All'onda - the wave - of Authentic Italian Cuisine is building

Posted by Jacqueline Church Jan 14, 2009

Do you cook from a recipe or not? For me, most often I consult it for rough proportions or to remind myself of the basic framework. Then I do my own thing. If it's something intimidating or something I've never made before, or both, I probably will have a recipe in front of me.

It's an interesting set of video clips with the legendary Nach Waxman. Chow.com has their wonderful "Obsessisves" video interviews with guys like Chef Chris Cosentino talking about offal. Nach Waxman is talking about our collective neurotic reliance on cookbooks and recipes. He has an interesting theory, it's worth a watch.

There's also a great site with videos, recipes and lots if not everything you might want to know about who is cooking authentic Italian cooking anywhere in the world hosted by the Virtual Group of Italian Chefs. They are on a crusade to save us, ladies and germs, from that scourge of the universe: bad Italian food! Yes! May the force be with them, I say.

If you want to look at this juxtaposed against my bastardization of Italian Wedding Soup, it might be good food for thought. Or not. But it'll be good food for your plate. Promise.

Oh, by the way, according to our other quirky encyclopedic chef friend and writer Chef James Ehler of Foodreference.com it's also National Pastrami Sandwich Day.

Take your pick. Enjoy!

By the way, All'onda in the title? That refers to the term literally translated as "the wave". It is the motion, in the bowl or plate that properly prepared risotto should make. Too often our risotto is too stiff and starchy or too soft and soupy.