Eating Italy: A Chef's Culinary Adventure
From his first job in a New Hampshire pizzeria at age 13, Michaud became infatuated with Italian food. After culinary school and a Philadelphia apprenticeship, he realized that if he wanted to transcend the commonplace, he would have to spend time in the cuisine’s native land. So he went off to Italy for a few years and worked in all sorts of venues, beginning with a little butcher shop near Lake Como. Traversing the country, he not only learned the cuisine but also met the young woman he was to marry. Recipes from each locale vary little from their origins and may call for anything from pig’s head to veal tongue, items rarely encountered in American supermarkets. A simpler rabbit and porcini pasta sauce offers fewer barriers. Nevertheless, adept cooks with a commitment to genuine regional Italian cooking may find themselves charmed. --Mark Knoblauch