MARIANI’S
Virtual Gourmet
July 14, 2024
NEWSLETTER
ARCHIVE
Kirsten Dunst in "Marie Antoinette" (2006)
HAPPY BASTILLE DAY!
THIS WEEK
HAS FRENCH CUISINE LOST ITS
CACHET OR ARE AMERICAN
MEDIA JUST IGNORING IT?
By John Mariani
NEW YORK CORNER
FELICE 56
By John Mariani
THE MAGDALENE LAUNDRIES
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
By John Mariani
NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
CAYMUS CELEBRATES 50 YEARS IN NAPA
By John Mariani
CACHET OR ARE AMERICAN
MEDIA JUST IGNORING IT?
By John Mariani
The idea that French cuisine has
long been stuck in a straitjacket of
traditionalism has been a myth fostered for
decades by the American media, who somewhere
along the line forgot that France’s la
nouvelle cuisine
transformed the world’s gastronomy as of the
1970s. Much about la
nouvelle cuisine was misunderstood
from the start—that it was a low-cal,
dietetic version that banned butter and
cream, that it was all about plate
presentation and that it turned its back on
the precepts of classicism as exemplified by
the 19th century master Auguste Escoffier (below).
Instead,
la
nouvelle cuisine was indeed new for
encouraging chefs to be more creative in
producing new dishes that depended on the
best, seasonal and regional foods, shortened
cooking times, avoiding complications and
showing concern for healthfulness. While
abused by some young chefs seeking the
limelight, the movement affected every
country’s way of cooking, not least in the
U.S., where the changes encouraged a New
American Cuisine that acknowledged the food
cultures of New England, the South, Midwest
and West, along with the contributions of
immigrants.
During the 1990s and into the present
century French chefs have had more freedom to
innovate but few ever turn their backs on the
classical underpinnings of what made their
cuisine French. Butter and cream and
charcuterie were not banned, sauce reductions
were not abandoned and, in fact, tasting menus
became longer, not shorter. 
Today,
one can just as easily find the classic
regional dishes of Paris, Normandy, Burgundy,
Provence and the Riviera still widespread,
while new ideas based on those regions’
products—fruits, vegetables, cheeses, meats,
poultry and seafood—as well as global
ingredients widened the range of French
kitchens with new techniques and technologies.
(By the same token, what is called “molecular”
or “Modernist Cuisine” has never had much of
an appeal to French cooks.)
Despite all this, the American media
keep insisting that French cuisine in the U.S.
is dying and that no one wants to eat dishes
like pâté de campagne (but will eat meatloaf),
sole cooked in brown butter (but will eat
deep-fried catfish) or tournedos Rossini
(below) but will eat a wagyu burger with
cheese, bacon, onions and barbecue sauce; or
chocolate soufflé but will eat Mile High layer
cakes. The media are, of course, complicit in
this because the health ramifications of a
diet rich in dairy and red meat have to vie
with recipes that encourage the consumption of
just those items. Americans, unlike every
other people in the world, have a love-hate
relationship with food fraught with fear and
riddled with guilt.
To
be sure, major American cities that once
proudly possessed first-rate French
restaurants—Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago,
Miami, Washington—are now nearly bereft of
them, although New York is still a bastion of
French restaurants, from haute cuisine to
bistro, many with stars awarded by the
resolutely French Michelin Guides. In
fact, many of the most difficult tables to
book in New York any night of the week are
resolutely French, including Le Bernardin
(one-month waiting list), Jean-Georges,
Daniel, La Grenouille, Le Coucou and
Balthazar.
Largely, the New York food media
largely ignore French restaurants, and, where
numerous newspapers, magazines and on-line
sites once covered high- and low-end
restaurants in the city, the resources to do
so have been cut way back or eliminated
entirely, so that credible reviews tend to
focus more on pizzerias, taquerias, roti
shops, sushi bars and food trucks.
The
New
York Times, which for more than fifty
years separated fine dining from more casual
eateries, no longer makes a distinction, and
its chief restaurant critic, Pete Wells, has,
after ten years on the job, made
no secret of his boredom with high-end
restaurants, writing, “The idea of a fancy
restaurant meal held no appeal. Instead, I
treated myself to something I’d been putting
off for too long. Right after the 100 Best
Restaurants list was published, I went in for
a colonoscopy.” Only nine French restaurants
of any kind made his top 100.
So, too, to go by Eater.com’s “38
Essential New York Restaurants,” only two
French entries made the list, while its “23
New York Classics” listed only one, a
brasserie.
Even on the much ballyhooed and highly
controversial “50 Best Restaurants in the
World” only four in all of France make the
cut, although there are some French-inspired
restaurants in other cities around the world.
Almost all the restaurants on the list are
extremely expensive, multi-course places.
It is, of course, all to the good that
restaurants in Dubai, Bogota, Cape Town and
Bangkok vie for such a list showcasing their
own distinctive food traditions. But
I can pretty much guarantee that a significant
majority are both based on and extrapolated
from the traditions of French classicism and la
nouvelle cuisine. At Hǐsa Franko (right)
in Kobarid, Slovenia, the menu uses local
ingredients to make dishes like garden lettuce
with a brown butter emulsion, and a quail egg
with Alpine caviar.
Meanwhile, back in France, young chefs
are doing extraordinary dishes using
ingredients and techniques picked up from Asia
and the Americas, so that it’s now highly
probable you will open a menu in Paris
containing sashimi, corn, basmati rice, chile
spices and, widespread, le
hamburger.
After all, potatoes, tomatoes,
chocolate and strawberries all came from the
Americas to be used in French kitchens.
One can argue that what we really have
now—and should be deliriously happy about—is a
global cuisine that offers everything from
Chinese dim sum and Korean barbecue to Indian
tandoori and New York pastrami. But it is also
true that there is no loss of appetite for a
wonderful cassoulet, sole meunière and tarte
Tatin and no loss of “French-ness” in
the way Alain Passard (below) of Arpège
in Paris makes his legumes sushi and geranium
oil or how chef Amaury Bouhours at Le Meurice
makes his dish of raw beef, smoked eggplant
and crispy nori seaweed.
Alain Ducasse, whose company has 34
restaurants around the world, including in
Paris, Monaco, London, Macau, Italy and Qatar,
recently told
Italy’s Gambero
Rosso, "Haute cuisine is everywhere and
is more alive than ever."
French cuisine, like fine dining, has
been equated with the word “fancy” in the most
pejorative way, even though bistros and
brasseries may be no fancier than an Italian
trattoria or Chinese noodle parlor. “Fancy”
is condemned as stuffy, snobbish, formal and
expensive, as if a clean white tablecloth is
somehow a turn-off and a dress request of any
kind is considered un-democratic. 
Sadly,
almost all dress codes everywhere have
vanished, and the stuffiness of décor is in
the eye of the beholder. As for snobbery,
that, too, is a parody of what true fine
dining should be.
French cuisine has been
around as regional cookery for centuries,
French restaurants since the 18th century and,
since the 19th century its influence has been
pervasive, even when people taste it without
knowing it. Like
the social climber in Molière’s 1670 play
“The Bourgeois Gentleman” who discovers he’s
been “speaking prose” all his life, many do
not realize that they’ve been eating French
food all their lives and loving it.
❖❖❖
NEW YORK CORNER
FELICE 56
Chambers Hotel
15 W 56th Street
646-437-7272
By John Mariani
Not all the
best Italian restaurants are on the West Side
of Manhattan, but a significant number are,
including Il Gattopardo, Barbetta, Lincoln, La
Masseria and Marea, joined four years ago by
one of the most dramatic, Felice 56, with its
double staircase leading to a large,
high-ceilinged dining room with a stunning
landscape mural and sophisticated lounge area.
The banquettes are soft, cafe au lait leather,
throw rugs are red, well-set tables are well
separated and there are live trees in the
middle of it all. The sound level is wholly
civilized, but they have, it seems, lowered
the lights since I was last there and that
only lowers the conviviality.
The
restaurant is part of SA Hospitality Group, which
also runs several Sant Ambroeus cafés and Felice
trattorias around town as well as the superb
ristorante Casa Lever. Culinary director Iacopo
Falai is from Florence, so there is a Tuscan slant
at Felice 56. Prices have risen so that most
pastas are in the mid-$20s, but are still far
below those at Marea (where pastas are $47!) The
wine list is extensive and mark-ups are about
average.
The menus have, as they should, changed,
though most of the dishes are the same. Among the
current antipasti
is a delightful plate of little flour puffs of
fried zeppole
(left) stuffed with ricotta and Parmigiano
and sided with silky slices of prosciutto ($24).
There is a Tuscan crostino
with smooth chicken liver mousse with onion confit
($19) and arancini
rice balls with arrabiata
sauce ($19).
For lunch the panini sandwiches
($18-$21) are a splendid idea with a glass of wine
or Italian beer.
Each of the pastas we tried was
first-rate, all made on premises. The Roman cacio e pepe ($26)
was made with thick tonnarelli noodles
napped with both pecorino and Parmigiano and a
crunch of cracked black pepper. Linguine con
vongole clams (right) was in a
well-wrought white wine, garlic and chili pepper
sauce ($32). The pesto on the potato gnocchi had
the right Ligurian addition of string beans, as
well as the extra satisfaction of crushed burrata ($27),
though that night the gnocchi were too soft and
mushy.
Main
courses stay true to the staples found frequently
in Italian restaurants these days, including
halibut of luscious succulence in tangy lemon and
olive oil ($42), and a Florentine-stye 12-ounce
Prime sirloin, sliced and served in a skillet for
$49, which is considerably less than those at New
York steakhouses these days. Grilled chicken with
lettuce, sun-dried tomato pesto, roasted tomatoes,
pickled onion and red wine vinegar ($29) had very
little taste at all beneath all those other
ingredients.
Since there is a coffee shop with
patisserie at the top of the stairs (handy for
hotel guests), the desserts ($15) at Felice 56 are
excellent, from the tiramisù and
delizia di
limone of sponge cake with lemon cream and
limoncello liqueur to the dark chocolate torta with
hazelnut ice cream and puff pastry with pastry
cream and mixed berries.
Given its subterranean placement, I had
thought the windowless restaurant would not have
fared well, but it is such a romantic space—the
women guests tend to dress up—with such fine
Italian cuisine that on a mid-week visit the place
was pretty much full. That it is also a fine,
quiet atmosphere makes it a refuge from the world
outside, as well.
Open daily from 11 a.m
.
THE MAGDALENE LAUNDRIES
By John Mariani
Finger returned to headquarters to look
over the new reporting his men had turned up,
but there was little more to go on. Motive
seemed the only easy part of the case. Indeed,
it seemed that half of Dublin wanted those women
dead. One clear motive, too many suspects, like
trying to find who pissed in the pool, Finger
thought.
Had the murders been committed with
firearms, there would be bullets to trace. There
were plenty of fibers from the gloves, but they
were workman’s gloves and could be bought anywhere
in Dublin. So were those olive pit rosaries, which
religious articles stores still sold to gullible
parishioners.
No one had heard anyone talking to the nuns
before they were murdered. In-and-out jobs,
planned according to the nuns’ schedules, easy
enough to figure out with old women who couldn’t
put up much of a fight. Especially with a pointer
shoved through her chest. Only the nun who sat
bound to a chair might have had a way of crying
out before the killer slapped duct tape over her
mouth. The concussion probably came quickly.
Finger got home about eleven o’clock,
exhausted, his head spinning with conflicting
theories, none of them adding up to much. He
thought that one more murder might turn up what he
needed. Terrible thought, but that’s how crimes
get solved sometimes. The killers eventually make
a mistake. Finger just had to wait for that to
happen.
For his part, David tried to think of
anything in his own experience that would help the
Garda, and he felt frustrated that their records
were not more complete or accessible. And while he
was well aware of the same reluctance on the part
of New York cops to pursue sexual molestation
cases by priests, brothers and nuns, he felt that
the Church authorities had far more sway in Dublin
and that the Irish themselves fell in step with
Church responses. David felt that Katie and he
would be getting nowhere without having Max Finger
leading the investigation as pure detective work,
without religious bias.
When next they met, Katie and David decided
that, despite the lack of substantial information
Katie was able to pry from Mother Augusta, he
understood that she would be able to turn that
into a part of her story. Thus,
Katie would continue to locate more of the
surviving Magdalene Laundries’ inmates as provided
to her by Sara Garrison. David would trudge along
with Max Finger.
One of Garrison’s
contacts was an ex-nun herself, named Geraldine
Verlin. Unlike Jeanne Carroll, the third nun
murdered, she had renounced her vows and had been
helping Garrison with her investigations.
“I think Geraldine knows most of the
survivin’ women from the Laundries,” said
Garrison, “and she told me she’d left the order
largely because of the cover-up of the gravesite
story. She’s a very smart woman, very high strung
and she told me that she herself was more than
once reprimanded and made to do long-sufferin’
penance.”
“Like what?” asked Katie.
“Confined to quarters without food. Only
water. Made to kneel for hours in the chapel with
her hands outstretched, holdin’ prayer books in
her palms. They even forbade her from seein’ her
own parents and relatives for a year once.”
“How old is Geraldine now?”
“Ah, maybe in her sixties now. She has a
job as a teacher in one of the city schools in a
very tough neighborhood. Mostly non-Irish boys. I
hear she can be as tough as nails, though, and the
boys respect her for that.”
Katie got Geraldine Verlin’s address and
Sara said she’d call ahead. Katie
arranged to meet the ex-nun when school let out at
three.
The school was indeed in a bad section of
town with shabby gray tenements, and Katie saw
that most of the students in the yard were black
and brown teenage boys, tall and rangy, speaking
English with an East Asian accent, Indian,
Pakistani, Bangladeshi. She could even smell the
aroma of curry spices from the windows of the
apartments around the school.
Katie asked for Geraldine Verlin at the
front desk and soon she heard a woman down the
hallway saying, “And if I don’t see you in school
tomorrow, Hamid, I’ll come to your house and drag
you out by your hair in front of your mother and
father.”
A tall, robust woman entered the office and
put out her hand, saying, “You must be the Yank
reporter Sara Garrison said was comin’ over.”
The handshake
was firm, her gray eyes intense and bright, her
hair cut short. She wore a tweed skirt to her
knees, blue cotton blouse and a v-neck black
sweater. Katie could see a cross on a chain around
her neck. No wedding band, though.
The former nun invited
Katie to the now-empty cafeteria to talk, offered
her tea and waved to a few remaining students on
their way out.
The niceties run through, Katie took out
her notepad and tape recorder and ran over why she
was in Dublin, asking what light Geraldine might
throw on the recent murders.
“Surprised they took so long,” she said.
“You mean they deserved to be murdered?”
“No one deserves to be murdered, Miss
Cavuto, but for what those nuns did to children
and women and what they allowed to happen in those
Laundries they should’ve been tried, convicted and
hanged long ago.”
“Excuse me for saying so, Ms. Verlin, but
for a Christian that sounds pretty harsh.”
hat part?”
“About them being hanged.”
“No harsher than what they inflicted on
helpless human bein’s. Eye for an eye says the
Bible, eh?”
Katie replied, “But what about turning the
other cheek?”
Geraldine Verlin’s eyes widened, then
closed.
“I’m told, Miss Cavuto, you’re a very fine
reporter, even went after people who wanted to
remove you from the face of the earth for good. Can you
honestly say you would mind if those people were
convicted and hanged for their attempts to murder
you?
“The reason I formally renounced the
Sisters was not because I wanted to renounce
Christ. My breakin’ point was when they discovered
those graves. They didn’t have to tell me what was
in them. I knew, and couldn’t take the lies and
deceit anymore. I just knew that I couldn’t do
anythin’ to bring them to justice by stayin’
inside and obeyin’ my vow of obedience. My own
personal revenge is to bring these former
colleagues of mine, these good Sisters, into court
and see them stand trial.”
Katie thought she should let it go and ask
who Geraldine thought might have committed the
murders.
“Haven’t a clue,” she answered. “If I did,
I’d hesitate to tell you.” She folded her arms,
and that was that. “Anythin’ else you want to
know?”
Katie saw she’d hit a dead end with
Geraldine Verlin, saying, “Well, I’m glad you’ve
found something to do that you feel challenging
and rewarding here at the school.”
“It’s a job. Try to help as I can. I’ll be
retirin’ in a year.”
“Well, then, thank you for seeing me, Ms.
Verlin, I really appreciate it.”
Geraldine Verlin nodded and said nothing,
then, as Katie neared the door of the cafeteria,
said, “If you do find the people who committed
these murders, I would very much like to visit
them. I might know them, and if I do, I know what
kind of hell they went through to bring them to
commit such a crime.”
Katie turned over all
that Geraldine had said and how she’d said it,
fully realizing the amount of venom that was in
the ex-nun but doubting she had the will to go so
much against her religious training and beliefs to
commit murder. But she told herself that Geraldine
would certainly be a person of interest to Finger
and David.
© John Mariani, 2018
❖❖❖
50 YEARS IN NAPA
By John Mariani
In
1972 Charles and Lorna Wagner’s families had been
settled in California’s Napa Valley since the 1850s,
and now they wished to own a vineyard. After going
through a learning curve at a time when few notable
wineries existed in Napa, they eventually
established Caymus Vineyards as one of the best and
most prestigious estates in California, and by
extension America, focusing 
largely on
fruit-forward, bold Cabernet Sauvignons under the
labels Caymus Napa Valley and Caymus Special
Selection, the latter being the only wine to be
honored twice as Wine Spectator
magazine’s Wine of the Year. Today, three
Wagners—Charles and Lorna’s son Chuck and his
children, Charlie and Jenny—are still full-time
caretakers of the family legacy. I recently
interviewed them on the past, present and future of
Caymus.
Celebrating fifty years
in California for a winery is like celebrating
three centuries in France. Do you think
California winemakers are just beginning to
understand California’s terroir?
CHUCK: Speaking for ourselves,
it’s a thrilling time in California winemaking, and
we are still discovering a great deal about various
regions throughout the state. We are learning
and understanding more and more about California’s
unsung AVA’s and how they can produce high-quality
Cabernet also. We are having a lot of fun
driving around meeting growers and working together
to improve crop quality for such wine
production.
Chuck, when your father
and mother undertook to make wine, what was
being raised in Napa Valley?
CHUCK: In the late 1960s
and early 1970s there were only a handful of
wineries in Napa. Prunes were the primary crop of
the region, and cattle raising was popular as well.
It was a very different feel from today’s Napa, as
the 30-mile length of Napa back then was mostly open
fields, run-down fences, and farms.
How did your mother
contribute in those early days?
CHUCK: My mom played a
critical role in Caymus’s earliest days. She
supported the winery team in a range of ways, but
primarily she managed the books and worked the
bottling line. She also provided daily homemade
lunches for me, my dad and the rest of our team,
which was much needed and appreciated. She seemed to
me a descendant of those in the western movement,
which she was. [Lorna Belle Glos’s grandparents
emigrated form Rhein Pfalz, Germany.] She cooked
fricassee rabbit, chicken and dumplings, hung the
clothes on a clothes line, fed and
collected eggs from the chickens and she would sing
and play piano by ear beautifully. She lived to her
98th year, and she liked Pinot Noir.
You said that Charlie
really had no knowledge of Bordeaux varietals at
first. What did he plant and when did you
switch to Cabernet Sauvignon?
CHUCK: My dad Charlie
made the decision to pull the prunes and plant
Cabernet in 1966. What influenced him to do that?
Probably the best wines of the day that were being
made by Inglenook and Beaulieu. Also, his friends
[wine consultants] André Tchelistcheff and George
Duer may have influenced and encouraged him.
CHUCK: Caymus was never big and
tannic. In fact, its fruit character propelled the
winery into popularity. I think the gravelly soil
series named Cortina produces soft, fruit-driven
characters. Recognizing this early on helped
Caymus’s reputation.
Is it true that the
perceived bias of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and Wine
Spectator
for big tannic, high alcohol wines influenced
Caymus in the 1980s and 1990s?
CHUCK: Robert Parker and Wine Spectator
both had a massive influence on winemakers in all of
California, but especially Napa during that time
period. Their effect was very real in pointing a
path for winemakers in California to follow, and I
don’t think Napa would be the same without their
influence.
What effect did the
Meritage organization have on California
winemaking?
CHUCK: Meritage had no
influence at Caymus. Meritage is often considered a
form of marketing, so the question is are we
entering an era where consumers relate a unique
style of a product to a brand? This would allow
hybrids to prosper.
Many California
wineries make a wide range of varietals from
Fume Blanc to Gewürztraminer and Barbera. Why do
you make only Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel,
the latter in small amounts?
JENNY: While Cabernet
Sauvignon and Zinfandel are the only wines produced
under the Caymus label, our family has actually
branched out to a much broader range of varietals.
We also make wines from a number of growing regions
outside of Napa Valley and love exploring different
parts of California in search of great vineyard
land. I lead the Emmolo label, which produces
Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, and sparkling wine; the
name comes from my mom’s side of the family. I also
make one of two wines that we produce under the
Caymus-Suisun label, “The Walking Fool” red blend.
Recently, we introduced a rosé that I
make from Suisun Valley fruit,
and I’m experimenting with other varieties in the
region as well. Meanwhile, my brother Charlie runs
our Mer Soleil, Conundrum, Sea Sun, and Red Schooner
labels, which collectively produce several
Chardonnays, a white and red blend, Pinot Noir and
two wines made from grapes grown in Argentina and
Australia. The Red Schooner wines are a great
example of a fun experiment in making wine a
completely different way than we have
before. So there’s really never a dull
moment, and we’re all pretty excited about the full
range of wines we’re producing.
CHUCK: As Jenny said,
moving into different parts of California has
grabbed our interest. Our Bonanza Cabernet Sauvignon
was our first attempt at showcasing the entire state
of California in one bottle, and we had so much fun
with it that we decided to try something similar
with the Caymus California Cabernet that we released
last year. That wine is also sourced from sites
throughout California. What we have found is there
are these hidden pockets where you can farm
high-quality fruit and make delicious wines. We also
aim to showcase regions of the state that have been
lesser-known but we believe merit more
attention.
JENNY: As winemakers and
farmers, we can get carried away in trying a new
technique or trying out a new varietal. I’m
certainly guilty of that, and it can be fun to try
out some crazy idea one of us has had. So we’ll
start by bottling these experimental projects into
small batches, and even if a certain varietal
doesn’t pan out to be worthy of its own bottle, the
process can help us determine if the grape might
possibly fit in another blend of ours.
Chuck, Jenny and Charlie Wagner
CHARLIE: We of course don’t
know for sure what the future holds, but we look to
the Pacific Ocean as a mighty force that will help
temper the climate here in Napa and on the Central
Coast. Our hope is that this big, cold ocean so
close by will mitigate some of those effects.
What is there about the
new Fiftieth Anniversary release that is
different from other vintages? What was the
vintage itself like?
CHARLIE: This vintage means
a lot to us at Caymus. We’ve been able to stay
family-owned and family-run for fifty years, and we
really wanted to celebrate that with this bottle. I
think this will turn out to be one of our favorite
vintages of our Napa Valley Cabernet. The stars
aligned on the 2022 vintage, with great conditions
in the vineyard that enabled us to make a wine that
exhibits the hallmarks of the Caymus style. The
Fiftieth is soft and lush, not tart or bitter. It
has a round, balanced, rich character that fully
expresses what Caymus is known for.
As a family do you
spend a good deal of time together? Family
dinners?
JENNY: Charlie and I have
families of our own now, which makes the larger
family dinners harder to plan, but the three of us
definitely spend a lot of time together. We work
together every day, and our offices even have shared
windows. So “family lunches” with the three of us
are more common than dinners, but I think we all
feel extremely lucky to be able to work alongside
each other every day.
I assume the three of
you have differing ideas about viniculture,
expansion, etc. How do you resolve them?
CHARLIE: Because we work so
closely with each other day in and day out, we’ve
gotten very good at collective decision-making.
Nothing major is decided upon unless all three of us
agree on it, so even if we do disagree, which of
course happens, we have a lot of experience talking
things through with each other. And we feel our
system works as it’s been a pretty smooth and fun
adventure so far.
Tell me about the new
Suisan Valley winery?
HE
SKIPPED DESSERT BECAUSE HE SAID
HE WAS TRYING TO CUT DOWN ON SWEETS
Convicted
murderer Brian Dorsey asked for the state to serve
his last meal: two bacon double
cheeseburgers, two orders of chicken strips, two
large orders of seasoned fries and a pizza with
sausage, pepperoni, onion, mushrooms and extra
cheese.
❖❖❖
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.
 |
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. |
"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.
"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.
If you wish to subscribe to this
newsletter, please click here: http://www.johnmariani.com/subscribe/index.html
© copyright John Mariani 2024