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Amy Riolo is a self-proclaimed "culinary anthropologist." According to Chef Jason Roberts, she is "A true guardian of the techniques and inherent goodness of the Mediterranean lifestyle." But what does being a culinary anthropologist actually entail? Amy, an Italian-American chef, author, and advocate of the Mediterranean diet, teamed up with Culin...

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Curious about the Italian culture? From Italy to America is Eataly Chicago’s newest class series — and you're invited to join the conversation! Join us for a monthly roundtable discussion focused on Italian-American and modern Italian culturethrough art, music, language, culture, and of course – great food and drink! Each month, we'll invite a loca...

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The last decade of the 19th century and the first 15 years of the 20th are generally known as La Belle Époque: a relative economic and political stability had given to the people of Italy, and Europe, a much needed respite from the events of the tumultuous first 80 years of the 1800s. These are times of celebrations and banquets, where the rich, on...

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Among the pillars of Italian cuisine, pasta is the most sacred—the one that has inspired thousands of books, millions of journeys, and infinite debates about how to do it right. The rest of the world openly wonders what makes Italian pasta so good and theirs so mediocre, but the answer is right in front of their faces: the pasta itself. The bond be...

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If you’re like me (from New Jersey with a last name ending in a vowel), you very likely grew up eating “pasta fazool,” long before we found out that it’s actually “pasta fagioli”—technically pasta e fagioli or “pasta and beans.” Neapolitans, who have their own group of dialects, call it “fasule,” hence the Italian-American pronunciation. Recipes va...

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Pairing food with wine can be daunting. On the one hand, there’s science. Those who take that route will pore over acid matches and all that. But in the simplest terms, the best way to pair foods and wines is to remember one helpful rhyme: what grows together goes together. Translation? Eat foods grown and prepared in the same geographic areas as y...

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A new Italian and Spanish spot has debuted in the neighborhood. The newcomer to the Bishop Arts District, called Macellaio, is located at 287 N. Bishop Ave. The new bistro is a spinoff of the popular restaurant Lucia (located just a block away), and focuses on charcuterie. According to Dallas Eater, the dining space is set up to look like an Italia...

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In History of Italian Cuisine I and History of Italian Cuisine II we looked at its Roman origins and the early medieval  Medieval and Renaissance relationship of Italy with food. In particular, we discovered that the rich and powerful of Italy's most influential cities, from Florence to Rome, from Ferrara to Venice, used food as a means to show the...

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“Go west, young woman,” the caravan leader advised me. So I Googled my way to Bosco’s Family Restaurant, a watering hole in Amsterdam. Sidekick Johnny Concho parked the buckboard in the lot across the street. A modest structure on a city corner in northwest Amsterdam, Bosco’s welcomed us hungry travelers with large block red neon-lit letters shouti...

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I walk through the thick floor-to-ceiling, double wooden doors into a dimly lit restaurant. In the foyer is a pool table and some bar tables in a space that used to host a dance floor. It feels like a throwback to the 1940s with its burgundy carpet and a dining room with tables covered in white-and-red checkered tablecloths. This is the place where...

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