables, lemon, rosemary and extra virgin olive oil ($42); fine chicken Martini of tender chicken breast, crusted parmesan, lemon, white wine and seasonal vegetables ($34). There are several cuts of meat, including a New York strip bone-in ($49), a ribeye ($56), lamb chops ($48), a porterhouse for one or two ($120) and a tomahawk steak for two ($156).
    You shouldn’t deny yourself dessert ($12) when they are as good as Macelleria’s, all meant to be shared, like the chocolate semi-freddo and crème brûlée.
     It’s likely you will find whatever your favorite wine is on Macelleria’s list, which is well chosen and decently tariffed.
     So, if you have friends coming in from out of town, especially from abroad, a trip to Macelleria in Armonk should be revelatory, and they’ll find that taking food home is a consequence of American generosity.

Open for lunch and dinner Tues.-Sun.

 




ANOTHER VERMEER

By John Mariani


CHAPTER THREE


"Delft" by Johannes Vermeer (c. 1660-1661)


 

         The division of labor was the first order of business for Katie and David. Who was going to do what? Katie had been a history and art major at Fordham University, and enjoyed doing scholarly investigations. She had a fine ability to go through reams of material and find the wheat among the plenitude of chaff.  Plus, she learned to speak Italian at home and French from the nuns at Villa Maria Academy in the Bronx.
        
David once dreamed of going to West Point, but he never got the invitation, so he joined the police force and took some college courses along the way to improve his pay scale. His was street knowledge, both from growing up in a tough south Bronx neighborhood and from later dealing with the mob’s wiseguys as he rose through the ranks to become First Detective. His strengths, not to mention instincts, were to piece together a semblance of the truth from a whole lot of people telling him lies.
         Knowing each other as well as Katie and David did, the avenues they would go down became immediately apparent. Katie would bone up on Vermeer and the art world, while David would use his contacts to find out the names and connections of those who had figured in some global art sales and frauds. That meant they would not always be working together but would join up whenever they needed to pool resources and information.
         Katie had already begun reading about Vermeer, only to find that, despite hundreds of articles on the artist’s works, there was precious little on the man’s life—for the simple reason that next to nothing was known about him. Indeed, his entire life could be summed up in a few bullets: 

         • Baptized October 31, 1632, in the New Church in Delft, Holland (left).

         • Married Catharina Bolenes of Gouda on April1, 1653.  They had eleven children.

         • Admitted to the artists' Guild of St. Luke as a “master” on December 29, 1653. Elected a member of the governing body of the Guild in 1663 and elected president twice.

         • Called in to give his expert opinion on a collection of Italian paintings at The Hague in 1672.

         • Buried December 15, 1675, in the Old Church in Delft.

           His widow petitioned the court for bankruptcy protection and died in 1688.

         • On May 16, 1696, twenty-one of Vermeer’s paintings were sold at an auction in Amsterdam.

 

         And that was everything that could be documented. Having lived and painted during the so-called Golden Age of Dutch art—with Rembrandt (right) as the towering figure—Vermeer seemed a respected but marginal figure in his time. And his residence in Delft, which had none of the wealth or prestige of Amsterdam or Rotterdam, meant that few important commissions would come his way at a time when the city was becoming more and more a haven for old people.
         Scholars had pieced together shards of information about Vermeer’s background. His father, Janszoon Reynier Vermeer, did well enough as a tavern keeper and silk merchant, while also achieving the title of “Master Art Dealer” in the local guild. The young Jan Vermeer entered the guild as an apprentice around 1647, probably for six or seven years, achieving a master’s title in 1653, after paying all his fees. He had already joined his father as an art dealer, though Janszoon died in 1655. 
        
There was an undocumented story that a French collector named Balthasar de Moncoys (left) sought out Vermeer in order to purchase some paintings, but found the artist had none in his shop and only one available, which was hanging in the local butcher shop.  As banal as the story was, it didn’t even have a good ending. Vermeer asked for 300 guilders for the work, but Moncoys offered no more than fifty. The sale did not go through.    
        
Nothing else was known about the artist, only surmised or postulated. Was Vermeer a Catholic or Calvinist? What artists did he study with? Who influenced his style? Why was his work so ignored? 
         
Indeed, Katie found, Vermeer was wholly underrated as an artist until 1860, when an influential French collector and art critic named Thoré began writing essays on neglected Dutch masters like Franz Hals and Vermeer, insisting they were “artists of the people,” as opposed to the flamboyant painters of the Baroque and the dark, moody Rembrandt. Vermeer came to be called the “Sphinx of Delft.”
         Thirteen Vermeers came to the United States in the late 19th century, yet interest in his work was scant until the early 20th century, when the very lack of verifiable facts about Vermeer or his paintings lent them a mysterious aura.
        Vermeer’s work showed a simplicity hiding levels of meaning, a treatment of light and color that suddenly appeared wholly modern.  He never painted a crucifixion, a Madonna and Child, or a battle scene, and his reputation soared not among academicians but among French poets who saw both beauty and psychological depth behind his simple subjects and settings—a woman with a pitcher, an artist and his model, a girl with a pearl earring—most of them painted in the same sunlit room.
Vermeer never painted a self-portrait.        
       After that, Vermeer’s fame only grew, and the irony was that it was all based on just 35 paintings, most of them not even dated or signed, each one seemingly connected but with invisible threads of meaning.  His was the smallest body of work by an artist who came to be ranked among the greatest, and the fever among museums and collectors to own even one Vermeer was fueled by larger and larger sums paid for any that came on the market.
         Most of Vermeer’s paintings, Katie found, were owned by museums and other institutions—four in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (right) and three in the Frick Collection in New York, three in the National Gallery in Washington, four in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and one each in a number of highly prestigious museums in America and Europe. Buckingham Palace owned one. The rest were in private hands.
         So, if there were any other Vermeers anywhere in the world, they were owned by collectors who for their own reasons had no intention of letting the art world know of it. None had come on the market for more than eight decades, so no one actually knew what price one would bring at auction.
         Katie opened her research on several fronts, but was focused on finding out which auction house might be in the running for the sale.  Sotheby’s and Christie’s, as the largest and most active houses dealing in Old Masters, said they were hoping to be chosen but had heard nothing thus far. Smaller houses usually specialized in lesser known or contemporary artists, along with furniture, tapestries, and books. 
        
She decided that competing houses probably would not cite any figure for so large a sale, so she contacted several first-rank Manhattan galleries that would not have the clout to compete. After coming up dry with the first three, the head of the Jonathan H. Mannion Gallery on Madison Avenue at 75th Street, the owner, a man named Kevin O’Keeffe, agreed to speak with her in person.

To read previous chapters of ANOTHER VERMEER, go to the archive
 

©
John Mariani, 2016






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NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR


A NEW LOOK AT GEWÜRZTRAMINER
By Geoff Kalish

 

 

     As comedian Rodney Dangerfield might have said, “Gewürztraminer gets no respect.” Primarily produced in cooler climates like Alsace in northeastern France, near the borders of Germany and Switzerland, and other cool regions, not only is the wine unfamiliar to many Americans, but shops that once sold it (and other Alsatian whites) are removing them from their shelves because of very low consumer demand. And, not surprisingly, overall sales of Alsatian Gewürztraminer have decreased over the past few years.
     On the other hand, the varietal (originally from the Alto Adige region of northern Italy), in general, has much to commend it, since many top selections are priced under $30 a bottle and mate well with a wide variety of fare, ranging from delicate fish choices like grilled branzino to spicy Asian specialties, and even to pork and lamb.
     So, why the lack of interest in Gewürztraminer? Probably because the wine is little understood, with flavors of lychee and grapefruit, and ranging in degrees of sweetness from dry to honeyed, in general without notification of such on the label. So, to aid consumers in their choices, I offer the following selections from tastings of a number of these wines (primarily Alsatian) over the past few months. And, while it might take a bit of searching to find them, I think you’ll find it definitely worth the effort. 

2017 F E Trimbach ($24)—Now entering its 13th generation making wine, this producer, located in scenic Ribeauville, offers this classic bottling, showing an aromatic bouquet of lychees, apricots and peaches with a long, smooth, slightly sweet finish. In addition to pork and game birds, this wine mates well with soft cheeses and a range of desserts like apple tarts and bread pudding.

 

2018 Zind Humbrecht Turkheim ($23)—Produced from 50 year-old vines grown in gravelly soil, this is the  “entry-level” Gewürztraminer for this premier winery, which also produces a half dozen other bottles from the varietal. It shows a complex, aromatic bouquet and taste of lychees, apples and pears, with more than a touch of honey and ginger in its slightly sweet finish. This wine provides a good match for smoked salmon or duck as well as veal or chicken parmigiana.

 

2017 Domaine Schlumberger “Les Princes Abbes” ($27)—Following slow, temperature-controlled fermentation, this wine was allowed to mature for about 8 months on its lees (wasted yeast) prior to bottling. It has the typical Gewürztraminer lychee and peach bouquet and flavor, but also a bit of spritz and notes of pineapple and vanilla in its finish. It pairs perfectly with roasted chicken as well as sushi or boiled shrimp with remoulade sauce.

 

2019 Willm ($17)—From the producer that was the first to export Alsatian wine to the U.S. following Prohibition, this classic shows an aromatic bouquet and taste of ripe apples and lychees, with notes of cinnamon and spice in its lively finish. It marries particularly well with Asian fare, especially Chinese and Thai, as well as blue-veined cheeses.

 

2017 Hugel & Fils “Classic” ($23)—Made from hand-picked grapes surrounding the village of Riquehihr, this wine has a fragrant bouquet and taste of lychees and grapefruit, with notes of apples and exotic spice in its dry finish. It makes excellent accompaniment for grilled tuna or  swordfish, as well as appetizers ranging from smoked salmon to bruschetta.

 

2019 Pierre Sparr ($20)—Made from sustainably farmed grapes, this is a rather simple, easy drinking example of the varietal, without as much lychee bouquet as many other bottlings. It shows a floral bouquet of honeysuckle and pears and a taste of white peach and a bit of ginger in its smooth finish. It goes well with fairly mild seafare like grilled trout or cod.

 

And, of the numerous domestic Gewürztraminer sampled over the past few months, the most enjoyable was a bottle of  Warwick Valley Winery 2020 ($17) from New York’s Hudson Valley. It showed less lychee and more apple, pear and passion fruit in its bouquet and taste than in the typical Alsatian product, but no less enjoyable, especially with shrimp, scallops and especially grilled or fried calamari with spicy tomato sauce or Buffalo style chicken wings.








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FROM THE ANNALS
OF CRUSADING
FOOD JOURNALISM!


"Who’s Really Behind Joanna Gaines’s Perfect Peanut Butter Brownies?"—Bobby Finger, Eater.com (1/12/22).




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 Any of John Mariani's books below may be ordered from amazon.com.



   The Hound in Heaven (21st Century Lion Books) 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 his master back from the edge of despair. 

WATCH THE VIDEO!

“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.




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The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink by John F. Mariani (Bloomsbury USA, $35)

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.

                                                                             






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FEATURED LINKS: I am happy to  report that the Virtual Gourmet is  linked to four excellent travel sites:

Everett Potter's Travel  Report

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." 






Eating Las Vegas JOHN CURTAS has been covering the Las Vegas food and restaurant scene since 1995. He is the co-author of EATING LAS VEGAS – The 50 Essential Restaurants (as well as the author of the Eating Las Vegas web site: www.eatinglasvegas. He can also be seen every Friday morning as the “resident foodie” for Wake Up With the Wagners on KSNV TV (NBC) Channel 3  in Las Vegas.



              



MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly.  Publisher: John Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani,  Misha Mariani, John A. Curtas, Gerry Dawes, Geoff Kalish. Contributing Photographer: Galina Dargery. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.

 

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