Bill Klapp

Steve, "quaint and outdated"? In the now-immortal words of Mike Wallace, "Oh, come on now! You expect us to believe that?" There must be a reason that Amazon is offloading the book! I make you the following peace offering: Maine lobster, diver scallops, jumbo lump crab meat, pure maple syrup (actually, ANY maple syrup), Hanover County, Virginia and Jersey beefsteak tomatoes (but you may have heard that there are a few places in Italy known for their tomatoes, too), Silver Queen corn (although, after I plant it in Italian soil, that one will be coming off the list), the pastrami and corned beef at Katz's Deli on the Lower East Side, barbeque and properly aged steaks of 20 years ago. That's about it. Trust me, any produce that the Indians gave to the Pilgrims will grow better in Italian (and probably French) soil. And notice that pastrami, corned beef and barbeque are prepared foods, not ingredients. Worse, if I use Italian pork to make barbeque over there, Varmint McCord will probably emigrate. The pigs in Italy eat better than I do most of the time. Remember that Ducasse published that book in 2000, around the same time he was preparing to open his NYC palace. I submit to you that he was merely covering his Michelin-starred tushie, just in case his American ingredients (Maine lobster, diver scallops, etc.) disappointed expectations! It is not that quality ingredients are impossible to find in the U.S., it is merely that the finding is too hard for too many people living outside of a small handful of major cities. And too often, the quality of fresh ingredients that are shipped from the countryside into those cities is second-rate. (But we are not alone in that regard. Paris now suffers from the same malady.) The best ingredients do not travel, and cannot be mass-produced in California and Florida, using every technological trick in the book to make them APPEAR to be fresh. The United States, among other things, is just too damn big to allow its prime ingredients to be spread around while in perfect shape. We are double-charged at Whole Foods for "organic" ingredients. We had to explain that concept to our Italian friends, who eat very little that is not organically grown, from their own or nearby gardens. I'm through ranting. Fat Guy, you are a good, but ultimately misguided, American. Misguided by a Frenchman, no less!

I can agree with that-especially on the Italy board!

John, that depends upon what you accept as the fundamental goal of French cooking. We had a raging thread here last year in which the Italian cooking style was brutalized as "no more than home cooking" by a hardcore Francophile, because he believed (as I do, actually) that the dominant Italian style was, generally speaking, fresh ingredients served with minimal intervention by the chef, with the goal being to highlight the flavors of the individual ingredients, while the French goal was to combine ingredients in a manner that causes the individual ingredients to lose their identities in the production of "new" and novel flavors. I do not necessarily subscribe to the definition of French style (which seems to be in transition right now), but if I did, Chez Panisse could not be my most authentic French restaurant, too.

jddoyle, nobody accused anyone of fraud. The Spectator stands accused only of placing its own pecuniary interests above any serious attempt at objectivity respecting the world's finest wines. An independent study a couple of years ago bore this out. However, at this point, I think that you have to pay a couple of hundred dollars to buy the study, which was ostensibly done for the benefit of wineries that wanted to know how to get high ratings from the Wine Spectator. To my knowledge, nobody has found a reason to conduct a similar study on the ratings of Parker or Tanzer. I rest my case.

I can remain silent no longer. This thread is too tempting! I think that Vedat's conclusion that Chez Panisse is the most AUTHENTIC Italian restaurant in the U.S. hits the nail squarely on the head. Like Robert Brown, and unlike Giovanni, I believe that it is ALL about the difference in the quality of ingredients. I would like to think that Italy merely has a few native specialty products, such as prosciutto, Parmesan and olive oil, which set it apart. The real difference, however, is in the soil itself. Theirs is better. Period. Virtually everything that grows there is sweeter, more acidic, more intensely flavored, more whatever you care to name than our produce. While the coming of the EU has led to the creation of a lot of mass-produced industrial knockoffs of Italy's finest artisanal products, even such of those products as trace their ingredients to Italian soil are still better than imitations produced elsewhere. As vserna noted, the Italian products available in America are getting better, but when you eliminate local cheeses, salame and fresh produce from the mix, it is clear to me that we do not import enough to make a decent, complete, authentic Italian meal. And yes, the EU distribution network is better than ever, but the best foods produced in Italy cannot meet the EU homogeneity standards, so Italy's European neighbors are only marginally better off. Craig and I differ on the esteem in which we hold Molto Mario. I give him a "nice try" for attempting to adapt Italian recipes using American ingredients. Ultimately, I come back to where I started. I think that a Chez Panisse, or an Inn at Little Washington in Virginia, where the chefs cultivate local producers to custom grow the ingredients they need, ingredients well-suited to the local soil and climate, comes closest in spirit, if not in taste, to the Italian approach to cooking. By the way, chasmartel, sorry about your crappy pancakes in Milano! The last thing I would want is an Italian chef to cook "American" food for me. However, I can assure you that Americans cooking American food, but using Italian ingredients in Italy, is heaven on earth!

Pirate, if Peck bought A Southern Season, do you suppose that you would be able to find your way to the checkout and exits? In the new store, I am in constant fear of being trampled to death or burned alive if there is ever a fire!

Menton 1, I did not feel that I was unfairly "singling out" the restaurant profession, but I'll stick to my story. In some professions (medicine, modeling, acting and rock music come to mind), like the restaurant biz, drugs are easy to come by and an unavoidable temptation for many. In other high-stress professions such as mine (corporate law), drug abuse exists, but one cannot function for long under the influence without being discovered!

And Craig, now to you: I begin by paraphrasing the now-classic Saturday Night Live line: Craig, you ignorant slut! It is entirely possible that Lombardia has better bread than the Piemonte, but I do not covet it. Instead, always fearful of the Apocalypse, I have constructed a wood-fired oven in my backyard in the Piemonte, and cultivated a close personal friendship with an artisanal French baker. Bread is a problem that can be solved in the Piemonte. Unlike, say, the paucity of fine wine in Lombardia. Of course, there are the sparkling wines of Franciacorta, which many consider to be better than Champagne. But then again, I know Champagne, and Champagne is no Barolo. Or Barbaresco. And then there are those boatloads of Lambrusco in your neighborhood...

Badthings, I will clarify. Yes, there was a period in Italian history when "polenta" was the dominant pre-bread starch (but I think not a euphemism for bread), and there was no consistency to what its ingredients might be, except that we know that corn-based polenta was a Johnny-come-lately. It is also true that the early peasant breads were made with many of the ingredients you cited, and that virtually all were "black" or dark breads. "White" wheat bread was reserved for the upper classes. It is the tradition of "white" bread that I refer to as being only a couple of centuries old, although it is interesting to note that most of the great stuff ultimately consumed by the "upper crust" originated with the peasantry in Italy. Two examples are corn-based and tomato-based foods. The Italian aristocracy originally viewed corn as no more than animal fodder, and they shared the same initial fear of the tomato that pervaded Europe's upper classes. Both were recommended to the masses, and once the peasants demonstrated that delicious dishes could be made from both, the aristocracy adopted the ingredients and refined recipes using them to suit their tastes. Interestingly, there is also a counter tradition in Italian culinary history, where the upper classes, looking for something new and exciting, will delve into peasant culinary history and glorify things like whole-grain dark breads and polenta. In the Piemonte, I would submit that 75% or more of the classic dishes originated with the peasantry, general wealth having come relatively late to the province.

Melkor, you are right about making versus criticizing the lists, but only to a point. As a novice drinker many years ago, and having some time on my hands, I created a spreadsheet that tracked the Wine Advocate (Parker), International Wine Cellar (Tanzer) and Wine Spectator scores for some 10,000 wines, just to find out what the consensus best wines (and vintages) on earth were. That list is now down to 1,670, with more wines being deleted than added over time. It was an enormous amount of work (but once done, updating is easy), but the learning could not have been accomplished as accurately any other way. I have since used the data base to determine the all-time best wines of many types, and I use it to guide my purchasing decisions. As you drink wine and learn what you like (scores and quality being irrelevant if you cannot stand, say, Gewurztraminer), the information becomes even more valuable. One of the perceived problems with "greatest" lists is the potential for bias, be it economic (as the Wine Spectator is so often accused of), geopolitical or merely palate (i.e., Robert Parker loves those huge, oaky fruit bombs, etc.). Broader research such as I have done reveals, among other things, the biases of each of the raters, but at the same time, highlights excellence that even bias cannot taint. For example, my analysis suggests that the 1961 Petrus and the 2000 Margaux are arguably tied for the best Bordeaux of all time (both rated 100 by Parker and Wine Spectator, and 98 by Tanzer (who has rated only one other wine, the 1947 Petrus (itself a viable candidate for the top honor), any higher)). That information is definitely useless if you cannot abide Bordeaux (or Pomerol or Margaux in particular), and perhaps useless because a bottle of 1961 Petrus costs thousands of dollars, and the 2000 Margaux $400-500 a bottle by now. Robert Parker might tell you that he has rated a few dozen Bordeaux "100", and that neither of those is really his personal favorite. Others may find fault on other grounds. However, I could put both at the top of a list of all-time great Bordeaux, and nobody could deny the greatness of the wines or my selection process. The problem is that most "greatest" lists are motivated by something a good deal less empirical...

Craig, I sent you a Wine Clip for Christmas. Did you get it yet?

Furthermore, I have seen some excellent champagne buys around (Premier Cru comes to mind) where the retailer locked in a better price/exchange rate some time ago and the juice is just now arriving.

I hedged by buying a home in Italy. I bought it at a six-figure price with 85-cent Euros. Based upon current exchange rates, it must be worth millions! All I know is that the next time that the Euro is in the toilet, I will be converting everything I own into Eurocash...

Absolutely no disrespect intended toward the departed, or any implication of him in what I am about to say. However, is anyone aware of the rampant drug use (particularly cocaine and speed) that goes on in professional kitchens worldwide? A friend in the commercial bread baking and distribution business told me that it is rare to go into a high-end restaurant kitchen and not sense drug use. No, I cannot offer proof, and yes, I realize that it is not true of every kitchen. But it does say something about the stress, long hours and pressure to perform in the restaurant biz.

That is an atlas that I will be buying very soon...

There seems to be some real cynicism about the Wine Clip around here. Craig has assured me that it is based upon sound scientific principles, and is sure to work...

Mike, the answer as to the products is an emphatic yes, although you are not likely to see the products used in restaurants. The Piemontese are pretty rigid in their insistence on eating only what is fresh and in season, and indeed, they enjoy four full seasons, each with its own new produce. While it is true that winter is a challenge in that regard (although some amazing products, including tomatoes, show up from the south), and while they will turn to preserved foods to tide them over, there seems to be a real bias against white truffle products. To be sure, none can measure up to the fresh item, and in that regard, I believe that jarred black truffles from Umbria probably retain more of the essence of black truffles than any of our local white truffle products do. A good truffle oil adds a lot of fragrance, but not a lot of taste. The truffle pastes, made from broken pieces, require the use of a significant quantity to get the truffle essence into your dish. I just bought a white truffle preparation from Zabar's in NYC which contains a cream-butter carrier for the truffle flavor and aroma, and it is damn good, but probably newly arrived. The truffled cheeses, on the other hand, can be very good, and seem capable of retaining a reasonable amount of truffle character longer than most products, in many cases because the cheese itself, one of the local tomas (too-mah), is of excellent quality. I find that the Piemontese are likely to use, say, an exotic variety of basil preserved in excellent olive oil on their pasta in winter, or fruits that were canned at peak ripeness in the summer, but not white truffle products. Often, the Michelin-starred restaurants in the area dress up spring and summer dishes with black truffles, just in case a French Michelin inspector shows up, but these are sometimes (but not always) the local summer black truffles which, while often resembling white truffles when shaved, offer little aroma and less flavor. There are plenty of black truffles around in the Piemonte, winter and summer, but such is the local veneration of the white truffle that the black ones are all but given away. So, you can experiment with some of the white truffle products, but you should not do it at the expense of focus upon whatever the season (and the markets) are serving up. For instance, in June, I might be scanning the menu in a good ristorante to see if asparagus, baked in lemon butter and Parmesan, is being offered by itself as a secondo (entree), which is usually a guarantee of eating some of the finest asparagus that you have ever tasted! Vegetarians often do better than meat-eaters in spring and summer in the Piemonte!

Speaking of the Torino Airport, now THERE'S a place for some great panini! I always buy 5 or 10 when I fly out of Torino.

This has been bothering me for a long time. I dwell in the Piemonte, the land of grissini (breadsticks), so I have always assumed that bread was just not that important in my neck of the woods. While there is occasionally good bread to be had, most local bakeries serve up 18 different shapes of the same, sorry 60% crust, 40% air bread that stales up within 5 minutes of exiting the oven. I have had Italian friends serve me that wretched bread TWO DAYS OLD, presumably solely for the purpose of sopping. And as I travel around Italy, I have come to realize that lame bread is not unique to my area. By the same token, I have traveled to the French border in Savoie with Piemontese friends, and watched them rave about (and eat prodigious quantities of) what seemed to me to be mediocre baguettes, so it clearly is not the case that they do not appreciate better bread than they generally eat at home. Now, none of this is to say that there is not unbelievably fine bread to be had in Italy. I can still recall the wonderful focaccia with a sprinkling of sea salt fresh out of the oven from the Giusti bakery in Lucca, not to mention that found many places in Liguria. And there are all of those wonderful crusty, dark peasant loaves in the south. And pizza in Napoli. And a large quantity of excellent quality bread for panini comes from somewhere. It is just that there is so seldom found great EVERYDAY breads, the Italian equivalent of the baguette (although there have been quality problems in France, too). I recently bought The Italian Baker by Carol Field, which contains, among other great stuff, a brief history lesson. For one thing, I never realized that bread more or less as we know it today is only a couple of centuries old in the western world. She claims that, in Italy, the bread-producing technology spawned in the 1950s caused much of the artisanal bread to be replaced with a product not unlike Wonder Bread in much of Italy. She also makes the case that artisanal breadmaking is on its way back in Italy, and the pendulum is about to swing the other way with vigor. It cannot happen soon enough for me! Anyone else have any theories, or better yet, facts, on this national crisis?

An interesting observation: "The most learned men have been questioned as to the nature of this tuber, and after two thousand years of argument and discussion their answer is the same as it was on the first day: we do not know. The truffles themselves have been interrogated, and have answered simply: eat us and praise the Lord." Alexandre Dumas(1802-1870) As I alleged that the MALES did the truffle hunting in my post above, these bits of learning are most disturbing to me (since I help out my neighbors in Italy by sniffing out truffles when the dogs are sick): "Dogs as well as pigs are used to hunt truffles; pigs are more eager to find the prizes, but it can be difficult to keep the pig from devouring the truffle. Only sows are used - the smell of Italian white truffles (Tuber magnatum Pico) contains pheromones that are attractive to female pigs, but not to boars." "Human interest in truffles may also owe something to this hormone: men secrete it in their underarm sweat." I owe these gems to Truffle FAQ.

Yes, but he failed to mention the sqeezed-to-order orange juice at the Autogrill! Sicilian blood oranges in season, by God!

Marcella Hazan said it best: "Why would anyone choose to eat black truffles if white truffles are available?" While the perfumes of each have something in common, most fresh black truffles are a little woody in texture, and thus, do not offer a lot (other than a little aroma) if served raw. If cooked (the black truffle soup at Paul Bocuse in Lyon comes to mind-stock, cream and a fistful of whole black truffles!), they give up more flavor and aroma. White truffles, on the other hand, are far more delicate, and are invariably eaten raw, generally shaved over dishes such as pasta and eggs that provide just enough heat to cause the white truffles to "melt" slightly, thus yielding maximum perfume and taste. I find black truffles, even those from my beloved Norcia, to be a little one-dimensional, while really good white truffles are enormously complex, both in aroma and taste. White truffles also possess a pungency akin to garlic or shallots, along with an indescribable earthiness. I also find that black truffles offer maximum taste upon first bite, while the taste impact of white truffles is cumulative. That is why some people are less than impressed with their first tastes of white truffle. Finally, while I hesitate to encourage Carolyn (you naughty person, you!), there is another factor to consider, to-wit, why do truffle dogs and pigs dig for the damn things in the first place? Some would suggest that it is simply a matter of Pavlovian conditioning, similar to the training of drug-sniffing dogs. Not actually true. The real answer is that truffles have been found to contain a pheromone that, well, politely put, strongly reminds those animals of the female of their species. More than a few members of the human species have made the same determination. In my experience, women like white truffles as well as men, and I am sure that therein lies a discussion topic that will cause everyone on the web to descend upon us!

John, I promise you that it does not belie my argument. I keep a data base of wine scores in order to plot my buying strategy, and when the 1990 Giacosa Barbaresco Santo Stefano Riserva and the 1996 Gaja Sperss continue to wear "89s" from WS, they know not what they do...

tjaehnigen, please do not hesitate to say that the WS top 100 list is directly related to advertising dollars. I don't have the link, but an empirical and reasonably scientific study was done a couple of years ago that confirmed, at least to my satisfaction, that WS is mostly about advertising. It consistently favors easily understood wines that are readily available at rational prices over the finest wines on earth, many of which fail all three of those criteria. A publication that is serious about rooting out the best would never publish such a "fudged" list in the first place. It would publish, as the Wine Advocate (generally) does, honest assessments of wines, without regard to price or availability, and then do a separate listing of wines that represent good values, even if they are not among the world's finest wines. The distinction has been forever blurred with WS. Classic, ageworthy wines that do not drink well in youth rarely garner top scores from WS. The top 100 is merely a Christmas gift to retailers. I laugh when I think back a few years to a less business savvy WS. They named the 1990 Sandrone Cannubi Boschis (production: around 500 cases) as the wine of the year. They then realized that, for WS's annual New York Wine Experience event, they had to deliver serious quantities of their top 5 wines. They ended up wasting valuable advertising space trying to get someone to sell them some of the 1990 Sandrone! I feel sure that they have many cases of Paloma squirreled away. I am also sure that the 2000 Leoville-Las Cases occupies the number 5 slot because it is the cheapest (by far) and least collectible of the 2000 Bordeaux that received 100 points from the WS. While I am at it, notice how many times the same scores are repackaged and republished by WS. It is pure commercial calculation. Never be tempted to believe otherwise.

Always Brunello with that steak. Actually, it is the only natural pairing for Brunello...