the Rome Blog

Here’s a quick link to a New York Times story about the increasing numbers of foreign chefs working in Roman restaurants.

It’s an interesting story, and one can’t help noticing that many of the best pizzas in Rome are made by Egyptians. (Just as the best British fish & chip shops are often run by the Chinese.)

Let’s talk pesto for a moment.

Despite dire warnings from the BBC last year that the supply was about to dry up, the supermarket shelves are still giving up a bountiful supply of this tasty sauce. However, I’ve never been particularly impressed with the pesto that you can buy in jars. Even Sacla’s range leaves me a little cold, although perhaps that’s because I’ve been eating it regularly for at least a decade (more…)

When I was researching a piece about Fernet-Branca for the website last month, I came across a rather unlikely-sounding statistic suggesting that the Branca Distillery, makers of Fernet-Branca, are responsible for 75% of the world’s consumption of saffron. (more…)