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The Florentine
While you can certainly have your fill of exquisite bistecca fiorentina, crostini neri and ribollita in Florence, a new wave of creative culinary excellence is putting the city firmly on the map. Among those who are burnishing the city’s reputation for fine food is Antonello Sardi, the latest
Although apples, a classic harbinger of autumn, have been grown in Italy for more than 2,000 years, most people are surprised to learn that Italy is one of the two prime European producers of fresh apples, supplying 30 percent of the demand in the 15 EU member states and
A sought-after destination for the likes of Queen Victoria, the St. Regis Florence is now more than just a luxurious place to stay. The Art Deco-style winter garden at one of Florence’s leading hotels has opened its doors to Valeria Piccini, one of Tuscany’s
She has been called the ‘original domestic goddess,’ but Elizabeth David should be given much more credit than that. The celebrated English food writer and cookbook author would have turned 100 years old last month, and yet her witty and often passion-fuelled writing is as valid today
Walking into the sumptuous surroundings of Palazzo della Gherardesca is always a soothing and pleasurable experience, but it is all the more so when one is about to meet the Four Seasons Florence’s Michelin-starred chef, Vito Mollica. Modest in his success and amiable with all, Basilicata-born
It is said that since the time of the Etruscans in the 8th century BCE, the bistecca fiorentina has been served blood-red rare with olive oil and copious amounts of black pepper. And, if Marco Polo's mid-thirteenth-century travel tales are to be believed, 4,500 kilos (
Pliny the Elder praised it and Lorenzo the Magnificent was fond of it: pecorino di Pienza is a cheese that for centuries has embodied the taste of the land and the traditions of one of Tuscany?s most beautiful valleys, the Val d?Orcia. Pecorino di Pienza is
The saucepans were overturned-to paraphrase biographer Jean Orieux-in 1533 when Catherine de' Medici arrived in Paris as the 14-year-old Florentine bride of Henry II, the future king of France. What Orieux was referring to in his biography of Catherine de' Medici was the Tuscan cuisine that
One of Italy's most acclaimed chefs has partnered with McDonald's Italy to create two ‘gourmet' burgers and a classic Italian dessert for the fast-food chain. ‘I simply asked what and where young people were going to eat,' said Gualtiero Marchesi, master chef from Milan, who
On March 2, 2010, after a 12-year unofficial moratorium on the production of new genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the European Union, the European Commission (EC) gave the green light to the cultivation of the Amflora starch potato and three kinds of pest-resistant corn. Purportedly, the Amflora potato,
Between 1957 and 1977, Carosello was a 10-minute spot of advertising broadcast every night on Italian national television immediately after the evening news. More like a variety show than hard-sell publicity, it was so popular that it became normal practice in Italian households that dopo Carosello,
The turn of the seasons signifies many things: the beginning of a new year for academics, the emergence of a new wardrobe for the fashion world, and the end of ...
One story places all the blame on the Pisans. In fact, an old Tuscan proverb declares, Meglio un morto in casa che un pisano all’uscio, which roughly translated means ‘Better a death in the family than someone from Pisa on your doorstep’. This epitomises the rivalry
It almost sounds like the beginning of a novel: a group of friends sharing a bottle of wine and talking about the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome. About how this could be the end of the treasured, ancient Italian
It was a regular mealtime at home (of course) and something occurred that spun me into a frantic Google search and prompted further research. The culprit? My three year old. ...
