Food culture

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FOOD + WINE

Amza Zahouani and his growing vegan food empire

The Santo Spirito neighborhood stands out for its artisanal and hip vibe, so it’s no surprise that you can find innovative restaurants for health-conscious foodies. Ashton Saldana talks with food ...

FOOD + WINE

Tuscany’s olive harvest: a treasured tradition faces seasonal challenges

As October came to an end and the crisp autumn breeze began to envelop the Tuscan hills, it marked the beginning of one of Tuscany’s most celebrated traditions: the olive ...

FOOD + WINE

Meet Paolo Lavezzini, the new Executive Chef at Four Seasons Florence

Paolo Lavezzini, the new executive chef at Four Seasons Florence, explains his culinary goals for Il Palagio, one of the city’s top gourmet dining experiences.          To ...

FOOD + WINE

TYPIQO: quality bites

It takes guts to open a business during a pandemic, but Antonio Badalamenti has shown he can stomach it. Formerly the chef at Nugolo (2020’s rave review restaurant opening, back ...

FOOD + WINE

Mary Ann Esposito: a knight of regional Italian food

New Hampshire-based author and TV anchor Mary Ann Esposito has devoted her 30-year career to championing Italian regional cuisines. In this interview, the host of America’s longest-running television cooking program, ...

FOOD + WINE

A (very early) morning at Pasticceria Buonamici

The day starts at 3.30am for the first roster of pastry chefs at Pasticceria Buonamici, one of Florence’s best loved artisanal bakeries. The first job is to turn on the ...

FOOD + WINE

The chef at the United States Consulate: Paula Carrier

Paula Carrier is a diplomat in her own culinary right. An Englishwoman employed as the chef at the US Consulate General in Florence, she has stayed steadfastly at the stove ...

FOOD + WINE

Orto life: what vegetable gardening taught me about myself

Last summer, I had a no-commitment opportunity to try my hand at vegetable gardening at a shared plot across town. It was a brief, long-distance relationship that suffered from my ...

FOOD + WINE

Florentine flavours: Stanley Tucci’s CNN series, Searching for Italy

In a moment when Italy’s appeal is ever more appreciated by those who can’t visit just yet, Stanley Tucci has filled the boot-shaped absence with his Searching for Italy series ...

FOOD + WINE

Pay by weight: sustainable grocery stores in Florence

Plastics, unnecessary bags, boxes within boxes: be gone with them all! Florentine stores are putting the environment first, having replaced excess packaging with pay-by-weight foodstuffs and household essentials. Just bring ...

FOOD + WINE

Wine on tap: a love letter to “vino sfuso”

Vino sfuso is something utterly magical to those who haven’t been raised in the grape-growing regions of Italy and something quite mundane to those who have. The concept is essentially ...

FOOD + WINE

Coffee and coloniality: what’s in a cup?

Coffee is the drink that most of all transports us to the word “home” and that every day since the dawn of time accompanies us in the warm awakening of ...

FOOD + WINE

Editor’s picks: Food heroes

Meet the food heroes of Florence. As 2021 begins, thank you is due to the people who nourish us, belly and soul.       Farmer to the rescue: La ...

FOOD + WINE

Schiacciata on the streets of Florence

È un bicchiere di vino con un panino, la felicità. Happiness, as we know from Al Bano’s song “Felicità”, is a glass of wine with a sandwich. But the word ...

FOOD + WINE

3 best pizza makers in Florence

Florence might not be Naples, but the city’s pizza scene has seen some interesting changes in recent years. The Florentine spoke with three award-winning (and down-to-earth) pizzaioli—Marco Manzi, Romualdo Rizzuti and Giovanni Santarpia—about quality pizza, their preferred techniques and favourite toppings.

ART + CULTURE

Gioachino Rossini

In 1829, at the peak of his superstar fame as the composer of more than 40 operas including L’Italiana in Algeri, La Cenerentola, La gazza ladra, La donna del lago, ...

FOOD + WINE

145 years of good grub: Florence’s central market

The cast iron and glass structure opened with an impressive horticultural show in May 1874 and has remained the core of the San Lorenzo neighbourhood for 145 years. Now, the ...

ART + CULTURE

Sant’Ambrogio Market

After ten troubled years, the magnificent—although at the time controversial—cast iron and glass construction of the Vittorio Emanuele II gallery, which linked the city’s cathedral to the Scala theatre in ...

ART + CULTURE

Wine in Florentine Last Suppers

There is a very Florentine phenomenon of Last Supper paintings in the refectories of convents and monasteries; these images functioned to remind religious diners of the sacrament of the Eucharist, ...

FOOD + WINE

The three ages of lampredotto

ou eat it thrice, right? All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players, but is everyone game for the fourth and final stomach of a cow?

FOOD + WINE

Lunchtime judgement from Italian colleagues

“No, Samantha, no.” “How can you eat all that? “You’ll never be able to digest it!” “I could never eat that.” “Dio mio, what.is.that?”   After nearly eight years of ...

ART + CULTURE

Francesco Cirio

Summer, spring, winter and fall: there is no better dish than a piping hot plate of spaghetti with pummarola, the rich Italian sauce made from tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive ...

FOOD + WINE

Pitti Immagine Taste 2019: healthy highlights

Bread might be the main course at this year’s March mainstay, Taste, but healthy eating is the all-round pairing. From March 9 to 11, the Stazione Leopolda welcomes an array ...

FOOD + WINE

Learning to love food again in Florence

There was a time in my life when food and my body became the enemy, when every meal was an accounting—I would break up my day’s rations into a mental ...

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