Italy is waking up to the fact that some of its best chefs are not Italian which is seen by some as a national crisis. In a recent list of the best restaurants in Rome:
… second place was L’Arcangelo, a restaurant with a head chef from India. The winner: Antico Forno Roscioli, a bakery and innovative restaurant whose chef, Nabil Hadj Hassen, arrived from Tunisia at 17 [Link]
<
p>Foreign chefs are so widespread that even at one of the most traditional restaurants in the capital, 70% of the chefs are of non-Italian origin. Many Italians feel that food, like culture, has to be transmitted from Italian to Italian, and therefore see these changes as threatening.
<
p>Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, one of the hottest tickets for Saturday’s first Passover Seder is Floyd Cardoz’s (non-Kosher) version of the traditional Passover meal:
Floyd Cardoz’s Indian take on gefilte fish needs no help from horseradish. It is a Kerala-style striped bass patty steamed in a banana leaf with a nice dose of spice on its own; mellow roasted beet salad is served alongside, bottom center… The choices are: excellent herbed chicken soup with a fluffy matzo ball seasoned with fenugreek ($16), banana leaf fish patties ($28), beet salad ($16), chicken tikka ($24, top left) and brisket spiced with ginger and chilies ($34), all in portions to serve two. [Link]
<
p>This isn’t just passover food, the whole religious service will be held at the restaurant with all the guests to the seder eating family style.
Clearly the cosmopolitans get to eat much better than the nativists. Game, set match.
In Boston, we also have a “Little Italy” section, which is very modest in comparison to the 2 Little Italies of NYC. I noticed that many of these restaurants, as well as many ‘Italian’ restaurants in general over here, are not owned/operated by Italians, but by Middle Easterners, typically. We do, however, have an excellent pizzeria in Boston, and Conan O’Brien goes there when he’s in town. It’s called Pino’s Pizza. The owner allowed me in to hang out and talk 30 minutes before it opened, and I discovered that he’s Afghani!
Oh yeah, how do you recognize the Pakistanis in Little Italy? They’re the ones wearing the “Italia Football” jerseys.
mmmm….gotta love jhindu cuisine. i am planning to attempt a jhindunese seder next year, so this is a nice inspiration. thanks!
In my neck o’ the woods we have a pizzeria named Patellini’s. Best damned pizza!
Just like the French have evolved the art of creating complex “sauces” served with various different meats as a art form, I do believe that Indian Cooking has evolved the creation of complex flavors & tastes with the myriad of spices as an art form. As this gets fused with other cuisines, we get wonderfully different and new culinary experiences.
Dang! That sounds really good. Think we poor Jews who actually keep tradition could wheedle him into giving out recipes, at least? None of those dishes in theory sound like they couldn’t be made kosher and kosher for passover!