• Most Popular Columns in Food & Wine

  1. Martock Glen
  2. Vines of the past

Our Culinary Treasures - To Italy and Back...with Love

Not often does a chef get out of his kitchen, let alone take a holiday. Well, this fall, I broke down after two straight-working years at Tempest and took my wife Mary to Italy for a much needed reprieve from the restaurant world.

It was our intention to visit suppliers of wines that we carry at Tempest, and eat a wide swathe through central Tuscany and Umbria in an effort to understand cucina povera—the peasant cuisine of Italy. Italians are justifiably proud of their culinary heritage, based on the Slow Food ethos of what is available, local and fresh; prepared slowly, most often with magical results. This spirit is what we new-world chefs try to emulate as we begin to identify a regional cuisine here in Atlantic Canada.

We began our trip by flying into Pisa (after a comical interlude in London where an expired passport was dealt with by an understanding Canadian High Commission in record time). A late night 75-Euro cab ride took us to our first destination, Lucca, an enchanting ancient walled city about 100 km west of Florence. We checked into our 500-year-old room, dropped our bags and hit the now quiet town for a day-finishing nightcap (“Only 15 days left—make the most of it!!”).

We discovered VinArkia, the first of many enotecas (wine bars that offer small bites of food). A glass of local Traminer for Mary and, for me, the first of what would be many Limoncellos on the trip.

A joyous, sunny day greeted us the next morning as we explored the busy pedestrian-only streets of this walled 2,000-year-old city. We reveled in the many shops with boar heads over the door, indicating local typical “Salumi” and cheeses. Every street corner had pizzerias flaunting their unique combination of ingredients (Speck, Gorgonzola and arugula pizza!). We discovered a Crudo Bar, all the rage for sophisticated young Italians, where attractive servers carved up plates of pristinely fresh, raw fish drizzled lovingly with the local extra-virgin olive oil. Unfortunately, our freshly minted Italian phrase book was not so helpful; after ordering what I thought would be a plate of raw fish, we ended up with a heap of fritto Misto (battered fried seafood) that, while delicious, was a far cry from the raw tuna that Mary had eyed longingly.

This first town in Italy was followed by 14 more days of wide-eyed discovery. Florence, where we reveled in Michelangelo’s David as well as ricotta and spinach-stuffed raviolini with fried sage. We stayed for three days in the nearby foothills at Villa I Cancelli, a nunnery run by enthusiastic nuns whose overwhelming affability outweighed the spartan nature of the rooms and a complete lack of English. The grounds were spectacular, and our first night there we partook of a typical dinner cooked by the nuns.

Two days later, we jumped into a rented Lancia and spent 10 glorious days touring through the hills of Chianti and Umbria. Highlights were the visits to wine producers (Carpineto, Guado Al Taso, Castello di Meleto, Agricola San Felice) where we were treated like royalty and had to ‘suffer’ through wine tastings of rare and delicious vintages. A meal in San Sesme where an Italian maître d’ and his French wife/chef treated us to a meal of delightful elegance (fresh figs wrapped in pancetta filled with goat cheese and pine nuts—heaven).

Stuck in the hilltop Tuscan village of Vagliali (all roads in and out blocked for the parade) for four hours during the local annual festival celebrating the wine harvest, watching exuberant locals demonstrating the traditional harvest dances and drinking the local plonk for one euro a glass. Monte Oliveto Monastery in the Crete Senese where we heard the true story of why Sodoma the Artist has gone down in history for different reasons, and purchased a small vial of their potent liqueur, Flore (to keep the monks warm on cold nights I suppose). Sipping $8 coffees on Il Campo in Siena while people watching. The wine tasting at Lungarotti in Umbria with Dr. Valentini expostulating on the dominance of Italian wines over all others. The mountaintop hamlet of Civita, crumbling into the valley below, where we had the most delicious bruschetta (the bread toasted to order over an open fire) in an ancient wine cellar. (See recipe page 24) And of course, Rome, where we ended our trip with typical tourist aplomb and a couple of great meals. Gelato on the Spanish Steps—Mary tasted only limone on the whole trip while I partook mostly of pistachio. A lunch of anchovies with olive oil and lemon in Trastevere, followed by slow-braised squid with a mountain of fresh peas. So many food memories, that I just had to get home and put them into action at Tempest.

After a last stop in Pisa to view the famous tower and salivate over one last wood oven pizza, we flew home to Nova Scotia to greet our children and get back to work.Well that would normally be the end of the story, but this was my dream year! Seventeen days later I was to go BACK to Italy, this time to Turin, for the biannual Terre Madre conference, hosted by Slow Food. Readers will know I am a member, and this year 1,000 chefs from all corners of the globe had been invited to attend this gathering of international food communities and participate in discussions of food sustainability, the plight of seafood stocks and the oceans; the Politics of Food. I was to be one of five chefs representing Nova Scotia.

Readers may also know that I suffered a devastating fire at my restaurant Tempest in Wolfville on October 23rd of this year, closing it down for up to five months until repairs can be affected. I decided to go to Turin any way (what would I do at home?). Twenty-five other chefs from Canada attended—we were all billeted together in a quaint hotel in Cavour, about 60 km from Turin. Star chefs like Jamie Kennedy, Anthony Walsh and Michael Statlander were part of the cadre of Canadians. For four days we Canadian chefs bonded, spoke about the challenges we face in our industry, enjoyed lectures on everything from seed manifestos to culinary tourism, from wine tastings to gustatory revelations at the Salone del Gusto, the largest food show on earth, held in conjunction with Terre Madre.

Our last night there, the chefs at Locanda Del Posto (our hotel) offered an elaborate seven-course exhibition of Piemontese cuisine for we Canadian chefs (spinal cord, liver and brain stew! Polenta with gorgonzola! Venison in Barolo!) while we sat and enjoyed the rare occasion of having chefs cook for us! We realized that, while Canada is a vast country, we chefs from coast to coast are unified in our belief that a national cuisine will emerge as we treat our local products with respect, support our farmers and producers, and understand that sustainable agriculture and fishing is the only future, if we are to have a future with good healthful food to eat. I returned to Canada after my two trips to Italy, energized and excited by the potential within to redefine cuisine at my restaurant and continue my efforts to think global, act (buy) local!

Note from Chef Michael: We have begun repairing Tempest and plan to redesign the interior and exterior in the process of fixing the fire damage. Plans are to reopen in mid-April but please check www.tempest.ca for updates.

Originally published in the Winter 2007 issue of Lifestyle Nova Scotia Magazine.

advertisement