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  July 4 ,  2021                                                                                            NEWSLETTER

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Sean Penn in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982)

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY


HAPPY FOURTH         

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IN THIS ISSUE
EATING AROUND MYSTIC, CT
By John Mariani


NEW YORK CORNER
TUSCANY STEAKHOUSE

By John Mariani

CAPONE'S GOLD
Chapter Fourteen
By John Mariani


NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
MOËT HENNESSEY GOES SERIOUS GREEN
By John Mariani




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On this week's episode of my WVOX Radio Show "Almost Golden," on Wed. July 7, at 11AM EST,I will be interviewing Jeffrey Sussman on the great boxers of the 1950s Go to: WVOX.com. The episode will also be archived at: almostgolden.


























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EATING AROUND MYSTIC, CT
By John Mariani



Nana's Bakery and Pizza

Photo  by Idlewild/Catherine Dzilenski

 

         I will go to the mat insisting that the greatest seafood in the world is in the North Atlantic, and in summer, trolling the New England coast, you find it in profusion, on the grill, in chowders, boiled, steamed and served raw. For many that would be enough, but the small town of Mystic has some restaurants that go well beyond that request, easily a match for Boston’s best.
       But first, a word about New England pizzerias: The most heralded are in New Haven, most famously Pepe’s (though I much prefer Sally’s). There’s good pizza to be found in Boston’s North End and Providence’s Federal Hill. And, yes, there really is a Mystic Pizza in Mystic, made world famous by the movie of the same name. It’s set on Main Street and has become a tourist attraction, though it’s changed hands several times. But the real surprise is a new pizzeria that opened just outside of town a few months ago.





Nana’s Bakery and Pizza
(32 Williams Avenue; 860-980-3375) is very new and very, very good. The goods are all made with organic flour and yeasts, and  they even make their own soda flavors (though they need work). We ate outside on a perfect summer’s day, chatting with Aaron Laipply, partner with chef James Wayman (below), who have passionately committed to going their own way and innovating, but well within the respect for tradition In that regard, the pizzas are as close to any I’ve had in Naples and Sicily, with a crust with a crisp but pliant texture, an interior somewhat like focaccia, and the flavor of the yeast and olive oil throughout. They do a classic white pizza with garlic butter, ricotta and rosemary ($13), tomato and mozzarella ($12), and a New England version with potatoes, bacon, clams, garlic butter and parsley with black pepper ($18), which reminds me of clam chowder. They do a big take-out business, and the breads are dense and wheaty.  I really hope other pizzerias try at least to learn if not pilfer whatever secrets they have to make pies this good, because these pizzas deserve renown throughout New England. (I can sense a small chain growing up and down the coast.)                                                                                          Photos: Idlewild/Catherine Dzilenski

 

Grass & Bone (24 East Main Street; 860-245-4814) is also owned by Laipply and Wayman, and it is mainly a take-out butcher, serving food up till 8 PM. It has a spanking, smart-looking interior done in white and charcoal gray, with their aging meat locker to one side and tables inside and out. The meats and poultry are locally sourced, and it’s a bellwether spot for first-rate, well-aged beef (raised on grass, finished on corn). We took some home and were very impressed with the quality on the grill. The Prime steak goes for $30 a pound. They also sell “seaside” mushrooms.
    Yet, despite the great beef, the signature dish at Grass and Bone is a rotisserie chicken ($16, half $10), which has the real flavor of an un-enhanced bird, not brined and pumped full of salt. It is generously seasoned on the skin and roasted for about an hour to emerge as a glossy, golden-brown, juicy chicken whose aroma alone will make you swoon.  G&B also serves terrific, well-spiced duck tacos ($4), a sweet potato taco ($3.50) and a mushroom carne asada taco ($3.50), along with a fabulous spicy Caesar salad ($13) that my wife begged the chef to share his recipe. 



 

The Shipwright’s Daughter (20 East Main Street; 860-536-7605)  is a pretty spot within the Whaler’s Inn, done in nautical blue, hardwoods, rough-hewn beams, and bare tables, with a delightful window on Main Street to watch the people come and go.
      Chef David Standridge (below) is a significant talent in New England, after spending thirteen years in New York, where he worked at Joël Robuchon’s restaurant in The Four Seasons, then at the Maidstone Hotel in East Hampton. Having grown up in the Appalachian mountains, he’s got a keen sense of game and fish in season, obvious in his eclectic menu based on the regional larder.
      Begin with roasted mýa taki mushrooms ($16) or a smoky artichoke pizza ($15), and there are two first-rate pastas impeccably sauced: creamy ricotta gnocchi ($14, or $28 as a main course) cuddled in an herb hazelnut pesto, with summer's peas and a touch of mint; and bucatini (below) with delicate pioppino mushrooms, a mushroom cream sauce and a dash of Sherry  ($14 or $28). The essential flavors of every ingredient emerge and meld, and the pasta itself is of very fine, chewy character. There are always chilled local oysters, or have them roasted with absinthe butter ($17).
     Halibut came as a thick, hefty rib chop ($41) with morels, asparagus, pickled spruce tips and lemon thyme, all of which add subtle notes of flavor and texture. Every bit as good was a John Dory à la plancha ($31) with pistachio-studded hummus, New England fiddlehead ferns, snow peas, garlic scapes and a ginger sauce vierge.
     For dessert have the moist, flourless chocolate cake or the fussed-up Pavlova ($10).
      The restaurant also serves a fine breakfast that includes a puffy, crisp buttermilk biscuit with housemade jam and maple butter ($5), and unusual avocado toast with thick multi greens, crushed avocado and chili green sauce ($10), along with a very hearty breakfast taco with creamy scrambled eggs (here the cliché “farm fresh” really means something), chorizo, chili-laced roasted potatoes and complex salsa. A stack of blueberry cornmeal Johnny cakes—a specialty of New England—came with whipped butter and Rhode Island maple syrup ($13).
      The wine list is not huge but geared well to the type of fare Standridge serves.

 

Oyster Club (13 Water Street; 860-415-9266), just off Main Street, is a cannily rustic spot that looks like it might have served whalers a century ago—it opened in 2011—and for that its wooden walls and beams and big glowing  globes cast a shadowy, romantic light from a high ceiling. The service staff could not be more cordial or helpful, and chef Renée Toupence shows a balance of regional dishes done with her own turn of creativity, saying, “We could not do what we do without the people who farm, fish, ferment, brew and craft in this little corner of Connecticut.” Above the dining room is The Treehouse, with a raw bar, burgers and craft cocktails, soon to offer the same downstairs menu.
    
Obviously oysters are the big sell here, and you can pick from the best that come from surrounding waters, like Rhode Island East Beach and Ninigret, and Connecticut Mystic and Niantic bay. They also serve oysters Rockefeller (six for $18). For all the emphasis on local seafood, it’s surprising they serve Prince Edward Island mussels from 700 miles away.
     There’s no whole lobster here—and for reasons I couldn’t’ puzzle out, few anywhere in Mystic restaurants—but the rigatoni with an abundance of lobster chunks ($19 or $38) is one of the best dishes in town and well worth sharing.  Buttermilk-soaked and ginger-spiced fried fluke ($30) is a fine turn on fish-and-chips, and the dayboat sea scallops ($32) were plump and very much enhanced by garlic, giant beans, simmered escarole, Calabrian chili and Meyer lemon relish, which sounds like a lot of stuff but it’s all there to buoy the pearly fat scallops with their own briny flavors.
    If you’ve already had your fill of seafood in Mystic, by all means order the locally raised short ribs with spring peas and shoots, mint and an oxtail with bordelaise, which at  $17 is the best buy in town.
     For dessert you’ll enjoy the Key lime pie ($8).
      The wine list is fairly short but the labels are not the usual favorites, so take a chance on the Occhipinti Frappato from Sicily ($85) or the La Maison d’Anais Sancerre ($75). Mark-ups are a little above 100% of retail.                                                           
Photos: Idlewild/Catherine Dzilenski

 

    If you are looking for a whole lobster on a regular basis, as well as lobster rolls, just head south of Mystic to Noank, a nine-minute drive, where the long-lived and much-loved Abbott’s in the Rough (117 Pearl Street; 860-536-7719) has its own dock where the lobstermen pull up daily (left), so you can be assured of a well-fatted lobster rather than one that’s been wallowing in a fish tank for days on end. You can eat outside in the bucolic Connecticut countryside and feast on crabcakes and chowder, oysters just cracked open, lobsters (MP) that weigh up to ten pounds and strawberry shortcake for dessert.
          A lot of people swear by the much newer (opened 2012) Ford’s (15 Riverview Avenue; 860-536-2842) on the water (right), which has pretty much everything they serve at Abbott’s (the lobster rolls are $24) with the addition of a blackened salmon and spinach salad ($26), clams casino ($15), Cajun peel and eat shrimp ($14), coconut curry mussels ($14), the day’s catch ($23), baked cod ($26) and scallops ($35).

 













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NEW YORK CORNER

TUSCANY STEAKHOUSE

                                                                                  117 West 58th Street

                                                                                       212-757-8630

By John Mariani



     The dated macho attitude that used to be the rule in old-line New York steakhouses like Palm, Smith & Wollensky and Peter Luger, where the maître d’ said things like, “You got a seven o’clock reservation? So do a lot of people. Wait at the bar,” and the waiters barely mumbled, “How d’ya want ya steak cooked?” was, thank heavens, superseded over the last decade by a welcoming, cordial hospitality that seemed to begin about the time Wolfgang’s Steakhouse opened near Grand Central Terminal. Wolfgang Zwiener, who’d spent decades as a Luger’s waiter, was determined to serve food every bit as good as any in New York but to eliminate the rudeness and focus on good service. And he had the good sense to hire a large number of already experienced waitstaff from  Eastern Europe—Albanian, Slovenian, Croatian, Montenegrin—whose demeanor was a far cry from the old “sit-‘em-and-serve-‘em” routine.
       Indeed, since so many of the steakhouses in the city are now owned by these former waiters and serve the same very high quality beef, seafood and wine, they have won their followings by bending over backwards to make their regulars and newcomers happy. 
      
Case in point: Tuscany Steakhouse, whose owner, Albanian-born Steve Haxhiaj (left), had been g-m at Wolfgang’s and a former owner of Il Monello, along with chef Jaime Chabla, a native of Ecuador, also a Wolfgang’s alumnus. The four-year-old restaurant is well-situated in midtown, near the Theater District, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Having survived the pandemic, Tuscany Steakhouse is back in its old form and so are the regulars.
     The main dining area has white-washed brick with Roman arches trimmed in oak, with extremely comfortable black leather chairs, thick white tablecloths and a mirrored wall. When I visited, the room was very dimly lighted—highly unusual for a steakhouse—but they kindly turned up the ceiling lights a bit when asked, which made for a far more convivial atmosphere.      
    
The menu has the sacrosanct form followed all over the city, with as much emphasis on appetizers, soups, seafood and side dishes as meat. Aside from a couple of pastas, there isn’t anything particularly Tuscan about the menu, but a special one night of zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta ($15) was a very welcome addition. Otherwise the appetizers were of excellent quality, including a jumbo shrimp cocktail ($25.95), with an emphasis on jumbo. Baked clams oreganata ($20.95) retained the crab flavor amidst the subtle seasonings, and fried calamari ($24.95) showed the same way. You begin with a generous basket of breads and a good plate of butter.
      We, of course, opted for the porterhouse steak ($56.95), which is sliced for two or more, and its preparation was nonpareil, with a nicely charred exterior and rose-red interior, all soaking up the hot, buttery juices on the platter. The Colorado lamb chops ($53.95) and veal chop ($54.95) were equally satisfying, and more jumbo shrimp were treated to a “scampi” rendition of garlic, lemon and white wine ($42.95), and a plump Chilean sea bass ($47.95) was perfectly cooked and finely flakey. They list whole lobster (MP) on the menu but none was available when I visited.
     Creamed spinach ($12.95) and hashbrowns ($13.95) make wonderful sides, but I urge you to try the mashed potatoes ($11.95), so rich with butter, puree smooth and made with first-rate flavorful potatoes. Sides are easily shared.
     All desserts ($12)—of gargantuan size— are made on the premises, including a tall hunk of tiramisù, juicy apple strüdel and velvety crème brûlée.
      Haxhiaj chooses the wines himself, with 300 labels from every wine-producing country, with mark-ups averaging 100% above retail. There are 15 wines by the glass from $15.95 to $22.95.
       With food this good and attention to customers paramount at Tuscany Steakhouse, I can’t quite imagine why people would want to sit in a cacophonous steakhouse elsewhere, shouting to be heard, with waiters barking out information and a host who seems flustered by too many people at once. That won’t be the case at Tuscany, one of New York’s most civilized steakhouse experiences.      

 

Tuscany Steakhouse is open for dinner Mon.-Sat

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CAPONE’S GOLD


By John Mariani

To read all chapters of Capone's Gold beginning April 4, 2021 go to the archive
 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

 

      David had been lucky to find “Pants” Cuoco still alive.  Very few of Capone’s cronies from the 1920s and 1930s were, simply because they would have to have lived into their eighties.  Given their odds of surviving a life in crime, they’d be lucky to live into their forties.   
        
In fact, most of them were outright murdered or died in prison.   “Machine Gun” Jack McGurn was gunned down in a bowling alley in 1936; Louis Campagna died in his cell in 1955. And, after a decade of attempts on his life, including three bullets pumped into him at his office, and prison time, once out, Frank Nitti took a walk along the Illinois Central railroad tracks and shot himself dead (left).
      David thought it was time to call Frank English.
      “So, how was your vacation in, where’d you go, Tucson?” asked the F.B.I. agent.
      “You really want to know?” asked David.
      “Only if you turned up something I don’t already know.”
      “I told my friend out there I wouldn’t speak to you.”
      “Oh, so now you’re obstructing justice?”
      “No, just protecting a source.”
      “This is ridiculous,” laughed English. “I help you find the guy I already know and you talk to the guy and won’t tell me his name.”
      “Hey, I gave him my word.  All I’ll say was that I learned there was more than one getaway truck.”
      “The F.B.I. figured that out early on. That’s all?”
      “That’s all,” said David.  “Now I have a simple question for you.”
      “Try me,” said the agent.
      “Well, obviously you remember the time Geraldo Rivera on TV opened Capone’s vault in the Lexington Hotel and found nothing in it.”
      “Ah, yes, the Jerry Rivera fiasco. What a shithead.”
      “What I want to know is if you guys ever searched the vault after the show ran.”
      “Our guys were already there when it was opened,” said English. “We advised them on the demolition so as not to disturb anything inside.  If there was anything inside, bones or loot, we had jurisdiction over everything.  Afterwards we went through it with a fine-tooth comb, metal detectors, the whole bit. Didn’t find so much as a plug nickel.  There was some evidence that Capone’d stored booze down there, and it was definitely an escape route, with tunnels leading to the outside.  But if there’d been any gold down there, we would have found it.”
      “Well, that closes that, I guess,” said David.
      “So, how’s your treasure hunt going?”
      “Not too well.  Yet.  I’ll keep you posted.”
      “Please do.  I wouldn’t want to give that three hundred large to a stranger.”
      “You give it to me, I’ll buy you dinner.”
      “How about paying off my kids’ college tuition instead?”
      “Goodbye, Frank.”

 

         *                         *                         *                         *

 

      David’s next call was to Lt. Brian Cunningham in Chicago.
      “Hey, David, everything go all right with your girlfriend?” he asked. David let it go.
      “Yeah, that letter you wrote got her right in. And thanks for the tip on the old psychic.”
      “Happy to oblige.”
      “Yeah, listen, Brian, I have a question to ask you.”
      “Shoot.”
       “Well, does Frascella live out in Capone’s old neighborhood? Could he have been on a stake-out?” David asked.
      “I can tell you definitely he was not on a stakeout. I’ll have to check on where he lives. Frankly, Dave, I don’t know why the hell he’d be out there taking pictures. I doubt very much he’s a birdwatcher.”
      “Well, Katie Cavuto’s quite a good-looking woman.”
      “So I noticed,” said Cunningham. “Let me see what I can find out.”  
     
Then he spoke again: “Y’know, I just remembered. Frascella was the cop I asked to check out the records on that psychic woman, and when I did he started asking me all these questions why. I told him the little I knew. ”
      “Did you mention Katie?” asked David.
      “I might have. Yeah, I guess we were just talking about the old Capone case, and he said something about wouldn’t it be great if the gold was stashed underground or somewhere on the property?  I told him, in your dreams, Frascella. That was about it.”
      “Interesting,” said David.
      “Hey, I’ll check things out with him.  I don’t know Frascella all that well.  He was only transferred here about six months ago.”
      “Okay, Brian, anything you find out, give me a ring.”
      “I will. Now I’ve got my own question about all this. I assume Katie didn’t find stacks of bullion in the backyard.”
     “Not a penny. Okay, give me a call if you hear anything about Frascella.”

*                *                *

      David met Katie at her apartment for a late breakfast of decent bagels and good coffee.
      “I called a source I had in Washington,” David said.
      “Find out anything?”
     “Only that the feds had examined that vault Geraldo Rivera opened on live TV. There was nothing in there at all except the escape tunnels.  Big Al must have been one big paranoid.”
      “Can you blame him?” she asked.
      “No, those guys all came to realize they weren’t immortal. You hear it again and again, how this one and that one died in their beds at home—Capone,  Jimmy Genna, Frank Rio, and Mayor Big Bill Thomson (right).  I heard Thomson had two million bucks in safe deposit boxes when he croaked.”
      Trying not to sound anxious, Katie asked, “Oh, did you speak to Cunningham about the cop in the car?”
      “I did. He said Frascella was not on stakeout that day and that he seemed very interested when Cunningham asked him to find out some info on the psychic.”
      “Interested?”
      “He’s going to call me back after he asks around.”
      “Okay, wanna to get to work?”
      “Ready, willing and more or less able.”
      Katie made a fresh pot of coffee and they sat down at the kitchen table.      “So where are we?” she asked.
      “Nowhere close to the gold.  But let’s for the moment talk about the gold. What was the original reward offered by the F.B.I.?”
      “I think it was $100,000,” said Katie.
      “And what was an ingot worth in 1933?”
      “It was set by the Fed at”—she riffled her notes--“$35 per troy ounce, with 400 ounces per ingot.”
      David scribbled on a legal pad, “So, that would be . . . $14,000 per ingot, and 100 ingots would be $1,400,000.  Yet, for that relatively small amount the Fed offered a whopping $100,000 reward? Usually rewards don’t amount to seven percent of the total.”
      “So, then,” said Katie, “the stolen bullion had to be more than 100 ingots. You say your source said `hundreds’?”
      “Yeah, but he didn’t really remember. Three or four hundred ingots would be getting closer to a big loss.  What’s that? . . . $4.2 million?  An amount that large would make a $100,000 reward reasonable. And when the war began in 1941, the Fed wanted to get their hands on as much gold as they could, so they raised the amount of the reward.   
      "
Katie, do you have it there in your notes what the total amount of the Feds’ gold was at the start of the war?”
      More riffling. “Yeah, here it is. Uh, in 1935 the Fed had about 9,000 metric tons of gold and by 1940 they had 19,543.”
      “More than double,” said David. “Where’d it all come from? The Feds can print paper money but unless they’re alchemists they can’t create gold.”
      “What happened,” said Katie, who had obviously done tremendous homework, “was that with the rise of Hitler in Germany and Stalin’s total control of Russia, the Europeans began to believe war was inevitable, so they began shipping gold to the U.S. for safekeeping—for a very good fee, I’m sure.  Meanwhile, Hitler was trying to get his hands on as much gold as he could in Europe.”
      “So,” said David slowly, “getting back to Capone’s gold, however much there was and however much it was worth, every ingot was essential both to Roosevelt’s economic plans during the Depression and to keeping it out of the hands of the Nazis.”
      “That’s what it sounds like,” said Katie.  “And that’s probably why the Fed increased the reward for Capone’s gold as its value rose. I think they must have believed it was all sitting somewhere in the U.S.”
      “But then, some time after the war, the  about individuals holding gold, right?” asked David.
      “Uh-huh. In 1975 it became legal again for U.S. citizens to own gold without a special license or restrictions of any kind. You don’t even have to report it on your income tax. Nevertheless, even though the price of gold began to be determined by the market, the gold that the Feds own and safeguard has always been $42 per troy ounce since 1975.”
      “Well,” said David, “that wouldn’t have had any effect on Capone’s plans one way or the other.  But the Fed’s reward has risen to $300,000 over time because the value of the gold is much higher now. I wonder how much it’s worth today?”
      “Let me look in the newspaper,” said Katie, grabbing the as-yet-unread New York Times and turning to the financial pages.
       “Wow,” she said. “It’s $278 per ounce!  No wonder the Feds have upped the reward.”
      David said, “Hey, Katie, if we find all this gold, how about we stick it in a Swiss bank and sail around the world for the next twenty years?”
      Katie cocked an eyebrow and said, “Lovely thought, but I don’t think either of us has the smarts or the greed to pull that off.”
      “Ah, Catholic guilt!” said David. “It’s a wonderful thing, isn’t it?”





©
John Mariani, 2015



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NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR


MOËT HENNESSY GOES SERIOUSLY GREEN
By John Mariani

 

      It has been extremely gratifying to see how the food-and-beverage industry, as much as any, is treating climate change and sustainability as a critical effort at what has been called a tipping point in world history. In food and beverage, not least the wine industry, climate factors have always been crucial to their survival. As one of the biggest players in the global market, Moët Hennessy sees the issues as paramount. I interviewed Sandrine Sommer, Chief Sustainability Officer of Moët Hennessy, to find out how they are taking care of business with an outlook on the near and far future. 
 

Why has MH put so much effort into sustainability?  

As the global leader in luxury Wines & Spirits with many iconic Maisons, we recognize our unique responsibility to our stakeholders and the planet as a whole. Since the era of our original founders, our mission has always been to ensure that people and nature coexist harmoniously—getting the best from the earth and giving back to it. Today, Moët Hennessy is accelerating sustainable development initiatives, articulating our commitments, and setting objectives involving all our employees, distributors, partners, customers, and consumers worldwide. Our sustainability program is a fantastic opportunity to innovate, so we can meet present and future challenges together, thereby having a lasting positive impact on our industry.  

 
What is the PADV and how is MH involved? 

As part of our steadfast commitment to regenerating our soils, we enlisted the support of the PADV, a French NGO consisting of multiple experts in this field, to help us test and learn regenerative viticulture and agroforestry practices on different sites, which we have already begun in Champagne and Provence. This partnership allows us to benefit from the PADV’s expert network as we progress in technical areas and ensure we implement the right KPIs to measure our progress. We also teamed up with Reforest’Action, a company that works with partners and individuals to regenerate forests all around the world. One of our Champagne Maisons, Ruinart (left), has dedicated 40 hectares of its historic vineyard to an agroforestry pilot project that will help promote biodiversity by providing habitats for fauna. Hennessy, our Cognac Maison, is particularly sensitive to reforestation as Cognac barrels are made of wood. Over and above its own sourcing, the Maison, in partnership with Reforest’Action, is participating in the regeneration of forests locally, nationally and internationally, including in Europe, North America and Africa.   

What is the Living Soils Living Together program? 

“Living Soils Living Together” is our sustainability program that articulates our 4 major commitments: Regenerating our Soils, Reducing our Climate Impact, Being Committed to society, and Empowering our Talents. To help regenerate our soils, we continue to reduce treatments, carefully manage water supply and promote biodiversity everywhere. In terms of mitigating our climate impact, we continue our efforts to drastically reduce our carbon emissions, including eco-designing our packaging and marketing assets, opting for low-carbon transportation, decreasing energy consumption, and increasing the transparency and traceability of our activities. To engage society, we build awareness around the importance of Responsible Drinking, guarantee business integrity, and support the growth of local communities. Finally, we empower our teams by involving them in sustainability initiatives, and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in a spirit of solidarity and in the interest of the common good.  

Has MH been sharing their scientific knowledge with other vintners/ distillers? 

We actively encourage partners and stakeholders in the regions where we operate to improve their sustainable development practices. In Champagne and Cognac, for example, we are supporting our winegrowers in achieving environmental certifications by providing training and other incentives. At Hennessy (left), we already use only bio-gas at our distilleries and are sharing this best practice with our distillers. At Belvedere, we intend to help our strategic raw spirit suppliers move from 100% to 0% coal dependency with a renewable energy plan. We are aware that we cannot act alone, which is why last year we presented our commitments during Vinexpo Paris to encourage the industry as a whole to get more involved. We will continue to share and capitalize on best practices. To this end, we will have an event in June 2022. More to come soon on this.

 

Although MH has no vineyards in Bordeaux and Burgundy, is there a consensus that global warming will ultimately harm vineyards in Bordeaux
and Burgundy (which could use more heat
)?
 

Global warming will change all our lives, and while we can already see its impact in our vineyards, we are working tirelessly to find ways to mitigate the situation: we built a new R&D center in Champagne dedicated to advances in sustainable development. We are also planting hedges and cover cropping in the vineyards, which promote biodiversity, but also adapt to climate change, as they provide humidity and shade in the summer and protect the vines against frost in the winter. 

  
How do the Paris Agreements fit into all of this? 

We are conscious of our key role and do our part to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. Our consolidated carbon footprint target for 2030, for all our Maisons together, is to stay below the 1.5 trajectory, meaning to decrease up to 50% of our carbon emissions vs 2019. We know that it is ambitious, but we also are aware that we have no choice. Moët Hennessy’s President & CEO Philippe Schaus and the Executive Committee are fully supportive of our sustainability program and are making it a priority in all pivotal meetings at MH and within LVMH. 
  

How has your new luxury vodka Belvedere managed to reduce CO2 so dramatically?
 

Belvedere’s natural and simple approach is echoed in its new communication platform, Made with Nature. Beyond a campaign, Made with Nature speaks not only about Belvedere’s products and lifestyle, but also about its commitment to the Moët Hennessy sustainability program, Living Soils Living Together. In terms of CO2 reduction, already from 2012 to 2017, Belvedere cut energy CO2 emissions by 42% by shifting fuel sources. Then, in 2018, Belvedere became the first spirits distillery to receive a grant from the European Commission to pilot an ambitious green energy initiative that saw the installation of a biomass facility on site in Q1 2021. The new plant will start producing 100% renewable energy, subsequently reducing energy-related CO2 emissions by 80% for Belvedere. The biomass captured from production waste, notably natural by-product and heat recovered from the distillation process, will generate enough energy to supply both the distillery and neighboring businesses—many of whom rely on burning coal for fuel. We are currently designing a plan to supply the power network of our Żyrardów, Poland, hometown with green energy produced in-house starting by 2024.  
  




Why is Glenmorangie Scotch concerned about sustainability? 


Glenmorangie (right) has been working on sustainability initiatives for many years, particularly with regard to reducing energy consumption and improving water quality. With two coastal distilleries, and in a conscious effort to reduce its impacton the environment, in 2017, the Glenmorangie Company(right) installed an anaerobic digestion plant that is able to neutralize 95% of distillery waste before it enters the neighboring sea, known as the Dornoch Firth. The plant also reduces the distillery’s fuel oil demand by 15% by creating biogas and returning copper-rich fertilizer to the barley fields of Ross-shire. To address the remaining 5%, the team looked at bio-filters through an initiative they started in 2014. The Dornoch Environmental Enhancement Project (DEEP) is a collaboration between industry, academia and charity to restore native European oysters to the protected areas of the Dornoch Firth, as these organisms, which had been depleted from the waters by humans 100 years ago, are efficient biofilters. The Company’s long-term ambition with DEEP is to extend the numbers of oysters in the Dornoch to 200,000 over three years, then four million over five years, creating a 40-hectare, sustainable oyster reef.  










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FOOD WRITING 101: STIFLE THAT URGE

"[At Gage & Tollner] there are Parker House rolls, basted in butter and so pillowy you’d want to stretch out and go to sleep on them if they weren’t served scalding hot."—Pete Welles, "Gage & Tollner," New York Times (6/16/ 2021).














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Sponsored by






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 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. 

WATCH THE VIDEO!

“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.




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The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink by John F. Mariani (Bloomsbury USA, $35)

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.

                                                                             






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FEATURED LINKS: I am happy to  report that the Virtual Gourmet is  linked to four excellent travel sites:

Everett Potter's Travel  Report

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." 






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.

 

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© copyright John Mariani 2021