The Bello Blog
Hedging Crazy Risks: Cured Tuna Heart
When I started Bello I was determined to serve food that people here had never had before. Heck, a lot of the things I serve, most people in Italy have never had before. The problem (as I have discussed in previous posts) is that when you get too far out ahead of...
The Greatest Luxury Is the Smallest Thing
Sometimes when you are conceptualizing a product, the smallest quantity is the most luxurious. When I was thinking about our 10 Courses of Crudo popup, I wanted to use oysters and I wanted to blow people away. So, of course, I bought Kusshi oysters. These are likely...
Sometimes Simple Things Require A Lot of Creativity
We are at the end of heirloom tomato season. One of the things that we like to do in Italy is to eat as much of a seasonal ingredient as possible while it is in season. But we don’t just eat it in its natural state. Of course, I eat lots of sliced tomatoes but I...
Sometimes the Best Things in Life Are Free
Foraging has been a big deal in cuisine for the past few years. I would do it myself but being from Italy I don’t know the local area that well and I might get eaten by a coyote if I wandered out looking for ingredients. Fortunately, one of my friends is one of the...
My New Octopus Meatball with Lime Mayonnaise
As many people know, until modern times, most people faced starvation if they wasted food. The biggest source of nutrition in much of Western Europe was bread. So there are thousands of recipes for leftover bread. Meatballs, French toast and salad with croutons are...
Sometimes in Business, The Greatest Things Are Right Under Your Nose
Most of you have probably never heard of Timorasso - yet in Italy it’s the most popular white wine grape at the top restaurants. And it was almost lost to history. Italian winemakers would often plant many grapes in a single vineyard and sell the wine as a blend. At...
When Things Are Bad – Innovate More
It is normal that when revenues are down, businesses cut back on research and development. And it is no secret that things in the restaurant industry are about as bad as they’ve ever been. I’ve done the opposite of the normal thinking. I’ve been trying to use my time...
Food is a Global Village – My New Hamachi Crudo
The Italian cuisine is a very old one. And while there are very traditional dishes, Italians have always tried new ingredients as they came available. Tomatoes, for example, were brought to Italy in the 1500s from America. We didn’t turn our noses at them for...
Sometimes You Have to Abandon Tradition
As an Italian, I am a huge believer in tradition. We have recipes that date back over a thousand years. There is a reason that all of them entered our tradition in the first place. Bresaola is a traditional cured meat that is very useful because it takes a less...
The Ultimate Crudo Insanity
In business, it doesn’t make sense to do insane things … unless it does. But when one of your best friends is Mimmo Bruno, the guy who introduced burrata to the United States, sometimes the nonsensical makes perfect sense. And Mimmo said he wanted a Crudo dinner so...