by Lucy Gordan | Aug 7, 2021 | Contents, Food
Last fall, when Sarah Lemieux, the Associate Director of Publicity at the Sophia Institute Press, sent me a review copy of the Vatican Christmas Cookbook (see my article 11/23/2020) in the package she also included a copy of Cooking with the Saints (2019) (Hardcover:...
by Lucy Gordan | Jun 5, 2021 | Food, Food blog
In the late spring little pots of the culinary herb basil (basilico in Italian) go on sale at flower stands and market stalls all over Italy. Placed on terraces and balconies chefs and housewives add hand-picked leaves to their summer dishes for color, fragrance, and...
by Lucy Gordan | Feb 27, 2021 | Food, Food blog
Sadly Co-Vid is still blocking travel for pleasure from the United States to Italy (down 90% in 2020), but I recommend three new books in English about Italian cuisine to whet your appetite and help you plan your next trip. In the meantime console yourself by...
by Lucy Gordan | Jan 29, 2021 | Food, Food blog
Two days after Italy declared total lockdown, starting on March 10, the Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens changed from being a conventional museum conglomerate to a virtual one by setting up free video virtual tours of its collections on its Facebook...
by Lucy Gordan | Jan 11, 2021 | Food, Food blog
In late September I needed photographs to illustrate my story “Top Chef Vissani Finally Opens in Rome”. Instead of the usual small selection the PR agent sent my over two hundred all by the same photographer Alberto Blasetti. I looked him up on Google and his website...
by Lucy Gordan | Nov 23, 2020 | Food, Food blog
THE VATICAN CHRISTMAS COOKBOOKLast week I received a press release from Sarah Lemieux, the Publicity Coordinator of Sophia Institute Press about its recent publication, The Vatican Christmas Cookbook. It’s the sequel to the Institute’s best-seller The Vatican...
by Lucy Gordan | Sep 12, 2020 | Food, Food blog
Eccentric, extrovert, and bombastic Gianfranco Vissani with a love for scarlet leather shoes was to the kitchen-born on November 22, 1951.Beginning in 1963 his father Mario was the chef/owner of a simple country-style restaurant, first named “Da Mario”, then “Il...
by Susanna Gaertner | Jul 30, 2020 | Food, Food blog, Recipes
Salmon, sauerkraut, and fennel sounds like a weird if not downright disgusting combination but it’s my favorite new summer salad! Tinned salmon is both economical and healthy, loaded with the Omega 3 fatty acids that fish is famous for. Canned pink salmon...
by Lucy Gordan | Mar 12, 2020 | Food, Food blog
Romans, the world’s first recorded gourmets, today called buone forchette here in caput mundi, owe their obsession with food, at least in part, to fellow citizen Marcus Gabius. Better-known as “Apicius”, he was a wealthy and decadent epicure who in the...
by Susanna Gaertner | Feb 3, 2020 | Food, Food blog, Recipes
Pumpkin Bread Two recipes for this winter favorite, plus two uses for the opened pumpkin purée can! One is a bread, the other more like a cake…try them both. This one is more of a bread than a cake; the slices want to be buttered! The recipe calls for butter...
by Lucy Gordan | Dec 1, 2019 | Food, Food blog
While gelato, panettone, cannoli, torrone, and tiramisù are beloved worldwide, other Italian sweets are less well-known and even regional. Some examples are bônet in Piemonte, sbrisolona in Lombardy, torta Barozzi in Emilia-Romagna, tozzetti in Tuscany and Umbria,...
by Lucy Gordan | Nov 18, 2019 | Food, Food blog
Two years ago, just after its first championship, businessman/tourism promoter Francesco Redi, the creator and organizer of the Tiramisù World Cup, came to the headquarters of the Associazione della Stampa Estera (Foreign Press Association) in Rome to promote his...
