EATALY---Italy's Gastronomic Shrine

 

                                      Milan's EATALY is a 3 story spectacle for serious foodies

A fusion of two words, EAT and ITALY, this behemoth culinary marketplace began in Turin.  It’s not a surprise that Eataly’s birth was in Turin as this town is also home to the Slow Food movement, a kind of Noah’s Ark of Italy’s heirloom foods that was born in outrage to the first McDonald’s opening in Italy back in the 1980’s.  Many Italian foods were saved from extinction by Slow Food.

                                 Artisanal wines from the 40 regions of Italy are featured

In 2007 the very first Eataly began in an old vermouth factory that had stood empty for years.   Today, there are >40 locations worldwide from Europe to Asia.  Eataly, however, is much more than a place to “eat.”  It is a place to shop, to learn about high-quality Italian food products, and to savor the Italian way of life.  

                                Istanbul's cheese & charcuterie meats is a dream

Eataly’s philosophy is based on “Eat better, live better.”   The company focuses on authentic Italian ingredients, traditional cooking methods, regional Italian cuisine, as well as sustainability and craftsmanship.   Using the Slow Food ethos, Eataly traverses Italy from north to south and east to west to find the best local artisan producers.

                             Japan has several Eataly's including flagship stores in Tokyo

Think of Eataly as Oz’s Emerald City meets Whole Foods on steroids, then add a William Sonoma, a cooking school, a serious wine shop, a second-to-none culinary bookstore, and several dining venues (including a mozzarella bar, a wood-fired oven featuring to-die-for breads and pizzas, and a pasta café).  It’s a one-stop-shopping event for all things food-related under the Italian sky.  In short, it’s a foodie’s nirvana.

                                             Dubai features multiple Eataly stores

Are you coming with us for the sold-out Truffle Tour in October?   While Wine-Knows has visited the original Turin Eataly multiple times, as well as the one in Rome, this will be the group’s first visit to Milan’s Eataly.   This one is a three floor sensation just waiting for Wine-Knows.

In summary, Eataly is a concept:  one that celebrates Italian food culture and culinary heritage.   Wine-Knows can’t wait to share it with you.

A Foodie's 24 Hours in Rome

Rome offers a plethora of fabulous foodie experiences outside of fine dining

A gastronomic tour of Rome in only one day?  Some may say impossible, but I’m proof it can be done.   Why only one day?  I have visited Rome 30-40 times, but I had a WineKnows’ group in Sicily and the only tolerable routing back home was one that required an overnight in Rome.  Senza probelma!

Here’s my schedule:

9 am:  Depart Palermo, Sicily

10 am:  Arrive airport Rome

                      Hotel Campo di Fiori is located in the historic epicenter of Rome

11:30-12:30:  Check-in to my beloved Campo di Fiori hotel, where I had a glass of fresh squeezed OJ & a cappuccino on my terrace to prepare for the remainder of the Herculean day.

                                  Campo di Fiori's magical setting market attacks locals & tourists  

12:30-1:15:  Then, a quick tour of the Campo Fiori daily market located just out my front door.  The market was brimming with luscious autumn produce such as fresh funghi porcini (Italy’s premier wild mushroom), glorious eggplants in several shapes and sizes, as well as a wide assortment of persimmons and pomegranates.

                     Think of Eataly as a football stadium full of items for food-lovers

1:15-2:30 pm:  Next, I took a cab to EATALY.    A foodies’ one–stop shopping emporium, EATALY is located a 10-15 minute cab ride from the heart of downtown Rome. The huge complex, once a train station, is now three stories of pure unadulterated pleasure for food-lovers.

I bought a basket full of goodies such as dried funghi porchini mushrooms, white truffle oil, and truffle-flavored balsamico (perfect for travelers, it came in a small plastic bottle).  I also purchased several kitchen towels for my foodie friends back home.  I wandered through their outstanding wine area, however, as tempting as it was my bags were already packed to the brim after nearly two months of travel.   

                              Eatlay's smoky wood-fired pizzas are some of the best I have ever had 

As the small glass of orange juice was the only food I had eaten, I dropped by Eataly’s wood-fired bakery and bought a small piece of fresh-out of the oven buffalo di mozzarella & fresh funghi porcini pizza.

2:45-3pm:  Returned by cab & dropped off purchases at my hotel.

                            Sant'Eustachio is crowded at all times of day or night

3-3:30pm:  One of my favorite coffee places in all of Italy is located near the Pantheon, just a short 5-7 minute walk from my hotel.   Sant’ Eustachio Caffè has been on my coveted list for >40 years.  I would consider it sacrosanct to visit Roma without one of their coffees.   The bar area offers some of the best people watching in Rome.  Local businessmen in Brioni suits jockey for space with tourists in t-shirts.   

                   Piazza Margana is only a few minutes from the Forum, but a world away

3:45-5:30:  Revived now after my coffee I decided to enjoy a long walk through some of my favorite spots:  the Roman Forum & Colisseum, the wedding cake monument (AKA Victorio Emmanuelle), the Theatre of Marcello, and the tiny but charming Piazza Margana (where I rented an apartment for a week some years ago). 

                                           A tartufo is an insanely rich deep chocolate ice-cream

5:30-6:15pm:  The restaurant in which I had reserved didn’t open until 7:30 and my orange juice & small piece of pizza had long ago faded for sustainment.  I decided to splurge (hey, it’s my last night after being gone nearly 2 months!), so I made my way to Piazza Navona (just a few minutes walk from my hotel).   Although the square is one of the most iconic in all of Rome, I was here for a tartufo at Caffe Tre Scalini.  Their tartufo is akin to a religious experience for chocolate lovers.  Pure decadence, I can think of no better way for a foodie to say “Arrivederci, Roma.”  

6:30-7:30:   A yummy bath to prepare for the long journey home tomorrow.

                               Counstanza is a hidden culinary gem well worth seeking-out

7:30-9pm:   Located just off the Piazza di Campo Fiori (hence, only a few minute’s walk from my hotel), is one of my favorite restaurants for Roman cuisine, Coustanaza Hostaria.   Located in a cave (yes, a cave!), Coustanza knocks it out of the park with an enchanting setting, superb service, and amazing classical Roman cooking.  My first course was Roman-styled artichokes (first prepared by the Jews of Rome >1,500 years ago), then a small plate of funghi porcini pasta. 

                                    Campo di Fiori's rooftop is splendido day or night

9:30pm:   I had been in Rome less than 12 hours and I wasn’t quite ready to say buona notte.  Hotel Campo di Fiori’s rooftop garden offers a wonderful respite from the fury of Rome's nightlife,  and is the perfect quiet spot to detox from a long journey through Croatia, Greece, Spain & Italy in the midst of a pandemic.  Plus, it was a full moon so I couldn’t resist.

8 am:  My taxi swept me away through a tangle of Roman rush hour traffic.  I loved the slow ride as it gave me time for one last look at Rome.   I’ve been here less than 24 hours but with so many memories of my >30 trips to this wonderful town, it felt like a week….or two.

Viva Roma!

EATALY….A Gastronomic Shrine

                             Eataly in Istanbul offers a cheese & ham counter worthy of Caesar

Ten years ago Eataly opened in a former vermouth factory in Turin.  Today there are more than 35 locations around the world stretching from Rome to Tokyo and even to Dubai.  It’s appropriate, however, that the first Eataly opened in Italy’s Piedmont district.  Piedmont is home to the Slow Food Association, a kind of Noah’s Ark of Italy’s heirloom foods that was born in outrage to the first McDonald’s opening in Italy back in the 1980’s.

                               Chicago's wine department sells the best of Italian vino

Eataly’s founder, an Italian bazillon-Euro magnate, grew up in a household involved in the grocery business.  His extended family were artisan pasta makers.  After selling his electronics firm, he took the old-fashioned concept of a food-hall and turned it into the greatest foodie emporium on planet earth.   Before doing so, however, he toured all of Italy’s regions looking for its best local food products.  He found a cornucopia of producers making foods the old way…everything from boutique pasta located in the boot of Italy, to capers from an island off the coast of Sicily.

                                 Eataly in Florence serves up a serious array of breads

Think of Eataly as a Whole Foods on steroids, then add a William-Sonoma Super Store, a cooking school, several dining venues (including a mozzarella bar, a wood-fired oven featuring to-die-for breads and pizzas, and a pasta cafe), as well as a second-to-none culinary bookstore.  I spent several hours in Rome’s three story Eataly (built in a once derelict bus terminal on the outskirts of town).  I ate lunch, shopped for dinner ingredients (to be whipped up that night in my rented apartment), bought most of my Christmas gifts, and simply wandered from department to department in awe of the mind-boggling array of Italian foodie-related products.

                              Eataly, regardless of location, has multiple dining venues

Eataly is finally opening a long-awaited outpost in Los Angeles late this year.  My birthday is in December and I’ve already made plans to spend it at their new location.  I’ll celebrate with a cooking class, but will leave plenty of time to explore, marvel, and shop for holiday goodies.

Viva Eataly!

Piedmont: Birth of Slow Food…and More

Regrettably, Piedmont is not on the destination list of most American tourists.  This may be in part due to Rick Steves, who has yet to include this gem of an area in his popular books and television travel programs.  Grazie, Ricardo!  Even if you’re not a foodie or a wine-lover, Piedmont offers many gems.  If you’re a foodie or oenophile, Piedmont may just be the most exciting region in all of Italy.

Most foodies know about of the Slow Food movement, but how many knew it began in Piedmont?  The opening of a fast food restaurant in the heart of Rome in the mid-1980’s touched a real nerve with a journalist from Piedmont.   Shortly thereafter, the writer began Slow Food.  Today, the organization is in 150 countries and its mission is to preserve traditional and regional cuisine.

                           Wine-Knows will watch the birth of artisinal chocolate at a rock-star producer

Piedmont’s traditional cuisine is a treasure-trove of culinary delights.  Home of the premier white truffle, the world’s most expensive gastronomic item, Piedmont is also the area for some Italy’s finest chocolate and hazelnuts.  In addition to high-end artisanal chocolates, even Nutella and Ferrero Rocher are made here.  The area is also the source of Italy’s most illustrious rice.  Preferred by many Michelin-star chefs throughout Italy for risotto because of its firmer texture, canaroli rice is grown in Piedmont.

                Piedmont's Alps provide the perfect situation for a plethora of cow, sheep & goat cheeses 

Piedmont means the “foot of the mountain.”   The foothills of the Alps shared with France and Switzerland, also produce some outstanding cheeses.  Even in a country recognized for its cheeses, Piedmont is a standout.

                     Eataly offers a cornucopia of the very best food products from all of Italy

The Piedmont district is the birthplace for Italy’s most famous food emporium-kitchen shop, Eataly.  Think Williams-Sonoma meets Whole Foods, with the addition of some mind-boggling dining venues such as a mozzarella-bar, wood-fired pizzeria, seafood eatery, and a pasta-centric restaurant.

Last, but not least, Piedmont is the pinnacle for several of Italy’s most magnificent wines, Barolo and Barbaresco.  These wines are some of the country’s most complex reds…and expensive. 

Wine-Knows will be visiting Piedmont next autumn (2018) at the time of their world-renown Truffle Festival.  One of the highlights will be a private truffle hunt into the forest with a “trifalou” (truffle hunter) and his dog.   Foodies will be thrilled with visits to Piedmont’s super-star chocolate-maker, as well as a producer of canaroli rice.  Naturally, we won’t miss Eataly…and there will be a dance-card sprinkled with the district’s world-class wine producers.  At the moment, there are only 5 open spots on this trip.    www.WineKnowsTravel.com

Rome’s Best Foodie Spots

I’m just returning from 5 glorious days in Rome.  While I’ve visited the city >20 times, I’ve always stayed in a hotel, eaten out all of my meals, and used free time for seeing the major sights.  This time I wanted my stay to be completely different.

My main objective for this visit was to see Roma via the culinary eyes of someone who lives there.  First thing was to pass up a hotel and opt for a more authentic experience of becoming a Roman.   I was fortunate to snag a marvelous apartment on one of my favorite squares in all of Italy, Piazza Margana.  This charming little piazza, right in the center of Rome, is devoid of tourists...one has to wander down alley-ways to reach it.  I did not know until I arrived at the apartment that it was owned by the CEO of Benetton.  Its walls were filled with gorgeous works of art, a fortune of silver tea and coffee service was displayed on the antique marble-stopped table, and hand-cut crystal wine glasses beckoned us. 

   Piazza Margana apartment rental

The next days I spent seeking out gastronomic spots…from outdoor markets, to upscale food and wine emporiums…all with the intent of gathering ingredients for our dinners.  Here are my don’t miss places, listed in no particular order:

• Campo Fiori outdoor market offered a huge array of fresh porcini muchrooms (which I used to make an exquisite pasta with a drizzling of truffle oil).  Nearly every stall at the market also offered dried porcini mushrooms in a wide assortment of quantity, as well as quality.  I snagged several pounds to bring home in my suitcase.  Vendors here sold pasta in every size, shape and color (including the green, white & red of the Italian flag.)  One of Rome’s better bakers is also located here at number 22 on the square.  

                                            Edible art at the outdoor market

• Sant’ Eustachio coffee house.  You don’t have to rent an apartment to zero in on this place.  Long a favorite stop of mine for a “pick me up,” this place is not only a charmer, but it offers the best coffee in the city.  First, they roast their beans in a wood-burning oven.  Those in-the-know, however, say that it’s the water from an underground spring nearby that makes Sant’ Eustachio numero uno.  All I know, it that it’s simply the best.  (BTW---for a real splurge, try their granita d’café…an icy slush topped with decadent whipped crème).  The shop is located next to the church of Sant’ Eustachio, 2 minutes walk from the Pantheon, 5 minutes walk from Piazza Navona.  This was the best 1.5 Euro I spent this trip in Italy.  Pay inside at the cashier, and belly your way up to the bar.  Or, sit outside for 5 Euro…but all the action with locals is definitely inside.

• Tre Scalini’s Tartufo.  Speaking of Piazza Navona, that brings me to the next don’t miss.  If you’ve been to Rome, chances are that you’ve had a “Tartufo” at Tre Scalani on the Navonna square.  While Tre Scalini is a restaurant, I usually opt to go into their take-out bar and grab a Tartufo, a fabulous rich concoction that I call “death by chocolate.”  Can’t think of a better way to kick the bucket.  This over-the-top, dense chocolate ice-cream dessert, is a mere 5 Euros in the bar, 10 Euros at the restaurant’s sidewalk café.  It’s still as good (if not better than) the first one I had in 1976.

                               Tartufo---this "truffle" is made from intense chocolate ice cream 

                                                 and covered with bittersweet chocolate

• Eataly.  This upscale, gourmet food emporium opened in Rome a couple of years ago.  Eataly started in Torino and there are now Eatalys in every major city in Italy, New York (opened by Mario Batali and Joe Bastanovich), along with places like Tokyo.  Eataly rocks.  I spent over 1.5 hours in the place and could have spent more.  It’s located in Rome’s former downtown airline bus terminal and offers 4 floors of gourmet bliss.  My favorite sections are its immense book area which seemingly has every Italian cookbook ever published…most in English, but some strictly in Italian.  This section also boasts a full array of Italian foodie magazines (their versions of Gourmet, Bon Appetite, Food & Wine).  Their pizza section offers without a doubt, the best pizza I’ve ever eaten…and that’s saying something.  Both the Torino and Rome Eataly knocked it out of the park with their tasty pizzas---the perfect amount of crunch and killer flavors from the wood used in their ovens.  Another fave section is their houseware area…I bought several Christmas gifts here, including some for myself!  This place dazzles.         

4 floors of nirvana for food & wine lovers

• Vinando Wine Bar.  Last, and in no way least, this one was one of my favorite meals over the last few years in Italy.  I had eaten dinner here 5 or 6 years ago…I still remember the stunning lamb dish had that had been prepared in white wine.  While it wasn’t on the menu this time around, the dish I ordered was equally fab.  A ubiquitous fry of calamari and shrimps was nothing short of sublime.  My girlfriend ordered the grilled lamb and it was top notch in every way.  While service is lacking, the table out on the square, along with the food quality and superb wine list, made up for it.  An added bonus was that our quite handsome apartment was in the former palace above--- 2 flights up…and we heard not even a whisper of the wine bar even though the floor to ceiling windows remained open while we were there. Magic at its best.  Definitely reserve & if the weather is nice, book an outdoor table.

                           Vinando is off the beaten track but in the epicenter of Rome

Not on my don’t miss list is a place I visited, one of the supposed “shrines” of Roman Deli’s, Volpetti.  Located in the Testaccio section of southern Rome, it had long been on my list, but because of its distance from the center I had never made it.  This year it was at the top of my list for visiting.  I was disappointed.  While the staff were super helpful, the place was small and prices felt astronomic.  On the morning of my visit, it was filled with Americans…all paying 3-4 times the price for dried porcini mushrooms of the same quality that I had purchased the same day at the Campo Fiori market.  Also, Eataly’s deli had a much larger selection of everything and it looked far fresher and more inviting than Volpetti.  Maybe I just hit it on an off day?  I don’t think so.

Living like a Roman definitely had its benefits.  If you need information on how to rent an apartment in Rome, please contact me at dunn@WineKnowsTravel.com.

Italy’s Primo Foodie Emporium

For those of us who dream of eating our way though Italy, I have the perfect place to do so...all under one roof.   Think Oz’s Emerald City meets Whole Foods on steroids.  Eataly (a clever play on words), opened in the city of Torino in 2007, is a mind-blowing food experience. 

It’s not surprising that this gourmand’s utopia is located in Italy’s Piedmont district.  Piedmont is the home of the Slow-Food movement, a kind of Noah’s Ark for the culinary world.  Slow-Food, now an international phenomena, was birthed in the 1980’s in outrage to the opening of the first McDonald’s in Italy.  Eataly exemplifies Slow-Food’s philosophy by showcasing artisanal culinary products from all parts of all of Italy…some of them rarely known outside their region…many were saved from extinction by the Slow-Food movement.

Housed in a former vermouth factory, the mammoth Eataly structure has been altered to 21^st century sleek and sexy.   It’s divided into 8 sections:  pasta, pizza, cheese, meat, fish, wine, beer and gelato.  Each area comes with its own chef and tasting bar, and the well trained staff is more than willing to educate shoppers though a myriad of kock-your-socks-off tastings. 

If you’re joining Wine-Knows on the truffle tour to Piedmont this October, we’ll be stopping at Eataly for lunch.  The Torino store was such a success that branches have opened in Milan and just last month a gigantic one in Rome.  Not going to Italy?  No worries as Eataly has recently opened an outpost in New York City.

Don’t miss Eatly… bring lots of money, but every foodie must go to this gastronomic nirvana.