Blog
The Skinny on Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs
It's the 4th of July, the day thousands of New Yorkers celebrate the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by flocking to Coney Island and watching competitive eaters push an unspeakable quantity of hot dogs down their throats. Â In the...
I’d rather wait for my fish & chips than have my fish & chips wait for me
Are you a conscientious cook who will only buy fish from someone who can tell you where, when and how it was caught? If so the eight words you most want to see or hear at your chippy may be the same as those you expect from your fishmonger: Our fish locally sourced...
The Curse of the Two-Euro Gelato
Le Strade della Mozzarella (#LSDM) stopped in London on Monday to spread the joy of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP and so did the master gelataio Simone Bonini. The craftsman behind the Carapina shops in Florence and Rome showcased stracciatella ("torn apart")...
Top 5 Posts of 2014
The Young&Foodish year ended on a high note, with my signing on with Phaidon, the prestigious publisher of books by Massimo Bottura, Ferran Adrià  and René Redzepi, to compile a guide to the world's best pizzerias. This happy development should not come as too much...
The Pleasure of “Semplice: Real Italian food” is half good ingredients & half Dino Joannides
"As with any recipe," writes Dino Joannides in his headnote introducing Spaghetti with Tomato and Basil, "success lies 75 percent in good-quality ingredients and 25 percent in execution." The maths may be problematic, leaving no room to credit the know-how, clarity...
My Salad Cream Days in the UK
Assimilating the young and foodish me into British life has proven more frustrating than expected. I assumed it would be easy for me to adapt to the London foodscape, given I was educated in New Yorkese, a language with vast similarities to English, and was already...
Maestro Pizzaiolo Franco Pepe Thinks Back Looks Forward
On the Wednesday morning following PizzaTuesday Naples, my insider's tour of the pizza heartland, the group met with the great Franco Pepe on the sunny rooftop of Pepe in Grani, his pizzeria in the town of Caiazzo. Recalling the prior night's tasting of 10...
Take the #RealBurgerChallenge
As creator of BurgerMonday I've staged some pretty outrageous burgers, from the UmamiBurger MNO Burger, topped with Port-braised short ribs, truffle cheese, foie gras and truffles, to the Disco Bistro Original Disco Burger, layered with smoked dry-aged short rib,...
Why Pizza in Naples Has to be So Soft
Naples shared its love of pizza and dry pasta with the world many years ago but something got lost in translation. Rather than eat pasta al dente and pizza soft, in the Neapolitan way, foreigners learned to do the opposite. Non-Italians at last discovered the...
A Pox on the Pizza Polka Dots
Until this week I assumed the appearance of mozzarella polka dots on Neapolitan-style pizzas was an unintended consequence of using the wrong cheese or handling the right cheese improperly. But groundbreaking London pizza merchants like Franco Manca and Pizza...
