Faith Willinger

Check out Nanamuta, corso Italia 35, in Florence for a bargain lunch or well priced dinner, and say hello to fantastic host Lorenzo Guidi for me.

Ciao Paula Of course I'm a big fan. The new book is simply beautiful. I'm so glad that your books finally have color photography. So what's next?

It seems that the Michelin feels that great food has to be French, or styled like French food. Even in Italy. I have a hard time taking their efforts outside France seriously.

Nanamuta, corso Italia 35, Florence, tel.055-267-5612, cool new favorite, inexpensive at lunch, larger, somewhat pricer in the evening, tell owner Lorenzo Guidi that I sent you.

Ciao Matthew I also love Il Buco, think the owner Peppino is as fantastic as his restaurant. And they just got a Michelin star. And you didn't mention the wonderful selection of wines, especially well-priced gems from the region. a presto Faith Willinger

Ciao Marc I agree with you. Although I'm crazy about regional food, I do get bored with "la solita pappa", same old, same old. But Italy is a small country, easy to get to someplace nearby with new, exciting dishes. And I make a lot of dishes that I've learned all over Italy. Seasonal changes also contribute to the thrill of Italian cooking. Primizia, the first produce of the season, is the sweetest. But I'm wild about Ultimizia, the last of the season, say goodbye for another year. At my market this morning, tomatoes were just about over, but cavolo nero and turnip greens attached to their turnips were at my favorite stand, the Innocenti brothers, sons of Torquato, my vegetable muse. a presto Faith

Ciao Beccaboo No matter how you cook your risotto, the better the rice, the better your dish will be. A packet of supermarket rice of dubious age will never produce the results of a fantastic artisanal rice. Baldo, Vialone Nano or Carnaroli will hold up best. Arborio is the worst choice. a presto Faith

Ciao Kevin I see the European Union trying to eliminate some traditional foods through overzealous sanitary codes. It's impossible to dry anything in the sun, outdoors with the screens and tiled rooms required by law. But, at the same time, I see a renewed interest in regional cultivars of fruits and vegetables, regional breeds of poultry and meat, artisanal cheese and bread. So all hope isn't lost. Slow Food is doing a great deal to preserve traditional products all over the world and create an awareness of the incroaching standardization that's the goal of the agro-alimentary industry. a presto Faith

Ciao Alberto I love the Osteria, a grocery store that serves food. Don't forget to check out the chocolate ladies at Persichella. a presto Faith Faith, thanks for the opinion on Don Alfonso, I should really try it again next time I visit my relatives in Naples. L'Europeo is one of my favorites in Naples, though my last visit is not as recent as I'd like, instead I never heard of Antichi Sapori before. I'll definitely have to give it a try, thanks for the tip! ciao e grazie, Alberto ←

Ciao Ludja I hunted for the book but couldn't find it, but think it was published in German and Italian. You might ask the Biblioteca Culinaria if they can find it for you. a presto Faith

Ciao Pia Italians have always been open to new ideas--look how quickly they accepted the tomato. And the great navigating nations brought back exotic ingredients. I agree with Raspelli when he criticizes restaurants for ordering quality but standard ingredients instead of focusing on the best local stuff. But I accept new ingredients if they make sense. Spain and Japan have certainly influenced everyone in the world of cuisine. But the best chefs are applying these ideas within the Italian idiom. I find it interesting, if not what I want to eat on a daily basis. I really don't think foams and jellys are here to stay. a presto Faith

Ciao Kevin Loosen up. Arthur, Culinaria and Marcella are simply 3 options. Do what feels comfortable. a presto Faith I think Arthur Schwartz writes that Campanians don't do this in the intro to Naples at Table. In Culinaria: Italy the authors make a similar observation about the Pugliese. EDIT: Marcella Hazan says exactly what you do about adding the garlic later. I still mix 'em, though. ←

Ciao Roberto Have you ever noticed that Italians, in Italy, identify themselves as from the city where they're from. They only call themselves Italians when they leave the country. I think that, once across the boarder, Italian restaurants serve the food that their clients expect and think of as Italian, either pan-Italian (not regional) or creative cooking with Italian ingredients. Not what the Italians actually ate at home. But regional cooking is getting more respect and I think that many restaurants, like Beppe and San Domenico in New York, serve some genuine, traditional Italian dishes. a presto Faith PS They guys from Baia Beniamin once snuck me across the boarder, I was without my passport, to visit a great market in Menton. Loved the experience.

Ciao Judith I hope they have a good time. They shouldn't miss the gelato at San Crispino in Rome, not far from the Pasta Museum. a presto Faith

Ciao Francesco Anyone who makes lattume jokes with the Brits is okay in my book. I tasted lattume for the first time on the island of Favignana. I saw that it was sold on Esperya a few years ago, and ordered it, to be sent to some friends at the Oxford Symposium. It never arrived. I think they were relieved. a presto Faith thank you for your answer. With regard to lattume, it's my favorite thing to cite when I want to disgust my British friends and colleagues I have never tasted it as I am from Liguria and I've only been in Sicily once a long time ago. Esperya used to sell it when Tombolini was running the company, but now, and not surprisingly, they don't carry it anymore. Francesco ←

Ciao Boris I'm glad you like my choice. If you've got any places to suggest in the Carso, besides Devetak, which I adore, I'm open to suggestions. Off-the-beaten-track is my middle name. a presto Faith A great suggestion! A particularly interesting region is "il carso" (or "Kras" in Slowenian or "Karst" in German), the Italian/Slowenian hinterland of Trieste, the former sea harbour of the Austro/Hungarian empire. You'll find a fascinating (culinary) patchwork of all three cultures. Watch out for the "osmizze", something similar to the "Heurigen" in Austria, rural inns run by local wine growers and farmers. They are offering home grown products and dishes and are opened in summertime only. Apart from my Austrian friends I never met foreigners (to Italy) who explored this region. ←

Ciao Pia I like silly games. I think I'd choose extra virgin (which I always take with me when I travel outside Italy), probably the just-pressed Castello di Ama that I got this week. And bread, the fantastic bread that I get from Pane e Salute in Orsara di Puglia, all natural levain, lasts 3 weeks. And some Amedei Chuao 70% chocolate. a presto Faith

Ciao Alberto Italians are loosing their great bread traditions. The bread in the south is better than it is in the north. Wood-burning ovens are illegal in many areas--and you certainly can't build new ones. My favorite bread is from the village of Orsara di Puglia, made in 5 kilo wheels, all natural levain. I sometimes get a terrific bread from Lariano, outside Rome, also all natural levain. Most bakeries use yeast, faster than natural yeast, but it doesn't produce a great bread. I'm always looking for fantastic bread--got any suggestions? a presto Faith

Ciao Alberto Thank you for your high praise. I've lived in Italy longer than I lived in the US and consider myself a born-again Italian. I think that most Italians want to eat the kind of food they grew up with at home, most of the time. Americans view this kind of cooking, home-style, as Italian comfort food. Restaurants that serve creative cuisine are a challenge, not exactly like eating at home. And they're almost always expensive. I think that frequently the foreign press (often guided on regimented press trips) doesn't have the time, money or knowlege of Italian food to understand what's going on in the most creative restaurants. They'd rather be eating at home, with someone's mythical mamma serving bowls of spaghetti. So the formality and experimental nature of creative restaurants is not what they're looking for. I think they don't have the same expectations in Spain or the UK. And the French--don't get me started about the "F" country. The great exception to the kind of press you're talking about is R. W. Apple, who writes about foods, restaurants and wines of the world with wisdom, experience, an open mind and palate. a presto Faith

I went to Rome this week to check out a new restaurant, Baby, a consulting job of Don Alfonso at the Aldrovandi Palace hotel. The cooking is a fusion of Campanian and Roman cuisine. I had a fantastic dish that relates to this thread. Cacio e pepe is a traditional Roman pasta, pecorino cheese, pepper and some pasta water, usually done with bucatini. At Baby they made paccheri, wide short pasta, traditional in Campania, with the Roman cacio e pepe sauce--with the addition of scorfano, rock fish. Even my super-Tuscan, tradtional-palated husband loved the dish. a presto Faith quote=Bux,Nov 19 2004, 03:59 PM] We'll all agree that rules are made to be broken, the disagreement comes when we decide who breaks what rule. The no cheese with pasta and clam sauce is a classic rule, but I've never heard of not mixing onions and garlic in the same preparation. I just picked up a cookbook and turned to two tomato sauce recipes. Both had garlic and onions in the sauce. Pia's point about burning the garlic is well taken, but I'm wondering if there is a commonly known rule about garlic and onion together and if such a rule might have been passed on to novice cooks to keep them from burning the garlic. Cream sauces are not common in Italian food, but are they really "banned?" ←

Ciao Bux I think that in the same way that architects or artists study the classics, and fashion is inspired by the past, Italy's most creative chefs draw on a regional palate but take it to a different level. But many chefs are content to reinterpret the classics. I don't know if you've ever been to the Salone del Mobile in Milano, but the major part of the stands display very conventional furniture, much of it ugly beyond belief. The cool, cutting edge stuff gets all the attention, but I imagine that the reproduction antiques and ugly modern design outsell the more creative stuff. And sometimes, the things that looks so exciting are uncomfortable, impractical or don't work. I find the same thing to be true with creative cooking--but add tough on the digestive system. By the way, I'm almost as obsessed about design as I am about food. The chairs at my beat-up, old-but-not-antique table in Florence are the Bellini, beautiful, comfortable, inexpensive, designed by Mario Bellini, manufactured by my brother, Alan Heller. a presto Faith

I am honored. Thank you so much. I, too, am pleased to have the chance to communicate with those who are interested. About my vocation. When I came to Italy, in the early 1970s, I knew Italian cooking from the US, spaghetti and meatballs, veal parmesean, pizza. I was blown away by Italian food in Italy, unknowns like risotto, polenta, truffles, balsamico and much more. I was fascinated by the different regional cuisines of Italy and wanted to learn everything I could about them. There was very little written about Italian regional food in English, so I researched in Italian, moved to Rome, traveled all over Italy, studied with a master chef, to learn everything that I could about eating and cooking Italian. I met Annie Brody, who was working on the book "Made in Italy" and she asked me to do the food work for her book. She's a former literary agent and told me that I should write a guidebook to Italy, like Pat Well's guide to Paris. I wrote a proposal, she agented it, it was accepted by William Morrow, I got a modest advance, and that was the beginning of my writing about Italy. I majored in English Literature at school, and took creative writing classes but it was only after I moved to Italy that I began writing, totally inspired by everything (almost) about the country. And I still am inspired, and want to teach people what I've learned. My Florentine husband Massimo taught me a great deal about Italian food and wine, turned me on to extra virgin, a life-altering experience, and encouraged me to write. a presto Faith

Ciao Kevin I'd say it the next big region will be Campania. As you can see from my other posts, I'm crazy about Naples and use it as a starting point to travel the region. The Sorrento peninsula is pretty discovered, but the Caserta area, Irpinia, the Cilento, Ischia are all places that I think are worth exploring, with terrific restaurants. The regional wines and foods are simply spectacular. And there's plenty to do between meals. I think that most people go to Venice and then move on to another region, without exploring the region of Veneto or nearby Friuli. It's a shame, since both regions have a lot to offer, and prices far lower than Venice. a presto Faith

Ciao Judith I think that Naples is one of the most exciting cities in Italy. Great restaurants of all kinds, fantastic markets, wonderful museums, terrific shopping, well-priced hotels. Pizza alone is a reason to visit, although there's a lot of bad pizza in Naples too. But the most important reason is that the Neapolitans are the most hospitable, warm people, with a sense of fun, from nobles to vegetable sellers to cab drivers. Why? I attribute it to the Vesuvius vibe, the electromagnetic field produced by an active volcano. a presto Faith

Ciao Francesco A stroll through the aisles of the Salone del Gusto offered a glimpse of the future of artisanal foods that will eventually make it to International tables. Italian salt, fish cured like salumi (Moreno Cedroni-inspired), quality tuna (as opposed to the stuff in the supermarket), Sicilian almonds, colatura, and mosto cotto (balsamico of the south) are a few ingredients that come to mind. I think that gelato will be big. Fine cheese dealers like Giovanni Fiore of Guffanti (check out their fantastic website) are responsible for fantastic artisanal cheese making it out of the country. In the past few years I've seen Tuscan kale, fennel pollen, bottarga (often of dubious quality), Carnaroli rice, gunciale, lardo and home-made salumi in general (think Armandino Batali in Seattle and Paul Bertolli in Oakland) gain a foothold in the US. A product that I think has little future outside its area of production, although you can never tell, is lattume di tonno. Ever heard of or tasted it? a presto Faith