Why so quiet on Aroma Cucina? We're celebrating because we’ve been nursing a new baby: World-Eats! What is this World-Eats anyway? From food policy and advocacy, to food art, to living la vida local, World-Eats seeks out the best intel on the planet and we share it with you. World-Eats is your food and drink hub. It's about connecting and communicating. And maybe about world peace. Or world peach, but only if it's in season.We are a startup non-profit org that wants food-centric people to share and we’re working on ways to make that happen. Continue reading

Revisiting an old love can be dangerous. You want the object of your love to be the same as when you last saw her, but you know that isn’t possible. More than ten years have passed since we’ve been to Paris, and the Paris we loved has changed. Continue reading

Did your parents have a bottle of vermouth? Somewhere in the back of the liquor cabinet, the label was yellowed and the bottle was dusty? Maybe they even left it to you in their will. Dust off the bottle and throw it in the recycle. Now, get thee to the store and buy a fresh bottle of red vermouth. Continue reading

t’s easy to fall in love with San Sebastian; we were seduced within moments of watching what was happening on the streets. Guys in suits were standing at the corner next to barefoot dudes heading to the beach. Kids were coming back from gym class, holding their surf boards.Stern matriarchal women stopped to listen to street musicians, and every restaurant and bar begs to be explored. Continue reading

Chris Cosenting came to #MAD4 to tell us about his nose-holding job. Turns out making a deal with the devil that is 'reality' TV can almost kill you. Chris Cosentino, first and foremost is a respected chef, from the recently closed Incanto to his about to open Cockscomb restaurant in San Francisco. He is a champion of seducing people to love offal. And a bona fide celebrity thanks to “Chef v. City” and “Top Chef Masters”. Continue reading

I cook with grappa and I'm proud of it! Drunken quail with garlic chips and crispy saffron rice. Intoxicated mushrooms. Continue reading

Let’s say you have 3 kids. One is very tall, one is short and fat and one is absolutely medium in every way. Would you throw out the tall and short ones and just keep the medium one? Probably not. Besides there are laws about throwing your children into the trash just because they aren’t standard size. Now, let’s say you have 3 ripe tomatoes, but they don't look alike. In many countries, if you are a vegetable seller, you are required to throw out odd shaped tomato and only keep the standard tomato. Because after all, when it comes to fresh fruits and vegetables, conformity matters more than waste or taste. Continue reading

TeenBrideWe have a plant in our orto that I call our “Teen Bride”. She keeps having babies, is totally unsupported, and when you pluck a fruit from her, she shudders as if to say, “Thank you!”. Then she stands a little straighter, brazenly sprouting even more fruit. I like eggplant, don’t get me wrong. I just didn’t LOVE eggplant, until recently. Now, we’re addicted. But this eggplant dip is the cause of our addiction. Continue reading

What happens when Rene Redzepi and his merry band of pranksters bring together a gaggle of chefs and culinary people to talk about “What Is Cooking”? It becomes a MAD affair! Continue reading

It was a bittersweet dinner at Locanda al Gambero Rosso. A restaurant we’ve loved, that we’ve called our favorite in the whole world, will shut the lights and shutter their doors at the end of August. Our hearts are broken, but we are looking forward to the next chapters in the lives of Giuliana, Moreno, Michela and Paolo. Continue reading

Sustainable is the new organic. It’s the buzzword-du-jour. It’s soft marketing. let’s just talk about small farms and sustainable agriculture, ok? We can get to sustainable bio-dynamic gin and tonics another day. Not that I'm the least bit cynical about marketing techniques. Continue reading

Who cares if it’s a soup or a salad? Or if it’s a salad with soup on top? It’s summertime, so why not cross the border between the unexpected and the delicious. A clean, hot seafood broth, with small shrimp, poured over fresh tomatoes, peppers, cucumber and a lot of herbs, served with a side of fresh hot chili sauce. Sounds like summer to me. Continue reading

What exactly is this Mediterranean diet everyone speaks of? Having lived on a Mediterranean island for a few weeks, where eating anything other than the local diet wasn’t really possible, I’m going to say it’s very delicious, but I'm not so sure it travels well. Continue reading

Predictions: Chef Tattoos: In a timesaving move, many restaurants will have on-sight tattooing stations for line cooks. Sustainability becomes a hot button topic as two chef contenders in the reality show “Last One Standing” shoot each other over the final remaining morel in the state of Oregon. Continue reading

It’s holiday season. That time of year when you are either entertaining, or being entertained and you need to bring something delicious to the next party. Here’s a simple and delicious way to make potatoes using Prosciutto di Parma. If you use little red potatoes and a chopped parsley as a garnish, it will look extra holiday perfect. Continue reading

t’s time to banish the recipe as GPS and tune in to the Kung-Fu-Zen-Grasshopper (c) technique of cooking. It is time for us to cook in the ways of our ancestors, by using our senses. It is also time to cook in the modern way, which is so, like, totally, about self-indulgent self-pleasuring by making exactly what you want. Continue reading

Let me see a show of hands. Are you a sweet or a salty person? Potato chips or gelato? And for the smug amongst us who are voting for umami..sit down. That’s a story for another day. I’m salty. I’ll take a good pickle over a pastry anytime. Which is a good thing because living in Umbria, you better like salt. Good sea salt is about 20 cents a kilo in Italy, so we use it with wild abandon. You can pour an entire kilo onto a baking sheet to roast a fish and not blink a parsimonious eye. Which also means you can take salt for granted, and not pay attention to all the flavor possibilities. Continue reading

Maybe it was the louche red swivel bird-cage seats, but this place oozed dark bar cool. Maybe it was the cocktail menu that came with an index listing La Boutique, Twisted Libations, Library & Classics or Swing Collection that made us settle in to make a well considered choice. Maybe it was the cute waiter who clipped a little mag light to my swivel chair so I could actually read the menu, but it all seemed glamorous and fun to me. Continue reading

Unfortunately TypePad has let me down. After uploading Part 2 of the Bareclona blog..twice...TypePad crashed again. My apologies, it will be a few days before we can get Part 2 up there. Continue reading

Aside from food and wine, one of the great things about Europe is CHEAP FLIGHTS within Europe. These are not luxury flights, these are CHEAP FLIGHTS where any resemblance to comfort is purely accidental. But, hey the flight isn’t long, and for about 50 bucks you can fly round trip to from Pisa to Barcelona, so hell yeah, we went to Barcelona for a long weekend. This isn’t a “ Best of Barcelona” list, it’s a boy, did we have fun list...enjoy! Continue reading

This is my end-of-the-season swan song to the tomatoes in our orto. As the vines wither at the bottom, there are yellow blossoms still sprouting at the top, and green fruit just hanging on in the middle. We spent the cold, wet spring together, you endured hail and high winds, while we worried and tried to protect you. You blossomed in the July heat and produced massive amounts of fruit in August. And now, you are closing down for the winter. I’ve had a LOT of time to think about tomatoes, and I realized I was not paying attention. Tomatoes love bread, and bread loves them back. They were meant to be together. Continue reading

Introducing our version of the Mediterranean Diet; it’s called the Del Verziere Lifestyle diet! If followed properly, it will lead to an increased level of personal satisfaction and well-being, maybe a longer life, and possible weight loss. The Del Verziere Lifestyle Diet goes like this: eat fresh food instead of prepared food, preferably food from your garden, drink red wine, put olive oil into everything, and volunteer for anything that will keep you engaged in your community. And ladies, you should also learn how to walk in high heels on cobblestone because if you can do that, you can live to be 100...with great legs and a firm behind. Continue reading

SPONSORED POST “Experience the cuisine that changed modern cooking.” It seems as if the entire planet has gone mad for Nordic cooking and any chef whose name has an O with a line through it. Even NYC will be having... Continue reading

It’s August, so it must be Ferragosto, and if it’s Ferragosto, then it must be festa time in Montone! We are in the midst of our annual, week long medieval festival, the Donazione della Santa Spina. August 15 is the official Ferragosto holiday in Italy, but one can go ‘on ferie’ (fair-ee-a) or vacation, anytime during the summer. We can all thank Emperor Augustus who, back in 18 B.C., thought it was a great idea to take a little break from work during the dog days of summer. Continue reading