Paul Feinstein

This is a Bond experience—a James Bond experience. Cue the 007 theme music.

Tied to the much-anticipated release of No Time to Die, the 25th installment of the Bond movie franchise, a travel operator is offering a once-in-a-lifetime package that pulls out all the stops.

“We have never before offered one trip with such exclusivity, high-end accommodations and activities,” Lindsay Boyd, the owner of Tamandare Travel and Uber Alles Travel, who are putting on the extravagant vacation, tells Robb Report.

Available for up to 50 guests, and taking place over set dates this fall, the $80,000 per person trip features a private jet journey to multiple locations, including London, Edinburgh, Stojfjord, Milan and Lake Como. But what’s most notable is that the 21-day itinerary is jam-packed with adventures and never-before-offered exclusives. Which means that on one night you’ll be dining at the top of the Tower of London while “guarding” the Crown Jewels, and then on another day, you’ll be reenacting a Bond fight scene that ends with a helicopter extraction and boat chase through the fiords.

There is a never-ending debate in the cheese world as to what constitutes greatness. Typically, cheeses from Europe take the curd for quality while their American cousins are routinely dismissed. This is a mistake for a multitude of reasons as the conversation around cheese quality is ripe with misconceptions.

In order to get to the bottom of why American-made cheeses are often an afterthought in the grandiose discussions around cheesy efficacy, we consulted a couple of American cheesemongers who are immersed in the world of whey and can illuminate the reasoning behind American-cheese’s short shrift.

Liz Thorpe wrote the book on cheese - literally, as she’s the author of The Cheese Chronicles: A Journey Through the Making and Selling of Cheese in America, From Field to Farm to Table, as well as The Book of Cheese: The Essential Guide to Discovering Cheeses You'll Love - and has many thoughts on the pros and cons of America’s dairy supply.

When it comes to America’s cheese reputation, Thorpe says it comes down to history. “I think the kind of styles and the options that existed in the United States, until fairly recently, and I would say in the last 40 years, were limited. And certainly, for a European who is used to being able to jump from one region or one country to another seamlessly, and taste cheese that's been made the same way for hundreds, if not thousands of years, by comparison, our cheese was pretty lame.”

California is the most diverse state in the nation, home to nearly 40 million people, and is geographically bigger than England. It might come as a surprise to tourists, but the state’s capital is actually Sacramento, which is only the sixth-largest city after Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, and Fresno.

Read: it’s really, really big.

The state can also be seen as a microcosm for the entire country. There are sprawling mountains, endless beaches, bone-dry deserts, lush farmland, bustling metropolises, and charming small towns. On any given day you can ski, surf, hike, sunbathe, ride a rollercoaster, or sail with whales.

As a result, creating an ultimate guide to the state is no simple task. However, the list below represents some of the best of California–its diversity, its beauty, its history, its culture, and its unbeatable fun. Needless to say, if you come to the Golden State and get bored, you’re doing it wrong.

Did you know that there are only two National Parks in all of Southern California? The most well-known and highly trafficked, of course, is Joshua Tree National Park, which sits east of Palm Springs about two and a half hours outside of Los Angeles. The second, is a little harder to reach, very much overlooked, and mostly an afterthought for adventure-seeking Angeleno’s and tourists. That Park is the Channel Islands National Park, resting peacefully in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Oxnard – and it should not be dismissed.

The Channel Islands are an archipelago consisting of eight total islands, though only five are part of the National Park. Catalina Island is technically a member of the archipelago, but not part of the Park itself. The five islands include Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara and all are different in terms of flora and fauna. For instance, Anacapa Island is a little over one square mile, housing hundreds of thousands of sea birds and not much else. Santa Cruz on the other hand is nearly 100 square miles with a wide array of native and invasive species, two mountain ranges, natural springs, and stunning beaches.

So, if you want to explore some of California’s most unique geography, here is a guide to visiting the Channel Islands.

There’s a little-known culinary secret running around certain circles of Los Angeles. The secret is about a foreign land that boasts the cleanest air and the most fertile soil on earth. It’s a place that’s completely GMO free, has the strictest biosecurity controls, and irrigation systems that complement a gross of natural rainfall.

This secret land of abundance is at the bottom of the world, off the southern tip of Australia, on a little island called Tasmania – and chefs from Los Angeles have started to take notice.

The popularity of pizza has never actually waned, but it’s very fair to say that the beloved pie is having a massive moment around the world. Pizza trends are proliferating everywhere, as pop-ups are slinging styles like knock-off Neapolitans, thick and crispy Detroit squares, or the reinvention of the New York slice.

Pizza has also risen in the ranks of the world’s top chefs. Culinary masters like Wylie Dufresne and David Kinch have opened Stretch Pizza and Mentone respectively, and are pushing the limits of what a great pie can really be.

With all that said, it was only a matter of time until Tokyo Pizza found its way into the lexicon and started to pop up in surprising places.

The sprawling city of Los Angeles is known for many things: the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown, the sun-soaked beaches of the West Side, and the enticing array of world-class dining. Less often conjured, however, is the serenity of its stunning coastline.

Understandably, sailing aficionados lust over the dazzling inlets of Positano, the vintage marine docks of Monaco, or the classic beauty of the Greek Isles, and why not? But eschewing the white-sand beaches, surf-worthy waves, and variety of marine life in L.A. would be a mistake for anyone looking for an all-day jaunt in the Pacific.

When planning a storybook sailing trip off the sunny California coast, there is a bevy of options. You can make a multi-day excursion to the Channel Islands to spy unique flora and fauna and dock to hike among the beaches and cliffs. You could also overnight it to Catalina Island, which was once frequented by classic Hollywood celebrities like Clark Gable, James Cagney, and Charlie Chaplin.

Anyone who has been following the news understands that June 15th in Los Angeles is an incredibly important date. As of that day, LA, along with the entire state of California will be removing nearly every restriction when it comes to Covid. Physical distancing – out. Capacity limits – gone. Mask requirements – loosened.

That means restaurants are back to normal, bars and clubs will be hopping, and most-importantly, events will begin anew.

On the heels of LA’s reopening and laxed Covid restrictions is one of the most exciting art exhibitions to come to LA in a very long time. Opening on June 16, 2021, at NeueHouse in Hollywood is Andy Warhol: Photo Factory, a never-before-exhibited collection of rare Warhol photographs.

If you live in Los Angeles, New York, Connecticut, or Chicago, finding great pizza parlors is relatively easy. In fact, most major cities around the U.S. have stellar options that run the gamut of styles from New York slices and Chicago deep dish to authentic versions of Neapolitan, Roman, and Sicilian pies.

Still, there are parts of the country where great pizzas are a little harder to come by. That’s why it’s so refreshing to see something new and different happening in Savannah, Georgia, the small coastal city known for its design school and charming architecture, though perhaps not for its elevated Italian cuisine.

Anyone who has been to the bustling Starland Yard, an indoor/outdoor food park constructed from shipping containers, can tell you that the leopard-spotted pizzas that are being fired up at Pizzeria Vittoria are something Savannah has never seen. And when you realize that chef Kyle Jacovino is selling 400 of these extraordinary pies a day, it’s worth taking note.

The pandemic has brought a lot of changes to behavior over the past year. How people socialized, traveled, ate, and drank was fundamentally altered as groups huddled indoors looking for indulgences.

And with more disposable income than ever to spend, one of those indulgences happened to be caviar.

Before we dive too deeply into this world, it’s important to understand what caviar is. First, caviar is fish eggs, specifically fish eggs from sturgeon. Think of caviar like champagne (two things that go well together, btw) in that you can’t call something champagne unless it specifically came from the Champagne wine region of France. Similarly, you can’t call fish eggs caviar unless it specifically comes from sturgeon. And like champagne, there are different flavor profiles, styles, colors, etc.

If you see something on a menu that says salmon caviar, you’re eating roe, not sturgeon fish eggs – hence, not caviar.

An extra hot summer calls for extra cool solutions (thank you climate change). And there’s nothing cooler, both literally and figuratively, than gelato. The history of gelato traces all the way back to the 16th Century where a man named Bernardo Buontalenti is credited with the first-ever recipe.

In wanting to make my own gelato at home, I turned to some local experts in Los Angeles at Gelato Festival. Gelato Festival is both a gelato bar and an international competition that pits the best gelato makers in the world against each for creamy supremacy.

For this recipe, we kept things simple, dairy-free, and vegan friendly. And if you can’t get the consistency you want at home, just head over to Gelato Festival to cool off during the dog days of this extra hot estate.

Los Angeles has a long and storied history that is often associated with oil barons and movie moguls. But everyone’s gotta eat.And the restaurants of Los Angeles provided in spades. Dating back nearly 100 years, some of the most iconic L.A. eateries have been serving up sandwiches, Mexican food, burgers, and other delicacies to the rich, famous, and all their fans.

Did you know that there are 17 US states where marijuana is now totally legal? Did you realise that another 26 states have some form of legal marijuana, be it medicinal or simply decriminalised? That means it’s illegal to have any kind of marijuana in only seven states, and that’s probably changing fast.

With all that said, the marijuana industry and all its related byproducts have simply exploded across the country in the past decade. Sleep problem? There’s a cannabis product for that. Anxiety? That too. Just want to mellow out? Yep. How about performance enhancement in bed? You know it.

With the proliferation of products, the world of edibles has also gained extraordinary status. Edibles have grown from knock-off Gummy Bears and Peanut Butter Cups, to curated chocolates, luscious cakes, and a bevy of goods to help you bake on your own. As products are refined and become more mainstream, there are big-name chefs getting into the game to take things to an even higher level (pun intended).

Los Angeles is a donut town. And despite all the diet fads, health crazes, workout classes, and Peloton rides, there are still dozens of donut shops littering every part of the city. It may not be you, but someone is eating all these sweets…

The newest, sweetest, and surprisingly lightest addition to the LA donut canon is Beignet Box, a Louisiana transplant that started as a food truck and is staking a claim for donut supremacy in a very crowded field.

Let’s get something out of the way first. For the uninitiated or the ill-informed, a beignet is unequivocally a donut. No, they’re not round, and there’s no hole in the middle, but they are essentially fried pastry dough made with flour, eggs, water, butter, and sugar (and depending on the recipe, yeast). Not only that, but beignets are the official state donut of Louisiana – case closed.

Daniele Uditi is one the best pizza makers in the world. But if you were to ask him, he would tell you that he’s only a humble bread maker and comes from a long line of bakers back in Caserta, Italy.

If you’ve ever visited his Los Angeles restaurant, Pizzana, you know that there’s something special about the dough. It’s crispy but not like a cracker. It’s doughy, but not gummy. It has the right amount of bite and doesn’t flop over like traditional Neapolitan pies.

The secrets, like most Italian specialties, lies back in the Old Country. Uditi grew up around fermenting doughs, wild yeasts, and innovative bakers who taught him the intricacies of long proofing times, resting methods, and dough strength.

International readers might be surprised to hear that Los Angeles is not an outdoor dining city. The usual arguments are pervasive: traffic noise, smog, too many homeless people, no privacy, etc. But if there is one thing the pandemic forced the City of Angels to reckon with (in a very good way), it was dining outside.

When California shut down indoor dining, the state’s restaurant scene had to act fast. Practically overnight, restaurant workers could be seen setting up sidewalk seating, installing temporary barriers, rolling out heat lamps (yes, LA gets cold at night), and creating a comfortable environment where diners could feel safe from Covid while enjoying their meals.

The current buzz around the city is that outdoor dining has not only been successful in keeping transmission rates low, but it has also pushed LA’s finicky eaters to come to a realisation – dining outside can be, and is, really exceptional.

Anyone who has lived in Los Angeles for more than 10 years can tell you that the restaurant scene in the city has morphed and changed into one of the finest culinary destinations on the planet. LA’s ethnic enclaves produce some of the best Mexican, Japanese, Thai, Italian, and Chinese food restaurants in the world.

Not to be left behind is the plant-based revolution that has coincided with the city’s dining transformation. Whether you’re looking for high-end fare like what the wizards create at Crossroads Kitchen or the unique Vietnamese delights at Âu Lạc, or the Mexican treats at Gracias Madre, or the burger concoctions at Monty’s, there is now a plant-based choice for just about any type of eater.

Now entering into the discussion of the most delicious plant-based options is the fast-casual joint Brothers Meatballs in the heart of Hollywood.

Hollywood Italian chef and food stylist Barbara Pollastrini discusses a favorite cooking technique, pasta risottata, which borrows from the style of making risotto.

Ever wonder how to make creamy pasta sauce like you find in cacio e pepe and other Italian favorites? Different chefs have different techniques, and in this new series, we'll reach out to experts for their take and hopefully learn something new in the process! First up, a Hollywood private chef from Rome, Italy, who has cooked on-set for major productions including Game of Thrones.

Every so often you encounter a chef who simply exudes light from their being in ways that make it impossible not to smile when you’re around them. Barbara Pollastrini is one of those people. But under the warm exterior, high-pitched laughter, and avant-garde style, is a chef who is filled to the brim with passion, competitiveness, and a drive to achieve that few chefs seem to possess.

Take the finest dining experience in all of New York (arguably), combine it with the two-Michelin-starred artistry of LA’s Vespertine, swirl it around each other during a pandemic, and you get one of the all-time best at-home experiences in restaurant history.

Since the pandemic began, chef Jordan Kahn of Vespertine has been bringing voracious diners around the world with his unique take-out experiences. Lovers of Kahn’s food have devoured his creations that have been themed on the Yucatan, Cuba, Japan, Sicily, and Oaxaca. Additionally, Kahn has teamed up with other restaurant luminaries like Thomas Keller in a French Laundry collaboration and Grant Achatz for an Alinea crossover.

For his latest concoction, Kahn taps into the three-Michelin-starred titan Eleven Madison Park, with executive chef Daniel Humm and culinary director Michael Pyers. Angelenos will never feel luckier when they get the full New York experience inside their own homes.

For as long as chefs have been firing up pizzas in Los Angeles, not-so-humble pizzerias have deigned to provide skeptical Angelenos with classic New York style slices. Pretty much all have failed. Sure, there are close calls with the likes of Vito’s or Mulberry Street or even more recent New York transplants Joe’s and Prince Street. But somehow, the nostalgia is missing from all of them.

Most critiques of why New York pizza doesn’t work in LA lies somewhere between the dry air and the chemically-saturated water. But ultimately, the problem is more psychological than it is technical. The reason an LA slice doesn’t taste the same is because your brain can’t displace the fact that you’re not in New York.

Take Da Michele in Hollywood. They use the identical ingredients and recipe as their flagship restaurant in Naples, but anyone who has been to both locations will swear that something is different. It’s just a chemical brain trick. You’re not in Italy, so it doesn’t taste like it did in Italy. And you’re not in New York, so it won’t taste like New York.

Cacio e Pepe simply means “cheese and pepper”—and for fans of this ancient Roman dish, there aren’t any other ingredients that combine better to form a creamy, decadent pasta. The history of cacio e pepe can be traced to sheepherders, who crafted hard cheese from sheep’s milk and carried it around with dried pasta and pepper. At meal time, they’d mix these simple ingredients together to create the hearty, cheesy sauce that we salivate over today.

We truly live in incredible times. It has never been easier to order more types of foods in more ingenious ways than at this very moment. Entrepreneurship in the food industry has simply exploded, and now includes concepts like ghost kitchens and make-at-home-kits, while enterprising chefs have launched Tik Tok videos, YouTube channels, MasterClass sessions, and Zoom lessons.

The food world was already seeing massive shifts and changes before the pandemic, and Covid simply exacerbated things, forcing chefs, restaurateurs and even farmers to get more creative with their products.

That’s where subscription services come in. Today, it’s possible to have weekly, monthly, or seasonally delivered goodies from around the globe. You can now subscribe to sustainably sourced coffee companies, environmentally friendly fisheries, or even free-range wagyu ranches. You can get a monthly dessert or a weekly healthy meal. Caviar? Of course. Wine? Obviously. Ice cream? You know it.

These are some of the most interesting and mouthwatering food subscription services you can order today.

It often feels like our world has never been more polarized. Every day, Twitter and other social platforms explode with vitriol, hate, misinformation, and disinformation. Every issue is debated to its most extreme degree, whether it’s cancel-culture, geo-political conflicts, gun rights, or cultural appropriation.

That’s why it’s refreshing when something goes viral for being wholesome and good. And that something is Liv a Lil.

Started by two incredibly energetic and ever-positive friends, Olivia Sui and Lily Rosenthal, Liv a Lil (a near portmanteau of the duo’s names) is an anecdote to cultural conflict. The company’s aim is to bring two disparate cultures together using food as the catalyst for understanding and change.

On any given day you can meander past the Walk of Fame stars of Tom Cruise or Bruce Lee while costumed performers dressed as Elmo or Elvis or Darth Vader take pics with tourists for a dollar. The dichotomy can be striking when a red-carpet movie premiere is juxtaposed against a homeless encampment. But Hollywood Boulevard, warts and all, is one of the beating hearts of LA and if you want to find stereotypes mixed with history and authenticity, there’s no better place to stroll.

Though Hollywood Boulevard is the most famous road in all of Los Angeles, it’s relatively small in comparison to other LA thoroughfares. Measuring a scant 4.6 miles, the star-laden street stretches from the entrance to the Hollywood Hills to the edges of the ultra-hip Silver Lake neighborhood. While it is most well-known for entertainment-related trappings, the street also careens through ethnically diverse neighborhoods that include Thai Town and Little Armenia.

If you’re looking for the perfect gift this holiday season, forget about toys and gadgets and whatever Black Friday deals you can get at Walmart. This year, celebrate like an Italian and give a present that is equally sweet, soft, delicate, moist, and pre-wrapped – the perfect panettone.

Panettone originally hails from Milan and is part bread, part cake, shaped like a cupola, and filled with either candied fruit, raisins, chocolate chips, or other confections. Traditionally, panettone is eaten on Christmas, which is why it makes such an ideal gift.

In Los Angeles, you can find a variety of panettone from Italian bakeries and delis, but also from further afield as professional artisans will now ship their delicate masterpieces all over the country. For this LA holiday season, order from these purveyors and give the gift of Milanese sweetness.

If you can find a silver lining in a pandemic, it’s easily the entrepreneurship and ingenuity of LA’s restaurant community. Forced with shutdowns and re-openings and half openings and quarter openings, LA’s restaurateurs needed to get creative.

And for the cliché proverb – necessity is the mother of invention.

The problem was how to turn an indoor dining enterprise into a to-go shop overnight while maintaining quality. For the Japanese restaurant owners and chefs, the answer resided in a simple little treat: the bento box.

For the uninitiated, a bento box is a traditional Japanese take-out container for one. It usually consists of a combination of rice, fish (raw and/or cooked), a meat, vegetables (often pickled), and other Japanese treats that will fill you up for lunch. The word bento means ‘convenient’ and its origins date back centuries and was designed for workers on the go.

Throughout history, athletes have used their celebrity and sometimes put their careers on the line to protest injustice, champion causes, and create awareness for what is going on in the world on a range of issues from race to gender equality to civil rights, to religious freedom to war and peace. As a result, many sports stars have lost their careers, given up millions of dollars, and even risked jail time standing up for what they believed in.

Stacker looked into the world of athlete causes and found some of the most profound protests and risk-taking stances in sports history. Using authoritative sources like The New York Times, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and others, Stacker found some of the most- and least-known athletes who stood up for what they believed in.

Athletes who have taken stands for principled causes have been met with praise and derision for their views. But the results of these crusading warriors have helped bring about change to some of society's greatest injustices. This list of sports legends expressed their views often when it was the most inconvenient and most career threatening. Read on to learn more about their stories.

Now that climate change has made summer in Los Angeles an insufferable six-month-long inferno, it’s never been more important to know how to cool off.

Enter: hotel pools.

LA hotels are notorious for their thriving summer pool scenes filled with hedonistic parties, laid-back cabanas, and private getaways with misters, endless cocktails, and skin-wrinkling chilled water. The problem has always been access to these city oases.

Fortunately for you, that problem has been solved.

Today, some of the best pools around the city are now offering day-passes to non-hotel-guests to be able to frolic in cool waters while sipping champagne. Also, fortunately for you, there’s a company that makes it easy to find these hotels.

If there was ever a time to take singer Jackie DeShannon’s advice to “put a little love in your heart,” it’s after this tumultuous past year. Luckily, with Valentine’s Day coming up, it’s the perfect excuse to forget the craziness and focus on a loved one.

In Los Angeles, restaurants are rising to the occasion with Italian dishes and specials that will set a romantic mood. Whether dining al fresco at a restaurant or ordering a kit or to-go menu, there are many options to create a memorable Valentine's Day experience in LA.

Many Bangkok visitors only spend a few days in the city, scoping out the major sites, before scramming to the islands and beaches beyond. But if you look past the Grand Palace, Reclining Buddha and buzzing nightlife, you’ll find a bevvy of exciting outdoor activities, from cultural landmarks to adrenaline-pumping adventures. Bangkok, like any major city, is home to amusement parks, racetracks, open-air markets and much more. If you want to get beyond the major tourist attractions and discover what the city’s residents already know and love, let this list steer you in the right direction.

Chef Massimo Falsini’s passion for food has taken him around the world. He started working at the famed cacio e pepe powerhouse Felice a Testaccio in Rome, then helmed the uber-famous Harry’s Bar, opened Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, and now runs Caruso’s, a coastal Italian restaurant at the luxurious Rosewood Miramar in Montecito, California.

Throughout these travels and kitchens, Falsini has compiled binders upon binders of recipes—but he always likes to turn back to his hometown of Rome, where oxtail ragu is ubiquitous. Here’s the chef’s specialty for you try in your own kitchen.

For this holiday season there are a few more challenges than normal when it comes to preparing the perfect meal. But if you plan right, quarantine, get tested (more than once), wear a mask, and social distance, then you’ll you have a real shot at getting your whole family together for one of the year’s best dinners.

Every family has their own Christmas dinner traditions, but this year, we wanted to consult an expert Italian chef to see how he prepares a meal for his own family. We chatted with Roman-born chef Massimo Falsini, who runs the multiple kitchens at the uber-lux Rosewood Miramar hotel in Montecito, California, to find out what he has in store for his family, and how you can emulate the perfect Italian Christmas dinner at home for yourself.

Every February, the entire entertainment world descends upon LA for the annual Academy Awards. The Oscars, as they’re popularly known, is the ultimate prize for cinematic excellence and every A-list star, director, producer, and their hangers-on want a piece of the action.

As the who’s who makes their way around the city, inevitably they want to eat at the hottest restaurants around town. And if you’re jones’n for some celebrity sightings and don’t want to rely on TMZ to show you what you missed the next day, these are some of the Italian restaurants that are sure to be hosting the rich and famous all Oscars weekend.

The 1980s is a glorious time capsule that combines bangles, legwarmers, Morrissey, and Madonna. From style to culture, the 80s is a decade unlike any other. And when it comes to movies, there’s nothing quite like the cavalcade of classic flicks filled with totally politically incorrect humor, dated social mores, and now-problematic actors. But if you want to relive your favorite films and actually visit some of the classic hotels within them—this is the article for you.

There are 512 Michelin rated restaurants in Tokyo, and some of them are hidden in the halls of the city’s finest hotels. Whether you’re a fan of French, a connoisseur of Chinese, or just go jumping for Japanese, these mouthwatering restaurants will leave you fully sated.

When it comes time to celebrate American independence, the 4th of July conjures many things: fireworks, parades, parties, and of course, barbecue. Now, because of Covid-19, most of these activities are canceled (please wear a mask and social distance, people), but the one thing everyone can still do in the comfort of their own home is barbecue.

And because this is La Cucina Italiana and not La Cucina Americana, we thought it would only be appropriate to get the down-low on barbecuing like an Italian… from an Italian. So we asked Bergamo-born chef Angelo Auriana of Factory Kitchen, BRERA and sixth+mill restaurants in Los Angeles, to give us his two cents on having a great Italian cookout on this very American holiday.

Nancy Silverton’s bonafides are well documented. She’s won James Beard Foundation awards for Outstanding Pastry Chef, Outstanding Restaurant, and Outstanding Chef. She’s the holder of a Michelin star for her restaurant Osteria Mozza. And she’s published more than half a dozen cookbooks. But like most chefs, Silverton had to pay her dues in the bowels of sweaty kitchens and that still informs how she cooks, thinks, and runs her many businesses today. For her next act, Silverton tackles multiple projects at the same time, and we wanted to know how she got started and what she has in store this year for LA’s very hungry fans of hers.

“I didn’t start cooking until I went to school and started making food in my college dorm. I didn’t do it because I needed to work, but because there was a super cute guy who was working in the kitchen. And so I told him I really wanted to cook in the dorms,” said Silverton.

With hundreds of things to see, do and eat in Marrakech, it’s almost criminal to spend all your money on an expensive hotel. The city is already on the inexpensive side, but you can stretch your money even further if you book your nights at one of the city’s best hostels. Culture Trip’s list of the best hostels in Marrakech will help to narrow down your choices.

In search of the world’s most bizarre competitions, Netflix traveled the globe and found six weird, whacky, and wild contests for their new docuseries We Are the Champions. Hosted by Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute from The Office), the series chronicles everything from dog dancing championships and frog jumping supremacy to cheese rolling tournaments and hairstyling events.

Will you find any of these contests in the Olympics? No. Will any of these matches make it into the mainstream? Probably not. But will they make you laugh, give you wanderlust, and put your own lives into perspective? Yes, they will.

Gnocchi is one of the most beloved Italian dishes and comes in many shapes and forms. The little pasta dumpling has northern Italian origins, but that’s really a misnomer as forms the of the loveable pillows can be found all over the country.

The word gnocchi most likely comes from nocchio, which means knot, or from nocca, which means knuckle – whereby both resemble the look of the plump little bundles of joy on your plate.

Chef David Nayfeld is a tornado. The way he moves, the way he talks, and his entire aura is an endless stream of energy that fills any room he enters—especially when you get him talking about food. But Nayfeld is also a craftsman, and there is nothing chaotic about his cuisine. We chatted with this foodie force of nature about his upbringing, his San Francisco taverna, Che Fico, and how he celebrates his Jewish heritage through his cooking.

Bangkok is an incredible international city with thousands of ex-patriots from all over the world. And with that influx of foreign influence comes a bevy of global cuisine choices. There are endless Japanese, Italian, Indian, and French restaurants strewn throughout the metropolis and new establishments pop up almost daily. So, if you’re tired of Thai food, it’s time to dig into some of Bangkok’s best international fare at hotels around the city. These are the best hotels with great restaurants in Bangkok.

Like all of you, we’re both eager and trepidatious about eating in a restaurant right now. Fortunately, as the science on Covid-19 continues to evolve, eating outdoors seems to be one of the safer methods of dining. If you’re looking for your fix of focaccia, want to salivate over sfogliatella, or just bask in bundles of bucatini, these are the Los Angeles restaurants providing some of the best alfresco options that will make you think you’re back in the piazza, if just for a little while.

Born and raised outside of Puglia, Chef Luigi Fineo can hardly believe that he gets to cook for a living in Los Angeles. The chef is being modest, however, as his cuisine has earned Michelin stars and countless other accolades along the way.

But just because he cooks elevated food doesn’t mean his roots aren’t fully rustic. Because of this, we wanted to chat with Fineo to see what some of his favorite techniques are for cooking at home. Lucky for us (and you), he combined two techniques that you’ll simply have to test out for your next post-pandemic dinner party.

The Los Angeles restaurant scene is re-opening with a bang, and the latest, possibly most lavish, and tastiest new opening might come with a side of motion sickness (but not really).

Anyone who has ever been to The Grove in the Beverly Grove neighborhood of LA is familiar with certain aspects of the uber-popular outdoor mall. There is a dancing water fountain show that blasts music and wows young kids every hour on the hour. There is unbelievable people watching among the shoppers perusing the dozens of stores of this shopping mecca, and there’s a very slow-moving trolley that does a lazy loop around the grounds.

Beginning on May 18, 2021, riders of that trolley now have the option to wine and dine on the move with the launch of Bistro 1759, a top-deck dining space with a stellar tasting menu.

The pizza boom in Los Angeles seems to have no end. Over the past few years, pizza trends like Neapolitan, Detroit, Sicilian, and more have swept across the city, raising LA’s profile to one of the best pizza stops in the country.

One of the more recent trends in the city is Roman-style pizza, which has two variations. There’s tonda, which is a round, very thin, and crispy style pie. And then there’s al taglio, which translates to ‘by the cut’ and is served in square and rectangular slices that are cut by scissors.

Now, before you officially lose your pasta-loving minds, this is only a limited special. But special is the operative word.

Los Angeles chef Daniele Uditi, famed for creating the Jonathan Gold-approved Cacio e Pepe Pizza and redefining Neapolitan-style pies in LA, is delving into the world of pasta. And true to form, the pastas Uditi will be serving all come with unexpected twists.

On June 29th at the pizzeria’s West Hollywood location, Uditi will be unveiling four incredible pasta dishes that will force you to re-think what Italian-American food — and pasta in general — can be.

With summer right around the corner and Covid levels dropping precipitously in the state of California, travelers are gearing up to get out of the house and experience a vacation for the first time in nearly two years.

That precipitous drop means that California has already entered Tier 4, or the Yellow Tier, and as of June 15th, the state will move beyond its tiered framework, which will allow hotels to fully open their doors to guests with 100% occupancy, without social distancing, and masks optional.

Questions remain: how will travel look in a post-covid world? Will hotels operate the same as they did before? What changes will be permanent to keep the health and safety of guests top of mind?

To answer some of these questions, and to get you prepped for your first post-Covid road trips, I talked to some boutique hotels around the state to see what’s new, what’s different, and how to feel about venturing back into the world of hospitality.

What does it mean to be a conscious eater? How can we live a sustainable lifestyle? Do we have to make a choice between eating healthy and sacrificing flavor?

These are the questions that were tackled on World Sustainable Gastronomy Day during a fascinating webinar that was hosted by Sara Roversi from the Future Food Institute. The panelists included Barilla VP of Nutrition and Wellbeing Dondeena Bradley, How to be a Conscious Eater author Sophie Egan, and Peter Klosse from The Academy for Scientific Taste Evaluation (TASTE), who gave invaluable insight into how we can start changing behavioral patterns while hopefully saving the planet.

During the pandemic, chef Chad Colby had many difficult decisions to make. At his Larchmont restaurant Antico, he pivoted his full menu of pastas to a takeout pan pizza and ice cream spot to keep his operation, now known as Antico Nuovo, running. But behind the scenes, Colby was also scheming for his next big breakthrough: bringing a taste of Puglia to Los Angeles.

Colby is an Italophile who found his love of the country through school-sponsored trips that introduced him to hundreds of wines and regional cuisine. It was Puglia that truly stuck with him, thanks to the region’s simplistic cuisine, its savory antipasti, subtle pastas, and grilled meats and fish.

With the pandemic waning, Colby found a prime location on the trendy West Third Street of Los Angeles and started planning to introduce Pugliese cuisine to LA’s Italian-loving denizens. The result is Bari, a rustic, authentic take on Puglia that succeeds in transporting locals to dreamy masserias strewn throughout Italy’s southern boot. It is slated to open in the coming weeks.

Here, in an interview condensed and edited for clarity, Chad Colby tells La Cucina Italiana about the motives for Bari, how he developed his love of Italy, and more.

The west coast of the United States is teeming with Asian immigrants who first arrived during the California Gold rush in the 1850s. Japanese migrants in particular started arriving in the late 1800s, populating the major metropolises of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. Today, Seattle has a bustling Japanese ex-pat community, and with that a plethora of fantastic Japanese restaurants.

Of course, Japanese food, like most great cuisines, is regional and has a wide variety of flavours, profiles, and ingredients. This is true of sushi, yakitori, kaiseki, and most especially, ramen. And as you navigate the ramen scene in Seattle, it’s important to understand some basics.

There are typically four main categories of ramen: shio, which is a salt-based ramen; miso, which is based on soybean paste; shoyu, where the base is a soy sauce; and tonkotsu, which has a base of pork bone broth. Within those four categories there is a wide variety of subgroups and variations, but if you’re looking to differentiate within Seattle’s buzzing ramen restaurants, start with these four and begin exploring from there.

Here are some of the best ramen restaurants Seattle has to offer.

There is no shortage of things to see and do in Marrakech, and it can often be overwhelming when choosing how to spend your limited time here. That’s why Culture Trip is here to help, scouring the city for the most exciting, historical and stunning attractions that will keep you on your toes during your entire vacation. So, if you want to fill your time with the best attractions, here is the perfect list for you.

There's nothing more American than a backyard barbecue. Grilling dogs and burgers and steaks is Americana at its finest. But wherever you are around the world, the lure of the grill can be irresistible when the weather is fine. Here at FDL, we wanted to consult a barbecue expert to help you get your barbecue on the right track - especially now as Covid restrictions are slowly being lifted. And let’s be honest, if you mess up your barbecue, the people you haven’t seen throughout the pandemic might not come back again.

For this, we chatted with Burt Bakman, an Israeli immigrant who found barbecue love in Texas, brought it to his backyard in Los Angeles, and parlayed it into one of the best barbecue restaurants in the country (also in Los Angeles). His restaurant, SLAB, is known for its slow-cooked smoked brisket, which is equal parts savoury and salty, with marbled fat that melts in your mouth.

If you want a great barbecue, wherever you are in the world, Bakman is here to help.