Ciao Tutti,
I started my blog a couple of months ago, and just jumped into it while still working long hours near Parma. There are a lot of things I barely touched upon while I was in Italy and now that I am back in Los Angeles, I am glad that I now have the chance to throw up all the updates.
I am going to take this post back to my time at La Locanda di Bu in Nusco. I was at La Locanda for four amazing months and had some very memorable times there, learning amazing things about food and the way of life in the South.
Some of these photos may cross over with my posts on eG - but this is now their new home!
Above, the Cavatelli in Nusco, better known as Ceccaluccoli, is the dish most memorable to me from those times. I can't wait to try my hand at it here in LALA.
Before even getting to Nusco, the director of Ital.Cook., Mancini, suggested La Locanda over Le Calandre, stating some important differences, the largest being that in Nusco I may actually have a role in the kitchen, whereas in a three star restaurant there isn't much of a chance in cooking anything.
I am glad I made the choice to go to Bu. I visited once, before I made my journey to the South for good, and had an amazing time, really trying to take in my possible new home in just one weekend.
I remember driving my Citroen all over the area of Nusco, thinking of places to go out to, etc. - but that never happend as we worked so much at the restaurant!
Antonio Pisaniello, my chef at Bu, was a very gifted man. The plates he would come up with were always interesting and very beautiful. Antonio may have been the most creative chef I have met so far, with the possibility of many new dishes in one day...always giving us a HARD time to keep consistency up on our 'linea'.
Nusco and the surrounding mountains...all covered with the famous Chestnuts of Montella (Castagne di Montella).
I remember one day back in September or October 2004 when a country guy came into the restaurant. he was from Bagnoli Irpinia and had a bag of black truffles wheighing in at near 860 grams - he gave them to us for fifty euro.
Now - no, they were not the BEST TRUFFLES IN THE WORLD, but for fifty euro, I would be glad to use them in my own place. It was the begining of the seasonand that is why they were so cheap.
