Chef Nicosia Does Piemonte

Chef Nicosia Does Piemonte

For over a decade, we’ve had the pleasure of dining at Sassi (in Scottsdale, Arizona) alone and with friends and family, celebrating an event or simply the day.  The mostly southern Italian-inspired menu with many imported products and housemade pastas tastes sublime...

FAO HONORS SLOW FOOD PRESIDENT CARLO PETRINI

FAO HONORS SLOW FOOD PRESIDENT CARLO PETRINI

On May 26th the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), headquartered in Rome, Italy, named Carlo (better known as “Carlin”) Petrini, one of the founders of Slow Food and today its President, FAO Special Ambassador Zero Hunger for Europe. With over...

Spices for Salt

Spices for Salt

Flavor enhancement with spices rather than salt: these recipe hacks should allow you and your family to drastically reduce sodium intake while pleasing the taste buds with newer, sharper, spicier delights. Important thing—I know I've said this before—is to use...

NOT LONG ENOUGH AT THE FAIR

NOT LONG ENOUGH AT THE FAIR

  Ever been to a trade show? If so, you know they’re oppressive: they reek of relentless deal-making; of order forms, checkbooks, credit cards and PayPal, with Apple Pay soon to join. Buyers and sellers seem to have few interests beyond prices and delivery dates,...

Fennel Fancies

Fennel Fancies

This delicious cookie is just unusual enough to pique interest but not weird enough to offend traditional cookie lovers. Fennel, with its hint of anise and licorice flavors, brings a zesty flavor profile to an otherwise ordinary sugar cookie.   It's also a wonderful...

Character in Carmel

Character in Carmel

It’s not as though I was surprised those three days in Carmel-by-the-Sea were so pleasurable.  How surely this one square mile penetrated my psyche was the zinger. Homebound along the Salinas Highway, smiling at the fog as it tended the vines in the Highlands beyond,...

Traveling in Italy, Crowd-Free

Traveling in Italy, Crowd-Free

    You’ve wanted to go to Italy your whole life, and now the dream is coming true. You can already taste the fresh mozzarella in Rome and hear the soft, rhythmic splash of the gondolier’s oar as it slowly propels you through the quiet, moonlit canals of...

FIKA

FIKA

  Every so often one stumbles upon a culinary gem in the most unexpected place, as happened to me recently on a visit to the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. Even without the restaurant, a visit to the institute would be worth a side trip if you're in...