Cucina of Le Marche or Pomegranates

Cucina of le Marche: A Chef's Treasury of Recipes from Italy's Last Culinary Frontier

Author: Fabio Trabocchi

Named a Best New Chef in America by Food & Wine and Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic by the James Beard Foundation, rising star Fabio Trabocchi offers a unique take on his native cuisine, that of the until-now-overlooked Le Marche region of Italy.

Every chef is a product of a place and a tradition. Fabio Trabocchi's soul is in the Italian province of Le Marche. Equidistant from Rome and Florence, Le Marche is on the Adriatic coast, bordered to the north by Emilia-Romagna, to the west by Tuscany and Umbria, and to the south by Lazio and Abruzzo. This geography accounts for the rich variety of Le Marche's food traditions. The first chefs of Le Marche assimilated recipes, ingredients, and techniques from visiting mariners from Greece and North Africa. In his debut cookbook, Trabocchi showcases his signature style of cooking—called "soulful and passionate—not pretentious" by Food & Wine—combining traditional elements of Italian cuisine with a contemporary European sensibility that draws on the many flavors he's experienced throughout his extensive travels and techniques honed at restaurants around the world.

Publishers Weekly

Trabocchi, chef at Maestro in Washington, D.C., is a native son of Le Marche, the Italian region that the New York Times recently deemed "the new Tuscany." Trabocchi grew up in the small town of Santo Stefano, and with assistance from Kaminsky (Pig Perfect) he achieves a lovely style that is rather low-key in comparison to the commanding tone many chefs affect in cookbooks. Trabocchi also does an excellent job of isolating the best, most characteristic recipes from Le Marche, as cucina marchigiana is often difficult to differentiate from that of Umbria or Emilia-Romagna. Yet what makes the food of Le Marche so special is its rustic quality, which is hard to imitate in American kitchens. It's fun to read about dishes like Roasted Suckling Pig Ascolana-Style and Turbot in Smoky Hay, but preparing them may be out of reach ("You will need to get clean green hay from a local farm," instructs the latter recipe). Fried Stuffed Olives Ascolana-Style, one of the region's classics, calls for pitting, stuffing (with a mixture of chicken liver and pork butt) and deep-frying 60 individual olives. There are less labor-intensive choices, such as Ancona's famous fish stew, and Trabocchi includes an excellent discussion of local wines. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

See also: Zachary Taylor or The Long Loneliness

Pomegranates: 70 Celebratory Recipes

Author: Ann Kleinberg

ANN KLEINBERG has been a food columnist for the Jerusalem Post and has written internationally about Israeli food. She also writes humorously about the cultural differences between America and Israel and has edited several cookbooks. A former New Yorker, Kleinberg currently lives in Israel.
* A fully illustrated celebration of the pomegranate and its many culinary uses, including 70 recipes.
* In two recent and major medical studies, the pomegranate has been shown to be a great source of antioxidants.
* Includes a historical and cultural perspective on the pomegranate.