A few generations ago, avocados were the exclusive domain of fancy restaurants. Halved, seeded and stuffed with a mound of seafood salad, the avocado was all about value, not volume. That is, until the avocado found its killer app: guacamole.

Some decades later, in the 70s, the kiwifruit, having changed its name from the unfortunate Chinese gooseberry, became the darling of nouvelle cuisine, providing the perfect, dramatic garnish for minimalist plate presentations.

So what’s today’s next taste sensation? [more…]

Before there were Mario and Lidia and Rocco, there was Marcella. And before there was Marcella, “Italian” cooking was spaghetti and meatballs smothered in tomato sauce.

In 1973, Marcella published The Classic Italian Cookbook and introduced authentic regional Italian cuisines to Americans. “I wanted to tell the story — the way we eat, the way we shop,” she said to me recently, as we sat down at the Sonesta Hotel in Coconut Grove, Florida, where Marcella was to be honored with a Grande Dame Award for lifetime achievement from Les Dames d’Escoffier International.

How Marcella came to be the Grande Dame of Italian cooking is quite a story. [more…]

Last Saturday, I was sitting on a tour bus in Florida with Jerry Di Vecchio, the legendary former food editor of Sunset magazine. We were on a tour of the Everglades with Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI) an organization of women leaders in food, beverage and the hospitality industries.

Retired from Sunset after 40 years, Jerry is now a freelance writer and an active food consultant. Just for fun, as we watched egrets and exotic scenery fly by, we started brainstorming some of the foods we take for granted today that weren’t so prevalent or didn’t exist in American supermarkets earlier in our lifetime: [more…]