Marin Hingle, Rachel
Brosnahan and Tony Shalhoub in "The Magnificent Mrs.
Maisel"
❖❖❖
IN THIS ISSUE DAL PESCATORE
RE-OPENS
By Geoff Kalish
NEW YORK CORNER
LOVE AND PIZZA
CHAPTER ELEVEN
By John Mariani
NOTES
FROM THE WINE CELLAR
INTERVIEW WITH FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
PART ONE
By John Mariani
Watch my video on
❖❖❖
DAL
PESCATORE
RE-OPENS
ITS DOORS
Via
Runate, 15
Canneto sull'Oglio, Mantova, Italy 39-0376-723001
By Geoff Kalish
Unless
you’re attending one of the
September weekend sessions of the Palio horse
race in Isola Dovarese
(population 1,158), there would seem little
reason to visit the tiny village of
Canneto sull’Oglio in Italy’s Cremona Provence
(about an hour’s drive east of
Milan).On
the other hand, the
village provides an excellent spot to spend a
night when visiting the nearby
Dal Pescatore restaurant, which 12 years ago
John Mariani, writing in Esquire
magazine, proclaimed as the best
in the world.
Also, the town is less
than a
half-hour car ride to the Museo del Violino (a
“must see” for music lovers). Of
note, on our recent visit to the restaurant, we
spent the night at a hotel
along Isola Dovarese’s main square, Hotel Palazzo
Quaranto ($135 a night for a
spacious suite including breakfast), where for
another $35 the owner personally
drove us to and picked us up from Dal Pescatore
(eight minutes away). That was
better than the last time we visited the
restaurant, when the GPSin our rental car stopped
working and
only a by a bit of good luck did we make our
luncheon reservation on time.
One of only 11 three-star
Michelin
Guide restaurants in Italy, Dal Pescatore (“from
the fisherman”) was opened in
1926 by Teresa and Antonio Santini, a local
fisherman and winemaker and his
wife, he a self-taught chef whose recipes, like
pike with parsley, anchovies
and capers, still turn up on the menu. With the
next generation of Santinis, Giovanni
and his wife, Bruna, the
restaurant morphed from a simple tavern named
“Wine
and Food,” serving mainly fried fish to locals and
a bevy of visitors out on
Sunday outings, to a trattoria serving meals to
visitors from as far away as
Milan.
In 1974 the next generation of
Santinis, Antonio and his wife, Nadia, from
Vicenza, changed the name to Dal
Pescatore, and after travels to famous European
eateries on their honeymoon,
they decide to enhance the ambiance of their
restaurant to have more space
between tables, fewer walls and more windows, but
also to maintain the concept
of “light cooking” of primarily local ingredients.
As then, Nadia is in the
kitchen and Antonio runs the front of the house.With the changes, the
restaurant began receiving accolades,
even outside Italy, with a slew of awards like
listing in the Relais &
Châteaux Guide, a listing
in Les
Grandes Tables du Monde and
those vaunted three Michelin stars. And, as
expected, the next generation of
Santinis continues the tradition, with son Alberto
joining Antonio in
overseeing the dining area and son Giovanni and
Alberto’s wife, Valentina,
joining Nadia in the kitchen, all upholding the
tradition of great, yet simple,
fare and gracious service.
So, what
can one currently expect
from an establishment so high on a pedestal?
First, a greeting at the door by
Alberto or Antonio that makes you feel like you’re
a regular, followed by a
glass of Champagne enjoyed at your leisure in a
plush anteroom. Next, a guided
entrance into an airy dining room overlooking
plush gardens and the Oglio
River. The large room contains only eight tables,
set widely apart with
starched white cloths, fine Ginori and Waterford
china and Riedel wine glasses.
The only sounds are those of the river in the
distance and the hushed voices of
servers and other patrons.
Once seated, guests are
presented
with a multi-page wine list that not only provides
a wide range of excellent
Italian vintages but many top-producer bottles
from around the world, followed
by a menu featuring three price fixed offerings,
ranging from five courses for
$165, including tax and service,to one of ten courses for $275, as well as
atwo-page listing of à la
carte entrees.
To best experience the fare, I
highly recommend the fixed price multiple course
options with each member of a
group choosing a separate menu and sharing. But no
matter which path you take,
the service is knowledgeable and professional,
with adequate time between
courses to reflect on the flavors of the dishes
served, yet no annoyingly long
pauses in the progression of the fare.
As to the food itself, do not
expect big bold, tongue-tingling flavors with
exotic spices and sauces. Rather,
expect artfully presented food made with the best
ingredients (the more local,
the better), cooked with subtle spicing and to
perfect degrees of doneness. For
example, a simple salad of tomatoes and eggplant
with basil, just picked from
the garden outside the window, and a drizzle of
double-virgin olive oil was
bursting with the fragrant scents of a
just-blooming forest. A generous slice
of a chilled lobster terrine with caviar and
ginger root tasted of the ocean;
delicate tortelli
filled with pumpkin
and Parmigiano brought a scent of vanilla and a
lingering flavor of
hazelnuts;lasagnette (a narrower version of
lasagna) with cuts of prized
Fassona beef, spinach and mustard greens (a dish
that could be quite heavy in
other hands) showed elegant, complex flavors of
beef and herbs; a citrus fruit
sauce heightened the pleasant acidity in a serving
of moist sea bass fillet.
A
dousing of a reduced mix of
Cabernet and crushed blueberries tamed the strong
flavors of a medium rare
saddle of venison that did not have the chewy
texture often associated with
this cut of meat; a serving of roast pigeon (often
bland elsewhere) was brought
to life with the addition of bacon and thyme and a
coating of a red wine
reduction laced with sweet cherries; a selection
of full flavored and mild, yet
rich, cheeses contained no clunkers. And an
amaretti semifreddo cake with a scent
of coffee and chocolate topped with a rich sabayon
was a decadent way to
conclude the meal.
Of note, for wine we chose a
bottle of Speri 2011 Amarone that showed a bouquet
and flavors of plums and
cassis with notes of cherry and anise in its
finish, which matched the flavors
of the food quite well. And following the meal, we
(like most guests) were
invited into the kitchen to meet the family, a
great finishing touch to a
memorable dinner. So,
is Dal Pescatore still the
best restaurant in the world? If not, it’s very,
very close.
Open Wednesday –
Sunday
for dinner; Thursday – Sunday for lunch.
❖❖❖
NEW YORK CORNER
By John Mariani
LOVE
AND PIZZA
Since, for
the time being, I am unable to write about or
review New York City restaurants, I have decided instead to
print a serialized version of my (unpublished)
novel Love
and Pizza,
which takes place in New York and Italy
and involves a young, beautiful Bronx
woman named Nicola Santini from an Italian
family impassioned about food. As the
story goes on, Nicola, who is a student at
Columbia University, struggles to maintain her
roots while seeing a future that could lead her
far from them—a future that involves a career
and a love affair
that would change her life forever. So, while
New York’s restaurants remain closed, I will run
a chapter of the Love and Pizza each
week until the crisis is over. Afterwards I
shall be offering the entire book
digitally. I hope you like the
idea and even more that you will love Nicola,
her family and her friends. I’d love to know
what you think. Contact me at loveandpizza123@gmail.com
—John Mariani
To read previous
chapters go to archive
(beginning with March 29, 2020, issue.
LOVE
AND PIZZA
By
John Mariani
Cover
Art By Galina Dargery
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
Galleria Vittorio
Emanuele at the Piazza del Duomo
Between classes, study
and meals, both women skimmed the dozens of
Italian fashion magazines that piled up
around the dorm—there were 10 women and five
male students that semester—and, while it
was still February, Nicola and Catherine
spent a good deal of time visiting the
smaller Milan boutiques to buy winter
scarves and boots that were only
occasionally on sale, saving their money for
the new spring clothes. They didn’t go to flea markets, but they
bought a lot of knock-off stuff from the African
street vendors.For, although Catherine could have bought
pretty much anything she wanted, she wanted her
dorm mates neither to envy nor resent her.She
had tired of that game with her socialite
acquaintances back home and it was one of the
things she sought refuge from in Italy.
Even after only a
month in the city all the girls in the dorm
began to bemoan the prospect of their gaining
weight because most of them ate out almost every
night, finding the city’s food stunningly
delicious and amazingly cheap.Besides
Nicola and Catherine, three other girls had
become pathfinders in trying to find new,
out-of-the-way places to eat, although nearby
Paper Moon had become their local pizzeria—even
though they were disappointed that the
restaurant wouldn’t deliver to the dorm, as
every pizza store around Columbia University
did.Paper
Moon’s owners, the Maginis (left),
always greeted the American girls with great
warmth, especially when they came en masse, and
they doted on Nicola most of all because they
both had connections to pizzerias, and they
would compare notes on ingredients and
technique. Whenever the girls ate at Paper
Moon they ordered five or six different
pizzas—the traditional margherita with
mozzarella, tomato and basil; another with crescenza
cheese and pistachios; another with egg and ham,
and so on.Having been hooked that first day in
Milan on the pizza with mozzarella, Gorgonzola
and leeks, Nicola invariably ordered that one
for herself. So
Nicola, Catherine and the three others—Jenny, a
girl from Missouri studying archeology; Suzanne,
from D.C. studying poly-sci; and Mercédes, from
Buenos Aires, in pre-med—would make their forays
into the city each night, saving calories at
lunch by subsisting on espresso and sharing
skinny panini
sandwiches,
or maybe just some hot chestnuts roasted over
charcoal by a street vendor, then ordering with
abandon at dinner, always trying the specials of
the house along with traditional dishes.
Most of the time the girls
would frequent the small, usually family-run
trattorias but still dress up—and share
clothes—a bit more than they would have back in
New York, assessing how the Italian girls
carried off their particular style with such
artlessness—what the Italians call sprezzatura—the
casually
tied scarves, the beautiful loafers and winter
boots, and tight-fitting, slightly flared dark
blue jeans. After
noticing that the young Italian women in their
neighborhood would wear the same outfits over
and over,even twice a week, the Americans saw that
the Italians’ outfits were always mixed with a
different scarf or bag or jacket from a suit. Yet the
Italians always looked perfectly stylish,
whether headed for school, work or dinner. After
a while Catherine realized she’d brought more
clothes with her to Milan than most of these
Italian women had in their home closets.Nicola,
on the other hand, blended in more easily with
the Italians, with not so many clothes, all
easily adaptable for mixing. Indeed,
most Milanese who met her thought she was
Italian, and Nicola spoke to them in their
language, although she was hesitant because of
the Neapolitan accent andcolloquialisms. Within
two weeks they’d found favorite eating spots
they could easily walk to, some with menus from
other regions like Abruzzi, Sardinia, or
Piedmont.In the Lombardian places they might start
off with the paper-thin, air-dried beef filet
called bresaola
or a salami made from smoked goose breast.
Next they might order the stuffed pasta called cansonsei
in a rich broth, or the buckwheat pasta called pizzocheri,
with Savoy cabbage, potatoes and cheese.Dessert
always seemed too much to bear after such
meals—though gelato
didn't count. For the best cheeses in Milan they’d go
to La Latteria on San Marco (above),
where, despite a no-reservations policy, a table
was always found for the five bella
ragazze from America.If
they craved seafood, they headed over to the old
working-class neighborhood of Navigli, whose
cheap rents and large rooms had increasingly
drawn artists.There, nearPorto Ticinese, they would
sit outdoors along the canal at Al Porto (below),
where they would just let the waiters bring over
the freshest, still wriggling seafood of the
day, like the tiny seasonal crabs called moleche that
crunched in the mouth, and the
tender octopus called fragoline—“Strawberries
of the sea.”
Occasionally
they would pool resources to go to a pricier
place like Alfredo Gran San Bernardo on Via
Borghese, an elegant but unpretentious ristorante,
famous for its Milanese classics—osso buco, risotto
alla milanese with
saffron-scented-and-colored rice, the crispy
rice pancake called riso al
salto, and the buttery veal cutlet alla
milanese, pounded thin and served with the
bone.On
her first visit to the restaurant Jenny fell
hard for that dish and seemed determined to try
every variant in the city wherever she dined.
None of the girls had any
interest in the so-called nuova
cucina, an attempt by a handful of
contemporary Italian chefs to imitate the
stylish nouvelle
cuisine of France. One of them, named
Gualtiero Marchesi, had even earned a star from
the Michelin
Guide for his namesake Milan ristorante,
where he exalted caviar and foie gras and
would only serve pasta after
the main course, which cost a whopping $20.Even
Catherine, who occasionally bought dinner for
all her friends, balked at such exorbitance.
They also never went to the
prohibitively expensive Savini (below) in
the glorious Galleria Emmanuele II, a
masterpiece of urban architecture across from
the Gothic Duomo cathedral. Built by architect
Giuseppe Mengioni between 1865 and 1877, the
Galleria was one of the oldest, and certainly
the most majestic, indoor shopping areas in the
world, its arches housing fashionable boutiques
and open caffés where people spent
hours, even in cold weather,enjoying
la dolce
far niente—the sweetness of doing nothing.
The girls loved to
window-shop and sit down to have an
espresso—which had become an addiction for all
of them—always laughing themselves sick when the
bersaglieri—a
unit of soldiers who even in 1985 wore
outrageous uniforms topped with broad-brimmed
hats decorated with black capercaillie
feathers—ran through the Galleria blowing
bugles, a tradition dating back to their
founding in the 1830s.You could hear them
coming from blocks away, and the girls would
begin to giggle and say, “Here they come!” Then
the young men in their crisp uniforms would
barrel through the Galleria and the girls would
hail them, applaud, wave their arms and shout
“Bravo!”Sometimes
Suzanne and Jenny would blow impressively loud
wolf whistles at them as they flew by, which
always made the young soldiers snap their heads
around. Savini
had opened within the Galleria in 1881 as a beer
house, but by 1884 had evolved into an elegant ristorante,
which, given its proximity to the La Scala opera
house, became a requisite stop for musicians and
actors early on, from Verdi to Puccini, and
later Toscanini, Eleonora Duse, Charlie Chaplin,
Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly.
Catherine would have loved to
have dined at Savini, but she did not want her
friends to feel compromised for not having any
truly elegant clothes of the kind the
restaurant’s patrons showed off, even though she
thought many of the bejeweled older women looked
like dowagers whose sense of taste stopped
somewhere around 1955.Nicola just shrugged and
said the tasseled menu was more continental than
Italian anyway and that she had no desire to eat
there.
Of course, there was no
shortage of Italian men intrigued by the passel
of five American girls, especially since few
Americans visited Milan in winter.Sometimes
the men would circle the girls’ caffé table like
Indians, others would regard them from the bar
and nod, trying to attract their attention, and,
a brave few would come right over and,
inevitably, ask, “Americani?”
Depending on the girls’
instantaneous assessment of the fellow,
magically transmitted to each other without so
much as a glance, they would smile and say “yes”
or “si,”
and then, if the man were practiced at this sort
of thing, he would invite himself to sit down,
employing a soulful version of “I do not want to
intrude,” putting the palms of his hands
together as if praying.The
less assured would enlist a friend to cut down
the odds of five women arrayed against them.
If the
women showed interest, they would turn to Nicola
to speak to the men in Italian and ask if they
spoke English, and if that went well—not that
many young Italians, even in Milan, spoke
English—the invitation to sit down might
be forthcoming.Then, each of the American girls took it
from there.Depending on how the rest of the
afternoon or evening went, the men might win the
promise of a date for the next day or the
weekend with one or another of the girls,
although—unless one of them became suddenly
infatuated with the dark looks and eyelashes of
Gianni or Piero or Massimo or Stefano—they
preferred to stick together, which inevitably
led to Gianni or Piero or Massimo or Stefano
bringing along a sufficient number of friends
for the next rendezvous.
In fact, in Europe young
people generally did not really date one on one,
preferring the gregarious company of friends who
could split checks, bring them to a new hot
spot, and introduce them to new people.Still,
a few of the Italian men seemed convinced by
what they’d heard or seen in movies about
uninhibited American girls enough to ask them
out on an individual date right off the bat and
bed down with them before midnight, which was
usually a very big mistake.
Ironically, because the
Italian cinema of the 1980s was moribund, and
prior to that largely a series of so-called
Spaghetti Westerns exported to the States, the
American women had little by which to judge
Italian men by going to movies.The
assumptions were that the men would be more
forward but far more suave about their approach
than most American men they knew.The
women also retained a persistent fantasy about
the Latin lover who differed in style and sexual
experience from their American counterparts, who
preferred to play the anti-hero or the bad boy
who was really sensitive down deep.
The idea, often expressed
among the women, that “when in Rome do as the
Romans do” seemed equally to apply to Milan, and
although all of them, except Nicola and
Mercédes, had already been through serious love
affairs, the allure of the unfamiliar and exotic
was palpable whenever they met one of the
handsome young Italians.Often,
one or two of the men even kissed their hands,
something unimaginable back home, then one or
another of the girls would pat her breast and
say, “Be still, my heart!” or “Is it getting hot
in here?”Then everyone would laugh and discuss in
detail every aspect of the man and every second
of his visit.
“Did you see what beautiful
hands he had?” “My God, he had such blue eyes for an
Italian!”
“I don’t know anyone back
home who dresses that way.”
“Did you notice how his pants
fit?”
“Well, maybe someone should
tell him about deodorants before we see him
next.” They’d then
pretend to fantasize about how they might run
away with such a man, packed into his little
Fiat 500 (Catherine said, “For me to run off
with a guy it had better be at least
an Alfa-Romeo.”) eat pasta every day, make love
every night, and live in a Tuscan villa with a
vineyard and a small flock of sheep.Children
did not appear in those reveries. Of course, such fantasies were considered
no more serious than those of the men they
coveted, who themselves dreamed of romancing a
beautiful, very sexy, rich American girl who
would implore them to come to America so they
might drive around the country in a DeLorean
sports car, see places with magical names like
Miami and Beverly Hills, buy beautiful clothes
and marry into her rich family, and then, ildolce far
niente. The fact was, all of the girls knew that
for the time being pursuing their education in
law or medicine or politics or teaching was what
they needed to do and intended to finish, even
if their current Italian idylls lent themselves
to frequent daydreams. Nicola, more
than the rest of her friends, was an object of
fascination for the Italians, first because she
was very beautiful and second because she was
Italian-American and spoke their language.But
she was more than content to spend evenings
together in a group with her friends and new
acquaintances.She had no reason as yet to write
anything of importance to her sister Natalie.
INTERVIEW
WITH FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
PART ONE
By John Mariani
It’s likely that the name
Francis Ford Coppola in most people’s minds will
always be as one of the world’s great filmmakers,
whose work includes The Godfather
Trilogy, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The
Outsiders, The Rainmaker and more. But
anyone familiar with the pioneering figures in the
American wine world knows that Francis Ford
Coppola Winery, with brands that range from
prestigious labels like Archimedes and Eleanor to
his Director’s Cut series, Inglenook and the
highly successful Diamond Collection, is one of
the industry’s dominant players.
Winemaking
in the Coppola family dates back to the 1920s, when
Francis’s grandfather, Agostino Coppola, made wine
in the basement of his New York apartment building
using concrete vats he constructed himself.
Thirty-five years ago Francis and his wife, Eleanor,
entered the business of making wine only as an
avocation to his moviemaking. While living in San
Francisco, they bought the Niebaum Mansion in
Rutherford, Calif., on the historic Inglenook
Estate, which they have restored over three
decades. In 2006 they bought Château Souverain to
produce their Diamond Collection and Rosso &
Bianco wine brands.
Among American wine companies the Francis Ford
Coppola Winery now ranksamong
the top ten producers of premium wine (suggested
retail price of$10+) and fifth as wine supplier in that
category. Coppola also has founded Family
Coppola Hideaways, a resort company, with luxury
properties in Belize, Guatemala, Italy and
Argentina.
As a long-time admirer of
Coppola’s achievements in both cinema and the wine
world, I was delighted to have a chance to do a long
interview with him and find out how he views both
careers at the age of 81.
How is the current
pandemic affecting you and your family?
We are, as most everyone,
sheltering in place, but, given the natural
beauty of the Napa Valley, you could consider it
sheltering in paradise. Basically, all our kids and
their kids are here, and some nephews and their
kids, making close to 25 individuals. We are more
than aware that many others are suffering under more
cramped and dire conditions than found here, and our
hearts go out to them and we are most grateful and
lucky to be able to be together in such beautiful
surroundings. [This
past week the winery has re-opened and is holding
wine tastings by reservation.]
Did your family drink
wine when you were a child?
As an Italian-American, I
confess, I never saw a dinner table that didn’t have
wine on it. But I also heard great stories my uncles
told me about the
days during Prohibition, when the government allowed
families accustomed to drinking wine with food to
make two barrels of wine in their homes. My
grandfather had seven sons and expected them to help
out in making this home wine, but the boys were more
anxious to steal the grapes, because fresh fruit was
a luxury and they were quite poor. Imagine a single
orange divided up between seven boys! There were
elaborate schemes of lowering the youngest in a
basket on a rope into the cellar where the grapes
were kept and, as the old man approached, letting
go, with the littlest brother crashing into them. We
loved hearing those stories sitting around the
table, where we kids were allowed a little wine
mixed with 7-Up.
Did you get serious about
wine at some point in his life?
Those childhood stories
made winemaking sound like so much fun. Later in my
life, when finally I had earned a little money, I
suggested to my wife that we buy a summer cottage in
the Napa Valley, hopefully with a few grapevines,
and the agent showing us these modest possibilities
said, “This isn’t for you, but the Niebaum Estate is
being auctioned and that was the most
beautiful wine estate in the world, and this would
be a chance to see it.” So we said “sure” and went
to see it, but to behold it was to wish it could be
yours. We lost the bid at auction, but and
eventually that wish, after the success ofThe Godfather,
came true.With
it came about a 100 acres of premium Napa
vineyards—originally they were going to build 60
homes on the hillside, but we bought it—and soon
many winemakers were coming by to offer to lease
those vineyards, and I said to Eleanor, “Why don’t
we just keep those grapes and make wine ourselves?”
And she said, “What do you know about how to make
wine?” to which I replied, “Nothing, but neither do
I know how to make movies, but that hasn’t stopped
me.” And so that’s how I found myself in the wine
business.
Many of the
Coppola wines are named after women in your life.
Why is this the case?
When our first wines came
out under the name Coppola, my mother said “Oh,
Coppola this and Coppola that. Remember you’re also
a Pennino.” So to make her happy, we came out with a
wine honoring her side of the family, Edizione
Pennino, a luscious zinfandel. So that set the pace
and I began to honor various family members. I made
a sparkling wine for my little nine-year-old
daughter, Sofia, and told her one day it would be
served at her wedding, and then another in
admiration of my wife, Eleanor, and I realized that
little by little I was turning all my relatives into
products. But they were delicious wines and
expressed my love and admiration for my family.
Tell me about Archimedes?
Archimedes turned out to be a premium
wine. It was a name our family gave to the eldest
son. My great, great grandfather named my uncle
Archimedes [after the Greek mathematician and
astronomer] because he was a great admirer of his
mind. You know, Archimedes was the one who first
said “Eureka!”So, when it came to making our best wine, we
called it Archimedes. We make under2,000
cases.
Francis Ford Coppola
Winery brought many innovations to the wine
industry and many firsts. Upon being told
that a non-champagne blancs des blancs would never
sell, you did it anyway. How did this occur to you
and do you think you have a stubborn streak that
made you go ahead with it?
When we lived in Paris,
where my second son, Roman, was born, and I was
working on a movie there, Ellie and I used to go to
a neighborhood restaurant and always order a blanc
des blancs [sparkling wine]. We didn’t have money
and it was a far cheaper alternative to champagne.
That’s why I later thought we could make one in
Napa, and I named it “Sofia” after our precocious
little daughter. I remember showing it and offering
a glass to the great Mr. Jack Davies, who was making an authentic Méthode
Traditionnelle sparkling wine called
Schramsberg. He knew more about sparkling
wines than anyone in the valley, and told me I was
kidding myself to think I could sell a blanc des
blancs called “Sofia” no matter how much I loved my
little daughter. But yes, I guess I am
stubborn once I get an idea in my head and I
persist, especially when it's about my family.
I was also among the first to make a fine Cabernet
blend in the Bordeaux style, and along with Joseph
Phelps’s Insignia gave it a proprietary name,
Rubicon, so it wouldn’t be designated (by law)
“California red wine.”
Coppola Winery was also
the first winery in northern California to install
a swimming pool and a bocce court. Why, and
was this meant always as something for
guests?
That is Francis Coppola
Winery in Sonoma, and I was anxious for kids to want
to go along with their parents to visit a winery. I
used to watch the kids in Napa always jump into the
fountain, and when they were told they couldn’t,
they would always ask, “Why not?” “Because it isn’t
a swimming pool” was the reply. I think you
never go wrong taking kids seriously, so when I
built the new Francis Coppola Winery in Sonoma we
added a cluster of swimming pools, which turned out
magnificently. When the kids want to go, so do the
grandparents, who want to be with the kids, and they
play bocce, so there’s something for everyone and
they stay all day.
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Sponsored by
❖❖❖
Any of John Mariani's
books below may be ordered from amazon.com.
The Hound in Heaven
(21st Century Lion Books) is a novella, and
for anyone who loves dogs, Christmas, romance,
inspiration, even the supernatural, I hope you'll find
this to be a treasured favorite. The story
concerns how, after a New England teacher, his wife and
their two daughters adopt a stray puppy found in their
barn in northern Maine, their lives seem full of promise.
But when tragedy strikes, their wonderful dog Lazarus and
the spirit of Christmas are the only things that may bring
his master back from the edge of despair.
“What a huge surprise turn this story took! I was
completely stunned! I truly enjoyed this book and its
message.” – Actress Ali MacGraw
“He had me at Page One. The amount of heart, human insight,
soul searching, and deft literary strength that John Mariani
pours into this airtight novella is vertigo-inducing.
Perhaps ‘wow’ would be the best comment.” – James
Dalessandro, author of Bohemian
Heart and 1906.
“John Mariani’s Hound in
Heaven starts with a well-painted portrayal of an
American family, along with the requisite dog. A surprise
event flips the action of the novel and captures us for a
voyage leading to a hopeful and heart-warming message. A
page turning, one sitting read, it’s the perfect antidote
for the winter and promotion of holiday celebration.” – Ann
Pearlman, author of The
Christmas Cookie Club and A Gift for my Sister.
“John Mariani’s concise, achingly beautiful novella pulls a
literary rabbit out of a hat – a mash-up of the cosmic and
the intimate, the tragic and the heart-warming – a Christmas
tale for all ages, and all faiths. Read it to your children,
read it to yourself… but read it. Early and often. Highly
recommended.” – Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling
author of Pinkerton’s War,
The Sinking of The Eastland, and The Walking Dead: The Road To
Woodbury.
“Amazing things happen when you open your heart to an
animal. The Hound in
Heaven delivers a powerful story of healing that
is forged in the spiritual relationship between a man and
his best friend. The book brings a message of hope that can
enrich our images of family, love, and loss.” – Dr. Barbara
Royal, author of The
Royal Treatment.
Modesty forbids me to praise my own new book, but
let me proudly say that it is an extensive
revision of the 4th edition that appeared more
than a decade ago, before locavores, molecular
cuisine, modernist cuisine, the Food Network and
so much more, now included. Word origins have been
completely updated, as have per capita consumption
and production stats. Most important, for the
first time since publication in the 1980s, the
book includes more than 100 biographies of
Americans who have changed the way we cook, eat
and drink -- from Fannie Farmer and Julia Child to
Robert Mondavi and Thomas Keller.
"This book is amazing! It has entries for
everything from `abalone' to `zwieback,' plus more
than 500 recipes for classic American dishes and
drinks."--Devra First, The Boston Globe.
"Much needed in any kitchen library."--Bon Appetit.
Now in Paperback,
too--How Italian Food Conquered the
World (Palgrave Macmillan) has won top prize from the
Gourmand
World Cookbook Awards. It is
a rollicking history of the food culture of
Italy and its ravenous embrace in the 21st
century by the entire world. From ancient Rome
to la dolce
vita of post-war Italy, from Italian
immigrant cooks to celebrity chefs, from
pizzerias to high-class ristoranti,
this chronicle of a culinary diaspora is as
much about the world's changing tastes,
prejudices, and dietary fads as about
our obsessions with culinary fashion and
style.--John Mariani
"Eating Italian will
never be the same after reading
John Mariani's entertaining and
savory gastronomical history of
the cuisine of Italy and how it
won over appetites worldwide. . .
. This book is such a tasteful
narrative that it will literally
make you hungry for Italian food
and arouse your appetite for
gastronomical history."--Don
Oldenburg, USA Today.
"Italian
restaurants--some good, some glitzy--far
outnumber their French rivals. Many of
these establishments are zestfully described
in How Italian Food Conquered the World, an
entertaining and fact-filled chronicle by
food-and-wine correspondent John F.
Mariani."--Aram Bakshian Jr., Wall Street
Journal.
"Mariani
admirably dishes out the story of
Italy’s remarkable global ascent
to virtual culinary
hegemony....Like a chef gladly
divulging a cherished family
recipe, Mariani’s book reveals the
secret sauce about how Italy’s
cuisine put gusto in gusto!"--David
Lincoln Ross,
thedailybeast.com
"Equal parts
history, sociology, gastronomy, and just
plain fun, How Italian Food Conquered the
World tells the captivating and delicious
story of the (let's face it) everybody's
favorite cuisine with clarity, verve and
more than one surprise."--Colman Andrews,
editorial director of The Daily
Meal.com.
"A fantastic and fascinating
read, covering everything from the influence
of Venice's spice trade to the impact of
Italian immigrants in America and the
evolution of alta cucina. This book will
serve as a terrific resource to anyone
interested in the real story of Italian
food."--Mary Ann Esposito, host of PBS-TV's
Ciao
Italia.
"John Mariani has written the
definitive history of how Italians won their
way into our hearts, minds, and
stomachs. It's a story of pleasure over
pomp and taste over technique."--Danny Meyer,
owner of NYC restaurants Union Square
Cafe, The Modern, and Maialino.
❖❖❖
FEATURED
LINKS: I am happy to report
that the Virtual
Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites:
I consider this the best and
savviest blog of its kind on the web. Potter is a
columnist for USA
Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury Spa Finder,
a contributing editor for Ski and a frequent contributor
to National
Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com
and Elle Decor.
"I’ve designed this site is for people who take
their travel seriously," says Potter. "For
travelers who want to learn about special places
but don’t necessarily want to pay through the nose for
the privilege of staying there. Because at the end
of the day, it’s not so much about five-star
places as five-star experiences." THIS WEEK:
Eating Las Vegas
JOHN CURTAS has been covering the Las Vegas
food and restaurant scene since 1995. He is
the co-author of EATING LAS VEGAS – The 50
Essential Restaurants (as well as
the author of the Eating Las Vegas web site: www.eatinglasvegas.
He can also be seen every Friday morning as
the “resident foodie” for Wake Up With the
Wagners on KSNV TV (NBC) Channel 3 in
Las Vegas.
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Publisher: John Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani,
Robert Mariani,Misha Mariani, John A. Curtas, Gerry Dawes, Geoff Kalish,
and Brian Freedman. Contributing
Photographer: Galina Dargery. Technical
Advisor: Gerry
McLoughlin.