Patricia Guy’s Diary, October 2019
October 18 Amarone tasting at Valentina Cubi’s Valentina picked us up from the bus stop in Valpolicella and whisked us to her winery, where some thirty wine aficionados gathered for a vertical tasting of her Amarone “Morar”: 1997, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012. Valentina,...
Patricia Guy’s Diary, Sept 2019
Verona, where I have made my home for over twenty years, is seventy-five miles from Venice, one hundred miles from Milan and light years from El Dorado, Kansas, where I grew up reading Black Arrow, Nancy Drew, and The Three Musketeers. I would climb right down inside...
Italy’s Most Popular Aperitivi
Italy is world famous for its varied regional landscapes, history, food and accompanying wines. However, if you go straight out to dinner, you’ll be missing out on a quintessential tradition of la bella vita, because, when they have time, self-respecting...
1985 Revisited
From time to time I use this space to report on the age-ability of older wines. I’m not really a collector. I buy wine to drink. I drink more white wine than red, none of which I age, and as I prefer relatively young Pinot Noir there is none in my wine cellar. The...
Inside the Napa Vintner’s Wine Auction
Napa Valley Vintner’s Wine Auction tickets have just gone on sale, so if you want a place at the table act fast. The Auction will be held on Saturday June 2, 2018 at Meadowood Resort. There are single event tickets for the barrel auction, which is being held...
TX6 – Texas Red Wine
At first glimpse of the bottle from this hitherto unknown to me Texan winery, I didn't know exactly what to think, not to mention that “Texas Red Wine” did not sound promising. But you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. While I freely admit to not loving the label,...
Kosta Browne makes palate popping appellation wines in Sonoma’s Russian River Valley
What are the odds that two waiters could save enough tip money in order to make wine that would be a smashing success? With no formal training, the highly unlikely ascent to winemaking success makes Dan Kosta and Michael Browne cult figures around Sonoma's quaint...
With Apologies to Randy Dunn
It’s a privilege to live long enough to issue a mea culpa 35 years in the making. In the early ‘80’s I was the Special Reports editor for Vintage magazine, and the Tasting Editor for Wine & Spirits Buying Guide. In this capacity I tasted and reported on about 450...
A Tale of Two Chardonnays
Summer! The season of al fresco dining with grilled meats, pasta, potato salads, and all manner of BBQ. And, of course, chardonnay, the white wine of choice for so many Americans. A perennial favorite, chardonnay can be crisp and floral or buttery and brazen; it...
Italian Beauties
There was time in my younger days when a press and trade tasting in San Francisco was a small affair. The press, usually 10 to 15 wine writers, were treated to a quiet hour or so to make our notes in peace, before the trade were let in. In those days (1980s to early...
Fast & Fabulous: low sodium, high fiber, fresh vegetable lasagna with parsnip purée
Recipes in this arena abound but you won't find one that substitutes parsnip purée for half the ricotta! This ups the fiber while lending the cheese sauce a nutty heartiness.The parsnips will need to be cooked and mashed; adding fennel and caraway seeds to the boiling...
Elevated Dining at Rootstalk in Breckenridge, Colorado
Breckenridge…that amazingly picturesque Rocky Mountain Colorado ski hamlet that’s become known for so much more than just its winter sports.Art and nature blend in perfect harmony in this four-season destination. The outdoor lover’s nirvana is ideal for hiking,...
Sal De Riso: Still Italy’s Most Famous Pastry Chef
I first interviewed you in September 2010 at your bakery in Tramonti during the cultural festival “Scala Meets New York”. It's still organized every September in the nearby town of Scala by native-son Padre Enzo Fortunato, a prolific author and the Press Director for...
BASIL: In cusine, history, religion, myth, poetry and art
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...
Three New Books in English about Italian Cuisine
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...
“Uffizi Da Mangiare”
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...
ALBERTO BLASETTI: ITALY’S DISTINGUISHED FOOD PHOTOGRAPHER
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...
THE VATICAN CHRISTMAS COOKBOOK
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...
TOP CHEF VISSANI FINALLY OPENS IN ROME
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...
Salmon and Sauerkraut
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 is...
Getaway to Fabulous Virginia Beach
My sister in law and I entered our wonderful hotel room at the luxurious Hyatt Virginia Beach and walked over to the beach view from the window. The curtain were closed so we opened them and our mouths literally dropped open at the fabulous view. We knew our room was...
Memorial Day Missive
Travel, even Epicurean travel, will inevitably lead you to some somber places. I have been to Normandy in search of Calvados and cheese only to find myself visiting World War II battlefields and cemeteries. I explored Manila and came upon another sobering military...
The Vatican Museums Extend Their Summer Hours
On April 14th, in the late afternoon, the press office of the Vatican Museums sent out notice to Vatican-accredited journalists stating that again this year, for the tenth season, the Museums would be extending their hours on Friday and Saturday evenings until October...
Laura Bosetti Tonatto: Italy’s Most Famous “Nose”
You are a "nose"; what exactly does that mean? "Nose" is a nickname for a perfume maker; a person gifted with a particularly developed sense of smell, who is capable of combining mentally different smells to create unique essences and perfumes. A "nose" is both an...
NOT TO BE MISSED IN NAPLES
Naples is world famous for pizza, coffee, crèche artisans and music, both operatic at its magnificent 18th-century Teatro San Carlo and popular songs with lyrics in Neapolitan dialect sadly without a venue. That changed on October 15th when La Fondazione Trianon...
Why and When to Visit Minori
Tucked away in a narrow inlet since ancient times, the small coastal town of Minori is located directly below Ravello, the more famous hill-top town beloved by Wagner, who wrote “Parsifal” there, and by many writers: Gide, E.M. Forster, D. H. Lawrence...
WHY ROME’S AVENTINE HILL IS SPECIAL
Off-the-tourists’-beaten-track, the Aventine, one of Rome’s seven hills, is one of the Eternal City’s most peaceful, least commercial, and elegant residential neighborhoods, but nonetheless with several sights worth a visit. Last year 15 members of the Foreign Press...
The Uffizi Has Added Love to its Food Celebrations
Two years ago and again last year the Director Eike Schmidt “invited” married couples from all over Italy to celebrate the wedding anniversary of Agnolo Doni and Maddelena Strozzi, “La Festa dei Doni”, on January 31 by visiting the Uffizi at half price. Last...
POMPEII’s PRECURSOR TO McDONALD’S
On January 17th Massimo Osanna, the former and still the interim Director General of Pompeii’s excavations until a new one is appointed, as well as the soon-to-be Director of all of Italy’s State Museums, was a guest on Sunday evening’s popular TV talk show “Che...
Oscar Farinetti: EATALY, FICO, and “Serendipity”
Born on September24, 1954 at Alba, the small city in Piemonte famous for wine and truffles, Oscar Farinetti is THE maverick entrepreneur of Italian food and cuisine. In January 2007 he founded “EATALY” opening in an abandoned Carpano Vermouth factory in Turin’s...