NOTES
FROM THE WINE CELLAR
SPRINGTIME WINES
By John Mariani
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IL
GATTOPARDO, NYC BRINGS BACK REFINEMENT TO CUCINA ALL'ITALIANA
By John Mariani
Last week I reported on how New
York’s finest French restaurant, Le Bernardin,
had reopened and proved the resilience of the
city’s fine dining segment. So, this week I am
just as happy to report that the city’s finest
Italian restaurant, Il Gattopardo, located in
a former John D. Rockefeller townhouse across
from the Museum of Modern Art, run by Gianfranco
and Paula Sorrentino and Chef Vito Gnazzo (left),
is showing the same commitment to maintaining
fine dining with an Italian flair and
refinement that have always been its hallmark. Named after the great 1958 novel of
Sicilian life, Il Gattopardo, by Giuseppe di
Lampedusa, the restaurant is spread on two
floors of the Beaux Art townhouse. Upstairs is
the main dining room, downstairs a vast party
room, and in their streamlined minimalist décor
both make good stylistic neighbors to MoMA
across the street. The lighting is soft and
glowing in the dining room, the walls free of
artwork, and the comfortable chairs, double
tablecloths, thin wine glasses, fine china and
fresh flowers maintain the metropolitan level of
sophistication. The
mostly
Italian wine list exceeds 300 labels, all
selected by the affable Gianfranco himself,
still with many wines under $50. Gnazzo, from
Salerno, had worked at the renowned Antica
Osteria del Ponte outside Milan, then at the
equally esteemed Rex in Los Angeles. At Il
Gattopardo he shows a further upgrading of cucina
Italiana, proudly specializing in Southern
Italian classics that he makes the most of,
never elaborating when perfect simplicity can be
so key to a dish’s success. We left ourselves in his hands for a
tasting menu that began with smoked mozzarella
called provola
in a hearty pizzaiolo
sauce of tomato and basil ($25 à la carte), and
cuttlefish and artichokes sautéed with a touch
of anchovy and white wine over frisée greens
with sun-dried plum
tomatoes and Taggiasca olives ($26). Both showed
the bright color and sun-enriched flavors of
Gnazzo’s home region, as did a pasta of buffalo
ricotta gnocchi
with black truffles, sweet sausage and toasted
mascarpone cheese ($45). This was a lavish dish
(and all portions as a main course aregenerous)
in which the gnocchi (below)
are enhanced, not covered over, by the other
ingredients.If you are a fan of bottarga
(dried roe), you will love the spaghetti with
grey mullet bottarga,
garlic, parsley, extra virgin olive
oil and a hint of crushed Calabrian red pepper
($30). I found the bottarga
flavor too pronounced, when it might have been
subtler. Gnazzo treats
Sardinian fregola
(left) like risotto and enriches it with
spring’s sweet asparagus tips and sea scallops
($32), a dish that exemplifies a more delicate
touch of which texture has as much to do with
the dish as taste. Rombo,
or turbot ($140 for two), is a wonderfully
gelatinous form of brill that usually does not
translate well when shipped across the Atlantic,
but Gnazzo’s treatment, simply roasted and
glossed with olive oil and parsley, with sautéed
broccoli di rabe on the side, was impeccable.
The fish, lifted from the bone, had a velvety
fat and sweetness, and it was remarkably
filling. Unlike
most Italian restaurants both here and in Italy,
desserts are not an afterthought at Il
Gattopardo. The deeply satisfying mousse di cioccolato (left) with
Aglianico wine heart ($18), and the tangy sweet
“Delizia
al limone” ofsponge
cake soaked in Limoncello Amalfitano with white
chocolate curls ($18), are delights, and don’t
miss the traditional Neapolitan cheesecake
called pastiera
($18) made with wheatberries. Thanks to the Museum also being
open and the restaurant’s location on a street
of townhouses, even lunch is feasible. Il Gattopardo also
serves brunch on Saturdays and Sundays with
items like ricotta pancakes with berries and
maple syrup ($21) and eggs in a spicy cherry
tomato sauce with pancetta
bacon ($24). The
Sorrentinos also run the little trattoria
Mozzarella e Vino (now under reconstruction)
next door and, up near Lincoln Center, the very
fine Leopard at Café des Artistes. All share the
dedication to keeping the best that Italy has to
offer in terms of ingredients, cooking and
service that can be found in New York right now,
and it’s a beacon for others to follow as
restaurants recover from the pandemic.
IL GATTOPARDO 13-15 West 54th Street (near Fifth
Avenue)
212-246-0412
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CAPONE’S
GOLD
By John Mariani
CHAPTER TWO
Under Prohibition Al Capone achieved
the notorious title of Public Enemy Number
One, along with a celebrity status no other
mobster of any era ever came close to
attaining.And though he was never indicted for
what the newspapers called the “Saint
Valentine’s Day Massacre,” in which seven
rival gang members were slaughtered, that
atrocity triggered a public outrage and
response by the newly formed F.B.I. that would
ultimately lead to Capone’s incarceration—for
tax evasion. By
the age of nineteen Capone was already deeply
involved with the New York Italian mobs as a
thug, garnering his hated nickname “Scarface”
after being slashed with a stiletto in a bar
fight.Capone
moved to Chicago in 1919, after he had
antagonized too many New York gangsters, and
from there he rose to pre-eminence as the
nation’s most powerful and ruthless crime
warlord, rubbing out his competition and taking
over more and more territory in the Windy City.
By 1930 he was raking in $30 million a year. Such extravagant wealth allowed Capone to
create for himself a new public image as a
friend to the poor, donating lavishly to charity
and the Catholic Church.If a
local diocese needed a new roof on its church, a
new altar, vestments, Capone made sure the
parish got it.He regarded those donations as a kind of
security and protection, hoping God would see
them as the better part of his nature. But by then he was running scared,
especially after his brother Frank was gunned
down on the street. Capone’s widowed mother,
Teresina, had every reason to believe God had
cursed her family for whose future she feared in
life and death.She agonized that Frank might already be
in hell and that Al would follow him there, so
she asked her son to send her back to her
hometown of Angri, where she could pray for her
remaining family in the church of San Giovanni
Battista, where she spent the next six months at
the convent. It was at that time that the
tradition of keeping an eternal vigil
of lighted candles began in the church. After a near-miss attempt on his life and
word that a $50,000 bounty had been set on his
head, Capone began seriously thinking of getting
out of the rackets, settling as a legitimate
businessman at his mansion estate on Palm
Island, Florida (right). So it was
almost laughable irony that, having avoided
being murdered, or sent away for life for his
criminal activities, Capone was finally
arrested, charged and sent to federal prison for
tax evasion, as had other mobsters like Frank
Nitti and Bugs Moran.Capone
was given a sentence of ten years, eventually
ending up in the new high security Alcatraz
Island Prison in San Francisco Bay (below).
By then, Capone’s health had deteriorated,
particularly from the effects of untreated
syphilis acquired a decade before.At one
point an Alcatraz guard told a newsman, “The
guy’s as screwy as a bedbug.” But
one thing that always brightened Al’s spirit was
the knowledge that the I.R.S. still couldn’t
find any of his money assets, despite orders
that he pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in
taxes and fines.During the years he was in prison, of
course, money had not been rolling into his
coffers.What’s
more, Capone needed to avenge himself on those
who put him in prison, and he developed a plan
to pull off the heist of something so precious
and so well protected that no other gangster had
ever dreamed of. As a youngster, he had heard about the
infamous Great Gold Robbery of bullion back in
1855 (below) when 91 kilograms of gold
were stolen from a train at London Bridge
intended to be loaded onto a steamship for
delivery in Boulogne, France. Three boxes of
bullion, bound by iron bands, which needed two
different keys to open, arrived in Boulogne as
scheduled but upon being opened they contained
only 13 ingots along with sixteen bags of lead
shot. The robber gang had somehow made copies
of the keys, opened the boxes, and replaced the
gold, then spent the next three days melting the
ingots down in a West London furnace. All the
robbers were eventually caught. During his time in prison, with plenty of
time to plan crimes, the idea of stealing gold
from the feds became an obsession for Capone,
especially after President Roosevelt issued an
executive order in 1933 that outlawed private
ownership of gold coins, certificates and
bullion, forcing their sale to the Federal
Reserve, which had to build a storage bank for
it all.In
1936, the Treasury Department began the
construction of the United States Bullion
Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, using 500
railway cars protected by federal agents to
deliver the gold. Once inside, the gold was safe from any
possible attempts to break into the vault, whose
walls were 21 inches thick and whose main door
weighed 20 tons. In addition, the Depository was
next to the Fort Knox Army base and was
therefore protected even from foreign invasion.
Capone spent three
years and countless hours trying to figure out a
way of stealing gold without breaking into that
vault. Finally, passing the plans to his gang on
the outside, he was able to put into effect a
plan that worked brilliantly.Realizing
that hijacking a federally protected train was
impossible, he instead went after the armored
trucks that transported the gold to smaller
Federal Reserve Banks around the country until
ready for shipment to Fort Knox (left).Capone’s
people on the inside knew exactly when and where
the trucks would begin their journey. He zeroed
in on a shipment intended to go to the Detroit
branch bank (below) on East Warren
Avenue. The truck took a deliberately circuitous
route eastward through Michigan, but before it
reached Ann Arbor, Capone’s gang blocked the
road, with a dozen heavily armed, hooded men
circling the truck, making it clear to the
occupants that if they did not surrender the
truck would be blown up with them in it.Capone’s
men knew that, in fact, the armored truck
crewmen were directed by the feds not to engage
with hijackers in such numbers. So the crew
piled out of the truck and gave the hijackers
access to the gold.Capone’s
men tied up the truck driver and guards, took
their keys, and destroyed their radio
transmitters. Leaving the truck disabled, the hijackers
loaded the gold onto waiting trucks of their
own, and then the bullion seemed to disappear
into thin air. The plan had been to ransom the gold
after Capone had been freed from prison, which
he was in 1939, but the outbreak of World War II
made that impossible, so he waited on Palm
Island,looking
out over the aqua blue waters of Biscayne Bay
and thinking there was plenty of time later to
contact the feds.By then he figured he’d be either
completely legit or retired for good.He
grew fat on the thought. But Capone’s body and mind, ravaged by
syphilis, finally drew his thoughts every which
way. Mostly, he still feared someone would shoot
him down in the streets.Nothing
made any sense anymore. He remembered the gold
but couldn’t keep his mind on what he intended
to do with it.Towards the end, when a trusted crony
would ask about the gold, all Capone would say
was “God only knows.” On January
21, 1947,Al
Capone,48, suffered a stroke and
went into a coma.Four nights later, his heart went into
cardiac arrest and he died.
NOTE: You may read each
chapter as its appears or has appeared
by going to: Capone's
Gold
Spring
is finally here and no better time to try some
of the fine new bottlings in the market with the
springtime foods coming in. Here are some good
examples.
Billecart-Salmon Brut Sous Bois
($80)—The label tells the tale: It looks like
barrel wood, and this sumptuous and creamy
non-vintage Champagne is entirely aged in wood,
not stainless steel, yet it is not in the least
oaky, but instead has a roundness and lingers on
the palate. Other than a sirloin steak, I’d
drink this with anything.
Yamhill
Valley Pinot Gris 2019
($22)—Plenty of fruit distinguishes this Oregon
pinot gris from lesser French examples or
Italian pinot grigios. It was a very hot summer,
so the fruit’s sugar combined beautifully with
the acids. The lees were stirred a few times in
the process of fermentation by winemaker Ariel
Eberle. . At 13% alcohol it’s right where it
should be for easy drinking.
Decoy
Merlot 2018 ($25)—From Napa’s
Duckhorn Vineyards, famous for its Merlots,
comes this Sonoma
appellation with the richness and
velvety softness you seek in the varietal,
which also has 1% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1%
Petit Verdot for added nuance. At less than
14% alcohol it works throughout the meal.
Drink it all spring and summer along with
grilled foods.
Laetitia
Estate Chardonnay 2019
($22)—If you like body in your west coast
Chardonnays without the icky oak of so many,
this Arroyo Grande Valley example with 13.4%
alcohol is impressive. The Pacific Ocean is just
three miles from the estate, so the cooling
effect is important to keeping thegrapes’
development
through a rainy season. Aged for 10 months in
French oak. With Pacific seafood like mahi-mahi
and Dungeness crab, this is terrific.
Rotari Brut Rosé
2014
($23)—The onslaught of rosé wines in the market
is in full swing, and this vintage blend of
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Trentino benefits
from Dolomite terroir 550 meters high, with good
sun exposure that balances the sugars and acids
and 12.5% alcohol. It’s a festive rosé but one
you could drink with appetizers and all
shellfish. Six years of aging has developed
levels of complexity not usually seen in Italian
sparkling wines.
Youngberg
Hill Aspen Chardonnay 2019
($40)—No, this is not made in the Colorado
Rockies; it’s the name of the winemaker’s
youngest daughter. The estate was originally
planted as Pinot Gris but replanted with
Chardonnay that shows the restraint, despite
nine months in barrel, that Oregon examples can
achieve in terms of richness at just 12%
alcohol. With Alaskan cod you won’t find a
better match.
Ca
di Prata Valdobbiadene Extra Dry
($19)—Made from 85% Glera and 15% other
varieties, this DOCG Prosecco rises above so
many examples by retaining a slight sweetness
that expresses the fruit. The acid is delightful
and on a spring afternoon you could sip this
with anything from a green salad with white
cheeses to ripe fruits and biscotti.
Aia
Vecchia “Lagone” 2018
($17)—Wines from Italy’s Bolgheri region can be
ridiculously pricey for only mediocre quality,
but this IGT blend of 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet
Sauvignon and 10% Cabernet Franc is exemplary
from Ornellaia winemaker Tibor Gal. It’s well
knit, satisfies the palate from tip of the
tongue to the back of the throat and at $17 is
simply unbeatable.
Castello
Pomino Benefizio Riserva 2018
($40)—Italian Chardonnays are, generally, fairly
dull wines, tasting too much of the aging
barrels and too little of the grape. But
Castello Pomino has been at it for 150 years
now, so they know their terroir well. The result
is a wine whose grapes are gently crushed,
undergo a cold clarification, then placed in
barriques for the fermentation. It is a very
elegant Chardonnay as good as French examples
twice its price. (It’s also sold in magnum,
which is ideal for a party of six or more.) An
ideal match for spaghetti with clam sauce or branzino
on the grill.
Mettler
Family Vineyards Petite Sirah 2018 ($25)—You have to ferret out good Petite
Sirahs and this is one to seek. It’s got the
characteristic taste of the grape (Durif in the
Rhône Valley) and, coming from Lodi, California,
the structure and big fruit you get from sunny
vineyards. The 14.5% alcohol is about right for
this varietal, which used to be used to bolster
other red wines. Excellent wine with pork or
ribs.
Trasgaia
Toscana 2013
($28)—Do you want to spend $28 for a wine of unknown origin,
owing to IGT laws that allow it only to be
designated “Toscana?” Yes, in this case (and
many others) you do. The word I wrote in big
bold letters on the label was SOLID!!, and I
find out it’s from an organic vineyard in
Castellina with a 1,000-year history. The
blend is 50% Sangiovese with Cabernet
Sauvignon and 50% Cabernet Franc, matured for
24 months in oak and five years of development
inside the bottle. That amount of aging proves
the legacy of the estate, and its 14% alcohol
is right on the mark.
Finca
Martelo Reserva 2015
($33)—This is 95% Tempranillo from 60-year-old
vines, with some Garnacha and a touch of Viura, chosen from
three vineyards by winemaker Julio Sáenz. It
spent 24 months in French and American oak with
weekly bâttonages
and bottled in 2017. It’s got the intensity
that a reserva should have, lots of
fruit but a ballast of softening tannins and
good spice. With grilled lamb it will be
perfect.
Viña
Alberdi Reserva 2016 Rioja
($23)—Another enchanting Rioja reserva. If you’d
never tasted a red wine before and you tasted
this, you would know everything you need to
about the rich quality of today’s Rioja Alta
wines. It is truly sumptuous and I’d think about
what red meats to serve with it rather than the
other way around.
❖❖❖
FOOD WRITING
1O1: BLOCK THAT SIMILE!
"Lobster tails mostly come frozen, like ice
cream and woolly mammoths. That’s because, unlike your
regular swimmy-type fishes—your anchovy, your bream,
your cod—lobsters don’t take well to being
dead."—James P. DeWan, Daily Meal (4/7/21).
❖❖❖
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.