On this week's episode of my WVOX
Radio Show "Almost Golden," on Wed. January
6 at 11AM EST,I will be
interviewing +++++ Go to: WVOX.com.
The episode will also be archived at: almostgolden.
❖❖❖
Why Don’t More U.S. Italian
Restaurants Serve
More Regional
Italian Food?
By John Mariani
There is no question that
so many Italian restaurants in
the U.S. are now serving food that comes very
close to what you will find in
Italy. And a whole lot more, meaning nearly
every menu offers more or less the
same dishes—carpaccio,burrata,
cacio e pepe, gnocchi,
veal
Milanese, ribeyes, branzino and
tiramisù—while appending it with dishes that
really had their origins in America,
including Caesar salad, chicken
parmigiana, truffled parmesan fries and
cheesecake. What’s
still missing, however, are more restaurants
serving the food of the regions
the chefs come from, or, if they are not
Italian, at least trying to focus on a
region no one else is showing off. For a very
long while, beginning in the
1970s, the term “Northern Italian” and “Tuscan
grill” were tossed around with
next-to-no basis. “Northern” was simply a way
of suggesting a restaurant’s food
was lighter than the traditional
Italian-America “red sauce” food like lasagna
and spaghetti and meatballs. (France’sla
nouvelle cuisineclaimed the
same thing
while its proponents lavished their dishes
with beurre blanc and crème
fraîche.) It was little more than a farce
because the old southern Italian
dishes were included on the “northern”
menus, while adding items like mushrooms
(not wild, likeporcini) to
ravioli,
dressing carpaccio with adulterated truffle
oil and convincing guests that
importedburratain brinewas a more
sophisticated form of locally made
mozzarella. Back in 1980 theNew
York Timesrestaurant
critic
Mimi Sheraton praised a restaurant named Il
Nido, owned by a Tuscan, as
a “triumph of Northern Italian Cuisine,”
while praising southern dishes like
Romanspiedino, linguineamatriciana, clamsoreganatoand
zabaglione.
Some years before opening
their New York restaurant
Osteria del Circo, the late Sirio Maccioni
told his family it was
going to
serve rigorously authentic Tuscan food. One of
this three sons replied, “That
means we’re only going to have six dishes on
the menu, three of them grilled.”
When Circo opened, its menu had a few Tuscan
items like Mama Maccioni’szuppa
alla frantoianaandcacciuccoseafood
stew,
but the rest of the menu was made up of
lobster salad, rotisserie
chicken, yellowfin tuna and crème brûleé.
Indeed, the conceptualized “Tuscan
grill” concept, like “Super Tuscan Wines,”
meant nothing at all except as a
marketing phrase. You would be hard put to
find Tuscan dishes likepappardelle
con lepre(hare
sauce),cibreo(a stew
made of
chicken innards),pappa
al pomodoro(tomato
stew
with bread),stracotto(braised
beef)
or apinzimonioof
raw
vegetables with anchovy dressing.
A
few very rich dishes from Emilia-Romagna
appear in the formlasagne verdeand
the
dessert called zuppa inglese. But where does
one go for marvelous dishes
liketagliatelle alla
duchesse(with
chicken
livers),bollito misto(boiled
meats),brodetto(seafood
stew)
anerbazzone(Swiss
chard tart)?
Venice has given America carpaccio (from
Harry’s Bar) and, in a few
restaurants, risotto withseppie(cuttlefish
but
here usually made with bottled squid’s ink),
but you almost never run acrossfegato alla veneziana(calf’s
liver and
onions). The
Ligurian basil and olive oil sauce
called pesto is widespread on American menus,
but notburridoseafood stew,sbira(tripe and potato)
andcima alla Genovese(stuffed
veal
breast). It would be a rare restaurant that
serves just about anything from
that far northern region Trentino-Alto Adige
whose cuisine is influenced by
Austria, like potatospaetzleandsauresuppemade
with tripe.
Owing
to the hundreds of thousands of southern
Italians from Naples, Abruzzo,
Calabria and Sicily, a panoply of their
dishes, most with tomato sauce, are
readily available. But you can’t findtimbalo(layered
pasta
and eggplant) from Campania, the red hot chile
pepper-inflected pastas of
Abruzzo, the savorylicurdiaonion
soup
from Calabria or the paper-thin bread from
Sardinia calledpane
carasauor
theculurzones
pasta stuffed with peppers and potato.
There are scores
of authoritative regional Italian cookbooks on
American shelves containing
hundreds of recipes—written by both Italian
and non-Italian authors—Recipes
from
Paradise(Liguria)
by Fred
Plotkin;Veniceby
Russell
Norman;The
Cooking
of Parmaby Richard
Camillo
Sidoli;Soffrito:
Tradition
& Innovation in Tuscan Cooking by
Benedtta
Vitali;Naples
at
Tableby Arthur
Schwartz; andFood and
Memories of Abruzzoby
Anna Teresa Callen.
As mentioned, many chefs
in Italian restaurants were not born in Italy,
and in eastern cities fine cooks
and restaurateurs from Albania, Montenegro,
Slovenia and Croatia have had a
major impact on the scene, though few put
regional dishes on their menus.
I
like to think, then,
that Italian food in the U.S. is on the verge
of a new phase when menus diverge
from the tried-and-true into better
representatives of a country with so many
provinces and so many ingredients that we
barely get to eat right now.
❖❖❖
Bar Tulix NYC
Brings New Ideas And Dashing Decor To Soho By John Mariani
The reason
that so many ethnic restaurants in America
have
such similar menus is because they have become
sheer comfort food, not least in
Mexican restaurants where you’re as likely to find
burritos, quesadillas and
nachos at Taco Bell as at an upscale restaurant
with a décor of serapes,
sombreros and Día de los Muertos puppets. Indeed,
Tex-Mex fare is far more
widely served in America than regional Mexican
food. There tends to be more
variety in Southwestern cities like Phoenix, Santa
Fe and Tucson, but 21stcentury Mexican
food is still rare. Thank
goodness, then, for the new Bar Tulix NYC, which
opened on the edge of Soho
last year, describing its cuisine as “coastal
Mexican,” serving far more
seafood than fish tacos. It’s an enterprise by
chef Justin Bazdarich (of
Oxomoco in Greenpoint and Speedy Romeo in Clinton
Hill, Brooklyn) and
restaurateur John McDonald of Mercer Street
Hospitality (Lure Fishbar, Bowery
Meat Company, and Hancock St.). Their experience
in attracting a clientele
begins with terrific design in a 65-seat dining
area with a colorful bar that
glistens with shelves of liquors that include an
impressive number of tequilas,
mezcals and sotols.
As you can
imagine there are several takes on the margarita.
(Putting “Bar” in the restaurant’s name was not an
idle decision.) Polished
tile walls, rose-colored floor, hanging orange
lamps that throw convivial
light, dark green booths, highly colored
banquettes and tall windows with a
display of recycled amber wine bottles hasn’t a
decorous cliché to be seen.
(There’s one prime booth that allows in an
uncomfortable draft of winter cold.)
The night I visited the place was more than half
full but not that noisy,
excepting some unwarranted piped-in music. Unlike
the dark and deafening Cosme,
you can have a good night out at Bar Tulix without
shouting. The very affable
G-M Thomas McCumber does everything he can to make
guests feel comfortable.
The menu by Bazdarich and Chef de cuisine Asia
Shabazz shows the kind of
regionalism rare elsewhere and presents it all
with color and flourish but no
pretense. The salsa trio with
crisp tostados contains habanero, guajillo and
salsa cruda ($12) gets you off on a spicy route.
Tuna tostaditos are dressed
with mayonnaise blended withchintesle, a condiment
of
smokedpasilla Oaxacachilies,
seeds
and dried shrimp as made in Mixes, with avocado,
radish and hibiscus
($22). A mix of raw seafood ceviche is prettily
plated with avocado, rounds of
cucumber, grilled pineapple and radish ($25).
The Baja-style guacamole with
salsa verde, serrano peppers and epazote oil (
$17) gains nothing by adding
flavorless microgreens; it may well be that
traditional guac cannot be improved
upon. Octopus is grilled
to a savory crispiness with a dusting of
paprika and served with red Lentils, roasted red
peppers and creamy
hazelnut-studded romesco ($26). Vegetable lovers will be very
happy with the
agave-roasted delicata squash with pepita
pumpkin seed gremolata ($25), and
Tulix’s nod to seafood shows up splendidly in
succulent branzino that’s
encrusted with masa meal, enhanced with a
bouquet of herbs, and served in soft
tacos with chipotle pepper, cucumber slaw and
greens ($31). Generous
indeed is the boneless half chickenal
pastorwith tangy-sweet
pineapple jam, a counterpoint ofsalsa
guajillo,
cilantro
and corn tortillas, which, at $29, is a bargain.
So iscochinita pibilof juicy roast
pork
suffused with flavors of pickled red onion,
cilantro and habanero salsa at $34.
Another of the heartier dishes here is the braised
short rib with black beans,
shishito peppers and the nutty Veracruz-stylesalsa
macha,
with flour tortillas ($42).Queso
fundito($25)
was pricy and a bit
bland, despite its inclusion of chorizo peppers. A
side of crisp red rice ($9)
was delicious, dressed with guajillo and
scallions.
We
had
a little room left for two desserts: A chocolate
cake ($15) was a rich success,
the tres leches, though moist, lacked the caramel
richness I’d expected ($12).
Bar
Tulix appends “NYC” to its name, too, which
suggests there might be others to
open in New York or elsewhere—they have Lure
Fishbars in Chicago and Miami—and
I can imagine they will be welcomed by anyone
anywhere who may still cherish
old-fashioned guac but who will be enticed and
excited by the uniqueness of the
food here.
❖❖❖
GOING AFTER
HARRY LIME
By John
Mariani
CHAPTER
FIVE
For
the third
time in a week, David Greco watched the
DVD of The Third Man, stopping and
starting the disc, going back and
forward to check something in a scene, listening
closely to the dialog and
taking notes.He’d also re-read Greene’s
novella, which was different enough from the
final screenplay in small ways. David
was amazed at how much he was enjoying doing the
research, for although he’d
made his mark as one of NYPD’s most intuitive
detectives, he was at its best in
interviews and interrogations, putting two and
two together, knowing who was
lying and who was telling a facsimile of the
truth, which was never one thing. David
was also well aware of the many colorings of
honor and admiration, allegiance
and betrayal in criminal activity all at work in
The Third Man.Harry
Lime
had been Holly Martins’s best friend, going back
to college, and when told of
Lime’s perfidy, Holly refuses to believe it,
then believes some of it before
believing all of it. David
had seen that in his own work with the mob: the
disbelief among wives, children
and family members that their husband, father,
uncle, friend could possibly be a
murderous monster. Then, when the shock of
recognition came, there was the
moral agony of betraying a loved one or a friend
who had already betrayed
you.Within
the Mafia, and all the rest
of the mobs for that matter, the concept of omertà
was sacrosanct—a code of silence that demanded
utter loyalty and forbade, under
penalty of harsh punishment or death. David
had seen firsthand the results of not obeying
that code of silence—the
stranglings, the dismemberments, the drownings,
guys hung up on meat hooks, and
the horrific revenge taken on a stool pigeon’s
family. Still, even as a lapsed
Catholic, David could compare the mobs’
unspeakable acts to
the torture and murder used for the same
reasons by religious zealots demanding total
allegiance--Christians, Muslims,
Buddhists, and all the rest.Equal
butcheries based on some warped idea of honor
and secrecy.Actually, when he thought about, he’d
never
heard of the Mafia ever burning anyone alive at
the stake. David
had often turned mobsters to give state’s
evidence against the capos,
hoods like John Gotti, who back
in ’91 was put away for life on the testimony of
a wiseguy named Sammy `the Bull’
Gravano.Most of the time, murderers like Gravano
copped a plea rather than go to
prison for life; other times they ratted out
because too many of their friends
had been rubbed out.David
had helped put
some of those who testified into the Federal
Witness Protection Program, which
changed their identities and sent them out to
live in humdrum developed
communities in the southwest. David tried to find
out as much as he could about what went into The Third Man, how it came about,
what Greene’s involvement was,
how the final film differed from earlier drafts
of the scripts.He borrowed the Sherry bio of Greene from
Katie and got hold of
two recent bios, one of director Carol Reed, the
other of
producer Alexander Korda. Long before ever
meeting Korda, Greene had scribbled on the back
of an envelope an opening line
for an idea: “I had paid my last farewell to
Harry a week ago, when his coffin
was lowered into the frozen February ground, so
that it was with incredulity
that I saw him pass by, without a sign of
recognition, among the host of
strangers in the Strand.”So,
when
contacted by Korda for a new screenplay,
Greene offered what he called his
“Risen-from-the-dead story,” set in London,
which Korda insisted be changed to
bombed-out, post-war Vienna as a more dramatic
backdrop for a
Hitchcockian-style postwar thriller.London would look too much like Belfast,
where Reed had filmed Odd Man Out
the previous year. Risen-from-the-dead
stories were hardly original to Greene; Christ’s
resurrection was the most
salient example, and Charles Dickens’ used the
motif in his unfinished novel, The Mystery
of Edwin
Drood.Indeed, even Sherlock Holmes, after
seeming
to fall to his death in a struggle with his arch
enemy Moriarty in the story
“The Final Problem,” bounded back to life—an
improbability demanded by his
readers--in “The Adventure of the Empty House.” There had
even been
two recent films with a similar plotline:In 1944 The Mask of
Demetrios,
based on an Eric Ambler thriller, involved a
mystery writer helping to hunt
down a criminal thought dead, in a Paris locale;
then, in 1947, Ride the
Pink Horse--a film Greene had
reviewed very favorably--concerned an American
who goes to Mexico to find the
mobster who killed his best friend, with scenes
played out at an amusement
park, just as in The Third
Man. Greene went off to
Vienna to do research, finding that the city was
quickly being restored but
still with streets piled with rubble and
half-destroyed buildings left from the
war.He
stayed at the famous Sacher
Hotel (as does Holly Martins in the film) and
visited many of the locations he
wrote into the script—the Central Cemetery, the
amusement park, the sleazy
nightclubs, and the sewers, after being been
told the Allied Commission had a
section called the “Underground Police” that
patrolled Vienna’s vast network of
sewers used by spies and criminals to pass
furtively from one zone to another. In
his research Greene
heard from local contacts about the illicit and
fake penicillin trafficking,
which gave him the fictional rope with which to
hang his character Harry Lime. Greene
went off to Rome with his mistress Catherine,
then to Ravello and Capri to work
on the screenplay. The script finished,
Korda, Reed and American producer David O.
Selznick went through the process of
adding, deleting, altering and shifting details.
In
the novella the American character was named
“Rollo,” but the American actor
Joseph Cotton, who would play the role,
objected, and it was changed to Holley.
Selznick
hated the movie’s title,
suggesting instead Night in
Vienna, The
Claiming of the Body or The
Changing
of the Chair, none of which Korda and
Reed would agree to. “One of
the very few major disputes between Carol Reed
and myself concerned the
ending,” Graham wrote in the preface to the
novella a year after the film came
out, “and he has been proved triumphantly
right.” In the
novella, after Lime’s burial, Greene had Holly
and Lime’s former lover Anna
Schmidt walk off together; in the film, Anna walks
right by Holly without so
much of a glance, all to the sound of the zither
music, which became so popular
it was named “The Harry Lime Theme.” Casting
was proceeding: Cary Grant was suggested for the
part of Holly and Noël Coward
for Lime, but in the end, Joseph Cotton got the
former role and, despite
frustrating delays, Orson Welles finally signed
to play Lime. David
was fascinated by all the anecdotes and details
he culled from his research—he
underlined pages of text in the books he
consulted—but it seemed clear to him
that The
Third Man had been, like all
movies, a collaborative effort, and that if
Greene had created Harry Lime based
on someone he actually knew, the character had
been altered to fit the movie’s
action.Since
Greene had originally
placed the action in London and had never set
foot in Vienna before going there
for research in 1948, it seemed unlikely he’d
known anyone involved in the black
market for penicillin.David
began to
think his research might be closing the door on
Katie’s project, as well as any
possibility of a trip with her to Vienna.
To read previous
chapters of GOING AFTER HARRY LIME go
to thearchive
The
colloquial comparisons made to fine wine as
to it improving with age never
really meant all that much, short of those big
brawny Bordeaux designated crus
that did need at least a few years in barrel or
bottle to achieve maximum
maturity. Just what that maximum might be is a
slippery question, because if
you wait too long even those wines may have passed
their peak and begun to
decline. For as often as I’ve been impressed with a
great old Bordeaux or
Burgundy twenty, thirty, even fifty years old, I
have been just as disappointed
to find many well past their prime, which leads
those insistent on believing
the old myth about aging to mutter, “Well, Iamsurprised it
still
has some life to it,” which is like telling a
friend on life support how well
he looks under the circumstances. Aging,
in any case, has
become more difficult to assess as wine technology
improves. Before
temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, 99% of
all the white wines in the
world were at their peak within a year or two of
their production, and only
vintage Champagnes can really gain by carefully
monitored aging in ancient
cellars. So, too, the use of new, more hygienic,
smaller oak barrels like the
barrique have decreased greatly the possibility of
contamination in the wood of
large, frequently used barrels. Nevertheless, most
fine white wines come to
market within two years of bottling.
The last but perhaps most
important factor is the fact that modern wine
producers want to get their
product to market ASAP after bottling, thereby
making them easier to drink than
in the past, when harsh tannins might have taken
years to tame and harmonize with
the other elements. Gone are the days when estates
held back their wines for a
decade or more, except for saving a few bottles as
“library wines” to show off
to esteemed visitors.
One
of the most striking examples of this was when, in
the 1990s, I had a chance to
taste a 1929 Château Mouton-Rothschild, a vintage
considered one of the best of
the last century. I swirled the glass, sniffed and
definitely got a whiff of
mustiness, but the first sip revealed that, indeed,
it still had some life in
it. Ten minutes later, however, having absorbed
oxygen from the air, it went
downhill fast and the last sip was anything but one
of the great wines of the
century. (Which gets into another topic I’ll discuss
at another time as to
whether you should decant a wine in advance of
tasting it.) One of the
most striking examples of this was when, in the
1990s, I had a chance to taste
a 1929 Château Mouton-Rothschild, a vintage
considered one of the best of the
last century. I swirled the glass, sniffed and
definitely got a whiff of
mustiness, but the first sip revealed that, indeed,
it still had some life in
it. Ten minutes later, however, having absorbed
oxygen from the air, it went
downhill fast and the last sip was anything but one
of the great wines of the
century. (Which gets into another topic I’ll discuss
at another time as to
whether you should decant a wine in advance of
tasting it.) Visit any
wine store and you’ll find that the vast majority of
white wines are from a
vintage only a year old and may never have spent any
time in an oak barrel.
With reds, two years is the age on the label most of
the time. I don’t
blame producers who have huge capital investments in
storage to want to get
their wines into the markets ASAP, and, because of
those technical advances I mentioned,
the wines will be perfectly ready to drink upon
release. As someone who drinks
these wines on an everyday basis, I have derived
great pleasure from them. A
2019 Mt Brave Merlot ($95) is based on a grape that is
known for its softness
by its nature, and this three-year-old was velvety
and fruit driven, having
spent 21 months in barrel, then bottled without
filtration, which preserved
elements of flavor that might otherwise be lost. Another
Merlot 2019 I like right now is from Walla Walla,
Washington’s L’Ecole No. 41
estate ($40), a 36-year-old winery known for
Merlots. It was barrel-aged in 35%
new French oak for 18 months. Merlot needs acid and
this example had high
natural acidity from a vintage whose weather was
freezing by mid-October.Napa Valley’s La Jota
released a 2019 blend of 81.5% Merlot, 11.5% Petit
Verdot and 7% Tannat ($100),
from a vintage with “uneventful” autumn weather than
allowed for longer
hang-time for the berries, spending 21 months in 62%
new French oak, coming in
at 14.5% alcohol. Novelty Hill, in Oregon’s Columbia
Valley, released a 2020
Merlot ($26), a warmer vintage, adding 3% Cabernet
Sauvignon for a little more
body and 2% Malbec for a deeper intensity.
I could easily give
similar examples of French, Spanish and Italian
wines, and the vintners of
South America tend to release their wines quite
young.You might ask if any white wines are worth
aging for many
years, and the answer is very few, which would
include some of the most
illustrious Burgundies like Meursault,
Corton-Charlemagne, Montrachet and a
handful of others; Cru Chablis can also gain flavor
after five years but not
much longer; in Italy only one winery, in Abruzzo,
named ValentinoValentini,
makes a long-lived Trebbiano d’Abruzzo. Of course,
intensely sweet dessert
wines like French Sauternes and Barsac, German
beerenauslese and
trockenbeerenlause definitely need to age to gain
maturity and acquire nuance.
Vintage Champagnes do not last forever, however, and
despite those (especially
the British) who like a little oxidation in their
Champagne, it's a flaw that
comes with age.
❖❖❖
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.
“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.
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.