Bulletin Board 13

Reconsidering Capri, my new cookbook, and some great reds for less

TEACH A MAN TO COOK…

This week, I’m celebrating the launch of my very first cookbook, A Man & His Kitchen. For me, it’s the most personal and emotional of the entire A Man & His… series. Cooking has always been part of the therapy of my adult life, and the recipes in here all reflect that, whether they’re the meals I grew up with in my childhood home — where cooking was how we showed love in a big Italian family — or meal souvenirs that I collected throughout my travels and then recreated for family and friends as soon as I got home.

I’ve been accidentally working on this book for decades, because the bulk of it is a recreation of a loose recipe notebook I’ve kept for years up at William Brown Farm. When it came time to turn that notebook into something for all of you, I wanted to make sure the recipes were all presented in a style that was accessible to home cooks of any ability. It’s designed in a way to give you the freedom to interpret the meals the way you want; If you like more garlic, add more garlic, you want less spice, you add less spice. Nothing's etched in stone, I just want to give you the confidence to become a competent home cook. And having read cookbooks instead of fiction my whole adult life, I like to think I have an idea of what works…

I’ll be doing my first signing at Sid Mashburn in New York on Thursday, October 5th, from 5-7pm. You can RSVP to press@sidmashburn.com. Hope to see you there!

CELLAR DISPATCH

Yolanda and I spent most of the last few months in France, and discovered a bunch of moderately priced Bordeaux wines that have all the providence, history and wine-making expertise of a grand cru, but cost between $10 and $30 a bottle, instead of well over $100.

In the past, I was worried that buying wine I didn’t recognize might be disappointing, so I just paid for brands I knew, at a premium. But this summer we took the time to travel around and meet some incredible local winemakers, who not only taught us a lot about all the different classifications, but also introduced us to several really beautiful daily drinkers from the same region as the houses of Latour and Lafite, but at a dramatically lower price point. 

Speaking of the big names, I was reminded in these conversations that many of them produce their own second and third “growths” that very rarely suffer in quality, and which they import to the U.K. and United States. Château Lafite-Rothschild has Carruades de Lafite, Château Margaux has Pavillon Rouge. Château Cos d’Estournel has a second growth called Goulee that I buy for $25 a bottle at my local supermarket, and it is spectacular.

Another tip: The winemakers also told me that if, say, 2009 was a fantastic wine growing year, of course all the big houses will have produced spectacular wines, but those weather conditions will also have helped the other makers, whose creations from those years should not be overlooked either. You can easily find out what was a good year just by Googling it.

Take for example Larrivaux, a vineyard that has had female winemakers for centuries. It tastes fantastic, and starts for as little as $30. Then there's another in our village called Château les Ormes-Sorbet, which we discovered just by being in Médoc. Theirs is an incredibly rich drinking wine, and a magnum of it is about €35. We found a bunch of old bottles of theirs (from 1992) in the cellar of the house we just bought and they are drinking quite well. I would try La Gorce as well, if you can track a bottle down stateside — it’s another extremely well-priced magnum for the quality of the wine you are getting. Santè!

CHECKING IN

I've always avoided Capri because it’s too much of a tourist scene. Even if I was invited by a client, I’d always try to be in and out in a day. But I just spent a few late September days there, and after seeing it in the quieter shoulder season, I have a new perspective.

End of summer travel anywhere in Italy is special. There’s a beautiful, intense low sunlight, the water is still warm from a summer of being heated up, and given that most people are back at work, there’s a calm to the streets that you just can’t get in the high season. The pressure is off. (Not to mention that the cooler nights give plenty of opportunity for some great knitwear.) 

Going to Capri during this time meant I got to see it as a real living working island, especially when we hiked up into the more residential areas. But wherever you go, there’s a real village elegance to the place, and its glamorous history (Richard Burton, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Jackie O…) means people still bring their style A game year-round.

We were there to check out the newly renovated Hotel La Palma, and it’s a real achievement. The 50-room property is part of the Oetker Collection (who also manages a Parisian favorite, Le Bristol in Paris) and it was very exciting to see their management hand on the island’s oldest hotel — it first opened it’s doors in 1822!

With total respect for that history, the renovation team totally hit the mark across food, service, and design. At the beach club – a magical, rocky little private cove next to a lovely unpretentious public beach – I tucked into many of my favorites, from spaghetti Vongole and Italian rosé to fried calamari and a Caprese salad (of course). I’m also a sucker for an Italian breakfast buffet, and the hotel’s was just so delicious, with real southern Italian touches of caponata, grilled zucchini, the sweetest cherry tomatoes, mozzerella and lots of sweet treats, which Italians love in the morning. And I can't stress enough how attentive and thoughtful the wait and lobby staff were — particularly the bar staff. It seemed like from the very the first day, they knew everybody's drink order, and before you even got to the bar it was being prepped.

As for the design, Oetker tapped a guy named Francis Sultana, a wonderful move because Francis has been coming to the island since he was a teenager, so he really understood the best of Capri on a fundamental level. His elegant redesign really makes the place feel like it’s always been this way, even though he oversaw a total reno, from the rooftop bar, (a new pool and deck that I loved) to the reception desk. I particularly enjoyed the colour palette that ran through the place – this kind of aquamarine and white, which carried over to the staff’s seersucker jackets and beautiful dresses. This hotel is a real oasis—a must stay!