Another Tuscan Celebration!
Hello Again Friends, Yes, again it’s already time for another historical Tuscan event and celebration…they do love to party. And, as promised, whenever I provide a little Italian history lesson, I also will include one of my favorite recipes so your indulgence is not all in vain…so see it at the end of my blog post. This event takes place in yet another one of their beautiful and quaint hill cities…Montepulciano and is called “Bravio delle Botti” and takes place on the last Sunday in August. Similar to the Palio de Siena, this event also pits the 8 different neighborhoods (Contradas) against each other in serious competition. Originally it took place with horses but eventually was replaced in 1974 with giant wine barrels that were both safer and significantly funnier. It takes place every year on the last Sunday of August when the medieval streets of the city transform into a kind of Tuscan Olympics…that is if the Olympics were sponsored exclusively by winemakers and questionable life choices. The race is preceded by a fascinating historical parade, characterized by the presence of hundreds of locals all dressed up in costumes who parade along the same route throwing flags, playing medieval drums and evoking striking images of ancient times. Each Contrade sends forth their bravest two-person teams tasked with rolling 175-pound wine barrels UPHILL for approximately 1 mile to the Piazza Grande. The spectators all scream, pounds drums, wave flags and yell advice to their teams that absolutely no one can hear as two exhausted athletes desperately try to keep a runaway barrel from flattening a tourist. It’s part Renaissance pageant, part neighborhood rivalry and part cardio workout from hell. It’s loud, sweaty, chaotic, and absolutely delightful. A finish line is perched dramatically on the cathedral steps, because nothing says ‘victory’ like arriving at church drenched in sweat and barrel dust. The barrels wobble, zigzag, and occasionally do attempt to escape. The team push with heroic determination, fueled by adrenaline, civic pride, and probably the promise of Vino Nobile afterward. The winning Contrada claims the Panno, a painted banner created each year by a local artist. It is paraded home triumphantly, where it will be admired, toasted, and bragged about until next August. Bravio delle Botti is the only sporting even where: -The athletes push the equipment instead of using it. -the equipment weighs more than the athlete -the crowd cheers like it’s the World Cup -and everyone ends the day drinking the very thing the barrels WOULD have held. It’s Montepulciano at its most joyful, most theatrical, and most wonderfully ridiculous. It’s year another reason why I love the Italians… David & Tino
Palio de Siena
Ciao Fans if Italy, Yes, today is another post about historical traditions in Tuscany…August 16th…the ‘Palio de Siena’: A glorious, beautiful, historically significant circus of absolute chaos! (But before I start, I thought it only fair that when I do a post on what some might view to be a boring lesson in Italian history, I should at least share one of my recipes with you, so if you go to my Blog you will find one for a Lemon, Pistachio and EVO Torte that is great with your morning Cappuccino or with a scoop of gelato for dessert.) It is one of Italy’s oldest and most beloved traditions…a twice yearly horse race dating back to the Middle Ages, fun in the Piazza del Campo, a public square that looks like a Renaissance painting but behaves like a gladiator arena. It began as a way for Siena’s neighborhood clans to show off civic pride, military readiness, and general swagger. Today, it’s still about pride and tradition, but also about bragging rights, questionable strategy, and horses who have no idea why everyone is screaming. The different clans, called ‘contrades’ spend months preparing elaborate pageantry, parades, blessings and strategy sessions. It’s all very solemn and ceremonial until the moment the horses line up…and then it becomes a mediaeval version of ‘Mario Kart’ but with real consequences. The race itself is only 90 seconds but it’s pure, unfiltered mayhem. The track is a tight, sandy loop around the piazza’s sloping edges, causing horses to skid, jockeys fly, crowds roar, and somewhere kin the chaos a victor emerges. The horses start from a standstill but not in gates…they’re lined up between two ropes, which is basically the horse version of ‘good luck brother.’ The jockeys ride bareback because apparently stirrups are for candy asses and people who don’t appreciate danger. They are allowed to ‘interfere’ with each other which is a polite way of saying they can whip the s**t out of the other guy. A horse can even win the race if his jockey falls off, which happens often. Siena is the only place where a riderless horse is celebrated like a conquering hero. Why both we and the Italians love it? Because it is magnificently whacky…I can’t think of any tradition like it that we have in this country…at least one that garners national attention like the Palio does. It’s absurd, beautiful, chaotic, ancient, emotional, dangerous, poetic and ridiculous….and it’s Siena. Gotta love the Italians…I do… David & Valentino
Squash Blossoms
Buongiorno Foodie Friends, I’m knee deep in celebrating summer already and happy to have the June Gloom behind us…for the most part. I think many of you know how fond I am of squash blossoms and what a delicacy they are, but for the life of me, it’s like they are some kind of secret whispered between Mexico and Italy? Yes, they are fleeting, tender, almost too beautiful to eat, yet unforgettable once you do. They are the edible confetti of the garden…here for a moment then gone in a blink. They’re known as ‘Fiori di Zucca’ in Italian and ‘Flor de Calabaza’ in Spanish…both rolling off the tongue charmingly as beautiful in sound as they are in nature. The short answer to this mystery might be tradition and agriculture, as both countries are deeply tied to cuisines built around the garden. Mexico’s trio of corn, beans & squash naturally produces blossoms in abundance, and Italian ‘Cucina Povera’ or ‘poor cooking’ has always prized ingredients that appear seasonally and must be used right away. There’s just something poetic about honoring an ingredient that refuses to be anything but ephemeral. Squash blossoms ask you to slow down, to cook today what grew this morning, to savor something that won’t be here tomorrow. Mexico and Italy understand this instinctively and celebrate it as do I. I think they also require a certain kind of cooking philosophy. They aren’t bold, they’re subtle and floral. I think they are often seen as ‘Chef ingredients’ which means they only appear on fine dining restaurant menus, which makes them feel niche rather than every day. But I serve them every day on my popular squash blossom, artichoke, Boursin and pesto flatbread at TATM. In Italy you can find them everywhere on menus where they are served simply dipped in a Prosecco based batter, fried, and served crispy, like their version of potato chips, dusted with a little finely shaved Parmigiana. In finer restaurants, they are often filled with a cheese blend of some kind before frying….this requires time and effort but if you’ve ever had these you quickly understand why cooks go to all that trouble. I’ve made these numerous times at home served on a simple tomato or roasted red pepper puree… they are one of my favorite all time appetizers and draw raves from others. But there is another way of serving these cheese stuffed treasures without going through the hassle of deep frying…by simply baking them in the oven briefly until the cheese is warmed up and then served on your choice of either hot or cold sauce. I’ve posted my recipe below so hope you give it a try this summer….you’ll be happy you did. You’re Welcome… David with Tino’s ‘Bark of Approval’
Summer Corn Chowder
In California corn is available year-round, albeit in different levels of quality, but growing up in the Midwest, the tall, green fields of summer corn had a kind of beauty that felt almost indecent in its abundance….like Mother Nature showing off. It was well thought of that the sooner you cooked the corn after harvesting, the better…in fact, the decline in quality was said to be dramatic if delayed. Once you get used to corn bought from a field stand from which it came…shucked and cooked the same day….there is a difference…but that option isn’t really readily available where most of us live, unless you’re passionate enough to grow your own….I guess my siblings and I were spoiled growing up without really knowing it. Fresh corn carries a grassy sweetness that you can smell as you pull back the husks….I love it and every time I do this, it immediately brings me back to my childhood. Isn’t it amazing how smells and songs can whisp you back to earlier days and times? They are like time machines disguised as everyday life. One whiff, one chord, and suddenly you’re not in the room anymore—you’re back in your Mom’s kitchen, or the seat of your first car, or a summer night that felt like it would last forever. Scent goes straight to the limbic system—the part of the brain that handles memory and emotion—without the usual logical filters. That’s why the smell of sunscreen still drops me back onto the Fort Lauderdale beach as a very young teen when my parents packed me and 5 siblings into a station wagon and drove all the way from Michigan to spend two weeks with our grandparents. Also, just like the scent of a certain cologne can summon a person you haven’t seen in years. It’s primal, immediate, almost involuntary. You don’t remember the moment so much as you re-enter it. I’ll chat about how music does that for me in another post as it’s been a massive part of my life. But back to the corn…wait…I just had a corn flashback that I need to share. At my first restaurant in CDM back in the early 80’s my cooking was ‘California-French’ which meant my techniques were French, but I took some liberty with ingredients and one of these as corn. I remember creating a warm poached lobster salad on summer. I pan poached lobster with roasted red peppers, a puree of fresh corn, sherry and butter and served on a bed of butter lettuce and frisee with diced avocado and garnished with potato chips…it was a delicious, rich and indulgent salad. One night, however, one of my servers came to me and said there was a well-dressed, somewhat elderly French woman who wanted to speak to me, and he indicated that she seemed to be quite agitated. So, I went to her table and introduced myself to her and said I understood she wished to speak to me. She said “Oui…I cannot believe you are serving zee corn….it is only for zee pigs!” I was taken back a bit by this but I knew where she was coming from. As iconic as corn was in America, back then, she was right…the French never dreamed of serving corn. How far they have come now serving corn coulis, custard and even ice cream. Now back to where I was…shucking the ears uncovers the kernels that are plump, tight and glowing little beads of gold arranged in rows with the precision of a cathedral pews. And when you turn them into chowder, something alchemical happens. I’m not talking about the kind of thick, pasty New England Clam Chowder that people love. No, my version of corn chowder is more like the beautiful version served at The Ivy in Beverly Hills. It’s thin, un-thickened, and simple…goosed with some jalapenos but essentially allowing the goodness of the almost still raw corn to remain the star accented by a little fresh tarragon. But a bowl of it is $21 bucks…. gotta love LA. Want to add some Maine Lobster?….now you’re at $44, but I’m not complaining about the price of this version. Sometimes at home when I’m feeling all ‘Diamond Jim’ like (or Elon Musk for you kids) I will slow poach some lobster meat in butter and cream sherry and add it to the chowder….the result is decadent and divine. I do add pecan wood bacon to my version just because the smoky counterpoint it adds to the sweetness of the corn really works for me and the sweetness of the tarragon but if you want to keep it vegetarian, 86 the bacon and it’s still damn good…just don’t use frozen corn or dried tarragon. Here’s my version…it’s pictured with one of my favorite salads…butter lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, toasted almonds and a gorgonzola vinaigrette. David & Tino
Western Ranch Salad
Our Western Ranch Salad is the latest I have created and added to our lunch menu at both Taverns. Like all potential new menu items, I run them as a special first to see how they sell and solicit guest comments on it. The popularity of this salad took off right away so it was quickly added to our menus. It’s kind of a Western version of the classic Cobb Salad. It’s made with chopped romaine, grilled chicken, pecan wood smoked bacon, roasted corn and heirloom tomatoes, all tossed with our garlic-honey ranch dressing and them striped with Chipotle-Bourbon BBQ sauce and then sprinkled with crushed corn chips. Again, it has been on our menus for only a short while but it is quickly moving up the ladder for best-selling entrée salads. Give it a try next time you’re in!
Famous Chicken Dish…a Gift from Florence
On my first trip to Italy, I had flown to Rome for several days of site seeing there, then taken the train up to Florence so soak up all that we could in their cultural capital, and then rented an Alfa Romeo and cruised down to our rented villa in the heart of Tuscany. Using the villa as our base of operations, I visited a different magical hill city every day during our stay. Rounding out our trip, we then drove to Assisi where we stayed at the beautiful, rustic hotel ‘Nun Assisi’ which is a converted Nunnery. Beneath the hotel they have the most amazing spa I have ever been to. It is carved out from what once was an ancient Roman limestone amphitheater discovered during the renovation. The entire place is filled with steam and soft, dim and dramatic lighting. One of the real reasons we came to Assisi was for their amazing annual spring ‘Calendimaggio’ which is the biggest medieval festival in Assisi. The inhabitants of Assisi spend a year preparing for this festival. Residents from the upper ‘sopra’ and lower ‘sotto’ side of the city are dressed in authentic medieval costumes and of all ages and put on elaborate plays and skits. The two sides are judged, and one is awarded the winner each year and the competition is fun but fierce. The costuming and props are incredibly elaborate and bleacher seating is erected in the town square where all the events play out. People from all over Italy come to view this amazing spectacle. In any case, when planning the trip I was told by a friend who had many summers in Italy that, when staying in Florence, I had to go to a restaurant called ‘Trattoria Sostanza’ and order what he said was the best chicken dish he had ever had, said it was talked about among world travelers, and said if I didn’t agree he would pay for our dinner. Well, I did go to Sostanza, which just also happens to be one of the oldest restaurants in the city, and I’ll be damned if he wasn’t right. We had the chicken and the other signature dish which was a loosely bound omelet filled with fresh artichoke bottoms, both of which were absolutely amazing. I mean, I’ve been cooking professionally for 45 years, and these two dishes were absolutely off the charts delicious. Trattoria Sostanza is a totally unassuming little restaurant with community style seating and a small kitchen with a tiny woodburning grill known internationally for 3 dishes…Steak Florentine, Artichoke Pie, and Pollo al Burro or ‘Butter Chicken’ as it’s become known as by Americans who have enjoyed it. The amazing thing is that it is made using only four ingredients… butter, flour, lemon and chicken breasts. But it is the quality of the small chicken breasts and the high fat butter content of European butter that make this simple dish so damned good. They prepare and serve the dish in a small cast iron skillet and that’s the way I serve it at home. The hot skillet keeps the chicken warm and bathed in its simple, rustic, yet divine sauce! During our dinner I kept seeing one of their other signature dishes float through the dining room…their Tortino di Carciofi, referred to locally as ‘artichoke pie, which is really an omelet but was like no omelet I had ever seen. It was round in shape with the scalloped edges folded up around the center of artichokes and slightly under cooked eggs like a collar. I was so curious about this dish and the reaction that diners around us had to it that we ordered it as our dessert and, damned if it wasn’t almost as good as the Pollo al Burro! After a few attempts, I was able to duplicate the butter chicken and so I am happy to share this with you all now. If you don’t have small iron skillets I would suggest using a large cast iron skillet and then serve the chicken in a small, low casserole style dish for each person with the butter-lemon sauce poured on top of each.
Streuselkuchen
I’m not a big dessert guy but I do love pumpkin and during December we are offering a dessert that’s a play on a German classic streusel topped pastry with pumpkin and pecan. I love it as a sweet Brunch starter, served hot or cold, but it also makes a great dessert warmed and served with ice cream and caramel sauce. It’s like a pumpkin pie on the bottom covered with a crunch cinnamon-pecan streusel on top. This is a no-brainer pumpkin dessert that simply rocks. Available at lunch, dinner and Brunch!
Coq au Vin
When I opened my first restaurant PAVE in Corona Del Mar in the early 80’s it was in the midst of my early fascination with French cuisine. After that I moved on to dabble in Southwestern (El Torito Grille & Kachina) American (Bistro 201) and Italian (Sorrento Grille) Years later my love affair with French food surfaced again with the opening of French 75 in Laguna Beach but, while the menu did include some haute cuisine delicacies such as Foie Gras and Chocolate Souffle, most of what I served were classic French Bistro dishes, albeit with a little flair. These dishes were what were considered comfort food in France, so I guess I always have been partial to simple, robust and rustic comfort foods no matter what their ethnic origin. As the weather starts to turn chilly I’ll be making some of these one pot stews, and while this dish might not seem likely to show up at Tavern at the Mission, it should as it’s one of my winter favorites….the iconic ‘Coq au Vin’. The literal translation is ‘chicken cooked in wine’ but there is much more than wine that goes into the making of this rich dish that delivers multiple layers of flavor. The original French version is typically made with whole frying chickens cut into pieces but given the aversion to having to deal with bones by many, along with the unequal cook times for different parts of the bird, I use boneless, skinless chicken thighs. When I cook any chicken dish, this cut is always my favorite since it includes some extra fat (fat=flavor) that breasts do not have. The fat cooks out in the process, so you are left with very lean and moist chicken meat but the small amount of rendered fat adds so much to the flavor of the finished dish. Also, the thighs continue to become more tender the longer they are cooked in contrast to breasts which can become tough and dry.
Lobster in Spicy Black Bean, Ginger & Garlic Sauce
One of my favorite meals to enjoy is Dim Sum. In years past I made regular treks up to Westminster with chefs and friends for Dim Sum at Seafood Paradise on Sunday morning. No sooner would we sit down, order some ice-cold Tsingtao beers when the carts would come rolling up the table…..immediate gratification! We would each create our own dipping sauces with chile paste, soy and hot mustard and dig. My favorite dim sum are the Shumai which are steamed dumplings made with a thin wrapper of some kind and filled with pork and shrimp…..great flavor and texture. In addition to the small dim sum items would order a large plate of style shrimp, lobster or crab prepared with ‘Salt & Pepper style or in a spicy black bean, ginger and garlic sauce. So I was at my local Gelson’s the other day and there’s a really nice lady who always works the seafood counter who saw me and said ‘’Today’s the last day of our Maine Lobster sale”! I know right away how I was going to prepare it.
Tis the Season… for Slow Roasted Goodness
With the onset of June Gloom, it’s time to embrace those slow cooked dishes that I love to make, eat and share with friends and family. One of my favorites is the old Italian classic ‘Osso Buco’ which literally means ‘pierced bone.’ I don’t understand why other culinary cultures, including American, haven’t embraced this dish. Maybe it’s because it’s become so expensive. I can remember when this dish was on almost every decent Italian restaurant’s menu selling for less than $20, but like many other secondary and tertiary cuts, its increasing popularity allowed meat packers to slowly and steadily increase the price. Part of this is because it normally is only cut from veal vs mature cattle, but seriously, it’s just a cross-cut portion of the shank or leg bone! I watched the same thing happen to skirt steak, once an inexpensive, flavorful cut of meat used for old school ‘London Broil’ or ‘Mexican Carne Asada’ that now can cost close to $20 a pound for choice grade! When entertaining, braised dishes are not only satisfying to your guests but also great for the host since they can be made a little bit ahead of time and either kept warm or briefly rewarmed so the cook is not scrambling around the last minute. This dish is traditionally served with a saffron scented risotto but I like it with either a creamy Parmesan polenta or garlic mashed potatoes, both of which can also be made ahead of time and held warm.
