Beatrice Ughi’s Italian connection. Plus, obsessing over chicken rice, how to use extra pumpkin filling, where chefs eat on their night off and how food waste affects climate change. I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week’s Tasting Notes.

Many people are spending Black Friday weekend on the websites of big-box retailers purchasing refrigerators, stoves and other major appliances that could be hit with big tariffs in the next administration. I’ve been doing some of my pre-tariff shopping on Gustiamo, the Italian food website run by Beatrice Ughi.