Seattle, 9am. Just getting ready to attend the first day of seminars at the IACP convention. Over 1400 culinary professionals are here to take part in this annual affair.
My friend Judy Witts of Divina Cucina is here from Florence, and she asked a group of IACP’ers to join her for lunch at Salumi, which is one of the hottest lunch places in Seattle. Judy booked months in advance.
On the right is Armandino Batali, the president and salumist at Salumi, and on the left is Sinclair Philip of Sooke Harbour House, an exclusive but homey inn west of Victoria, BC. Sinclair knows his food, and declared our lunch at Salumi likely to be the best meal we’ll experience all week in Seattle. I think I’m forced to agree.
Over the course of a couple of hours Armandino (who is the father of renowned New York City restaurateur Mario Batali) trotted out some of his finest creations, including this amazing beef tripe braised in tomato sauce. I am definitely not a tripe fan, but this had me swooning. We also enjoyed lamb proscuitto and a wide variety of other cured salamis, including a mole (that’s a Mexican-style cocoa-based flavouring), and lomo, cured loin of pork.
More highlights: pig’s ears sliced thinly into a warm green salad, tiny green lentil salad with cotechino sausage, tuna and huge white beans, golden beets served with cumin and fennel powder, the list went on and on. Fantastic! More later from Seattle…
