GASTROMONDIALE

Le Calandre and Da Vittorio: The Two Best Restaurants in Italy

Following our Alba trip we had 4 more outstanding meals in Italy: superb fresh seafood at Alla Testiere in Venice, some of the best charcuterie from cinta senese pork products at Pompiere in Verona and two unforgettable meals at the 3-stars Michelin Le Calandre in Rubano near Padua and at the 2-stars Michelin Da Vittorio in Bergamo. Le Calandre has been a favorite of mine for some time. I had my third meal there about 2 weeks ago on November 30. A friend put Da Vittorio on my radar screen, and our December 2 meal there was stunning. At the outset, I will make the strong claim that, of all the 2 and 3 stars Michelin we have been in Italy in the last 3 years (the list includes Dal Pescatore, Miramonti l’Altro, Perbellini, Cracco-Peck, Da Caino, Don Alfonso, Gambero Rosso and Flipot), Da Vittorio and Le Calandre are the 2 best, although none of the above have disappointed me.

French Haute Cuisine: Dead or Alive?, Reflections on L'Ambroisie and Le Cinq

Following some stunning meals in the Spanish Basque country, and in Northern Italy that I have already reported, we stayed in Paris to dine at L’Ambroisie and Le Cinq. Recently there has been some speculation about the demise of top end cuisine in France (for the lack of a better word, let’s call it Haute Cuisine or HC). Moreover, the remarks attributed to Berasatequi by a perceptive reviewer of the Spanish scene (Berasetequi, when asked whether or not he considered the backbone of his cuisine to be French quipped: “No. Besides, we all know that French cuisine is on the verge of its death!”), is hardly an unorthodox statement anymore, as the French themselves are nowadays undergoing some soul searching and are no more oblivious to gastronomical developments elsewhere.

Gastronomic Trip to Donostia/San Sebastian

The Basque region of Spain has never disappointed us. Whenever we (my wife and I ) near this region, we make all acrobatics possible to spend there a few days. This year the opportunity presented itself in terms of a 3 day conference in Bordeaux scheduled for November 23-26. So we have decided to take advantage of the weekend and Monday and headed to Donostia (San Sebastian—now Michelin lists restaurants there under the Basque name) for 3 nights. We had a long trip: direct flight from Atlanta  to Paris. Then a few hours at Roissy and another flight to Bordeaux. There we rented a car and drove about 2 and a half hours to our destination.

Recent Trip to Alba: Not Only Good Truffles

It is a very reassuring feeling to begin to be known in a locale. This was our fourth trip to Alba and always the same hotel but miraculously we seem to graduate to better rooms. We are also getting quite good in driving from a small town to another and distances that seemed to be an hour driving took only 25 min. or so this year(such as driving from our hotel in Alba to Albaretto della Torre or to Cervere).