The first time I ate at Coco Lezzone in Florence, it was at the invitation of film producer Dino De Laurentiis, who knows a thing or two about Italian cooking:
(1) He created the gourmet Italian DDL Foodshow Emporiums in New York and Beverly Hills about 20 years ahead of their time,
(2) His lovely granddaughter Giada, with many of her family’s recipes and great charm and skill, has become a best-selling cookbook author and very popular Food Network chef, and,
(3) He is Italian and always has been.
We were in Florence because that’s where Hannibal was being filmed, and Dino asked my wife Elizabeth and me and some others working on the film to join him at Coco Lezzone for dinner.
Italy
Italy
Ristorante Lorenzo in Italy
Jill was done. For three weeks I'd been force feeding her on a
take-no-prisoners march through the restaurants of Italy. I had all
but nailed her feet to the floor. And then four days in Rome – dio
mio, Roma! If you don’t eat well in Rome, you’re an idiot.
Now she was on strike. “Forgive me, honey, but I have to go light tonight”, she said. “Just a little grilled fish and a salad. And no wine.”
This last was underlined as if to indicate it should have some special meaning for me.
“Just eat what you want, baby” I said, moving right past it. My focus was on the menu, planning my point of attack.
We were in Ristorante Lorenzo in the stylish seaside resort of Forte Dei Marmi, just down from Pietresanta on the Tuscan coast. Versilia is the beautiful name Italians give to this region. Lorenzo is not only the best restaurant in town but one of the most stylish, most satisfying in all of Italy.
An Old Bear Worth a Second Encounter
Normally, one encounter with an old bear would terrify a person. It would probably scare a person out of the wilderness and into solitude
for an unforeseeable amount of time. It would most likely be an
experience worth putting behind and never having to relive. In fact,
the only person I have ever read of, other than circus acts and zoo
trainers, to have ever made his life about becoming friends with old
bears is Mr. Timothy Treadwell, who was deemed Grizzly Man by Mr.
Werner Herzog in a 2005 documentary by the same title. Treadwell was
the victim of one of the old bears he had become friends with during
his life in the wilderness with them.
Recently, I survived an encounter with an Old Bear – only this one wasn’t big, fuzzy, and scary – this one was located in the center of Rome – this one was just a hidden gem crouching in a dark alley waiting for it’s prey to walk by and step inside. This one had sharp teeth that captured my friends and myself and welcomed us for one of our most wonderful dining experiences in Italy yet—this one was an old bear worth encountering.
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