Paul Feinstein

There's a unique competition in Japan that's reminiscent of the Westminster Dog Show, where animals are celebrated for their beauty, breeding and other attributes. But unlike their canine comrades, this contest is about food, these animals are cows, and the winning breeders get the opportunity to sell their cattle and carcasses to the best restaurants and butchers in the world at the highest price.

This is the Japanese Wagyu Olympics, and these are high "steaks". But that's only half of the story.

The Wagyu Olympics (formally known as Zenkyo) was launched in 1966 to help encourage a high level of cattle breeding, tourism and promote Wagyu beef in and out of the country. The competition takes place every five years and awards cattle farmers with the designation of the best beef in the world.

There are two main competitive categories: Breed Improvement, which judges a cow on its size, proportions and other outwardly visible standards; and Meat Quality, where the carcasses are judged on fat quality and content. At the end of the competition, the best breeding cows and carcasses are sold at auction to the highest bidders in Japan. Beef sales from the auction can run upwards of ¥72,000 (about £442). And if you've seen Wagyu beef on a menu and were shocked by the price, this is why.

The Roaring ’20s! Gatsby! Flappers! We’re hearing these nostalgic terms a lot these days as people anticipate the end of the COVID-19 pandemic ushering in a bacchanal that rivals our centenarian ancestors. People are going to party, travel, eat, shop, and party a lot more. Only, the pandemic isn’t over. In fact, it’s raging like wildfire, crippling countries around the world while mask and vaccination debates burn brightly right alongside.

There are a lot of parallels between the 2020s and the 1920s. The 1920s kicked off after the First World War and the end of the 1918 Pandemic, which infected around 500 million people, killing 50 million worldwide and 675,000 in the United States. Our 2020s kick-off at the end of the 20-year U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and a pandemic that has infected 194 million people and killed more than four million (probably a lot more) with more than 600,000 dead in the United States. Sound familiar?

For some reason, I decided this was the right moment to travel to Tulum on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. If you’re like me, you’re religiously following charts and graphs of cities, states, counties, and countries to see where COVID is peaking and where it’s laying low. My trip to Mexico fell right at the beginning of a spike, but that wasn’t going to stop a plane filled with 20-somethings wanting to burst out into their own rendition of the Roaring ’20s with little to no consequence.

Phil Rosenthal never has a bad day. I know this because I traveled with Phil for a week while he and his team shot an episode in Santiago, Chile, for the newest season of his eponymous show, Somebody Feed Phil.

I know he doesn’t have a bad day because I watched Phil enjoy going to the airport in Los Angeles (an admittedly miserable experience). I know this because he didn’t complain when we had to wait in long lines to get COVID tests in the Santiago airport and quarantine ourselves in the hotel until our results arrived. I know this because each day of the week was filled with endless amounts of optimism, jokes, and boyhood wonder that a kid from Queens gets to do this job for a living.

Phil is a different kind of celebrity. He’s equal parts anonymous and famous. He can walk through an entire city without a hassle but every day he gets stopped at least once and takes a photo with a fan without fail. He’s a 62-year-old white male who somehow appeals to demographics of every race, religion, creed, and gender. He offends no one.

And if you ask him about this fascinating little world he’s carved out for himself, he’ll just say he’s lucky to be here. But Phil knows the secret to this world, and the secret is what’s behind the magic of the show.

This is a week behind the scenes with Phil and his crew in Santiago. The food he ate. The places he went. The happy accidents along the way. And the secret that is right in front of us, every single day.

When your entire identity is wrapped around traveling the world and motivating others to do the same, what do you do during a global pandemic? If you're Rick Steves, you wait for a mass-vaccination campaign, and then put out a two-hour TV special that inspires Americans to travel again.

Rick Steves is the multi-hyphenate travel guru behind the eponymous best-selling guidebooks to Europe, he's the host of a weekly public radio show, and is the star of Rick Steves' Europe, a travel show distributed by American Public Television.

A pandemic wasn't going to stop him.

Steves' latest foray into the world of television is Rick Steves Europe Awaits, a two-hour special where he takes viewers to some of his favorite spots on the Continent in charming and surprising ways. We wanted to chat with Steves to see how life has been the last year, and his new TV special that's aimed at inspiring Americans to get out and explore once again.

In terms of its ingredients, sake is simple, made from just four elements: rice, water, yeast and fermentation-spurring mold called koji-kin. And yet as a category, it’s disconcertingly complex, served both hot and cold, filtered and unfiltered, dry and sweet. It’s been a staple of Japanese cuisine for centuries, but more recently sake has enjoyed an increasing prominence on the American fine-dining scene, with enthusiastic appreciation from Michelin-star chefs, buzzy restaurants and independent brewers alike.

During the pandemic, many people hunkered down and explored the art of making bread for the first time. Some used dry active yeast or baking soda to find that perfect rise, while others dabbled in the wild world of sourdough starters.

But home bakers didn't just learn about making bread in its most natural form – they tapped into living antiquity. Sourdough starters, often referred to as mother dough, have a nearly 6,000-year history that spans the globe and are responsible for feeding the planet millions of times over.

This captivates bread-makers, scientists and researchers who want to understand how this elixir of life came about and what makes it so special – especially when the starter's owner claims a long and storied history. Because of this fascination, old starters have an almost mystical quality to them, and finding them and baking with them have gripped home cooks and professionals around the world.

The search for the oldest sourdough starter spans continents and countries, science labs and libraries, and involves everyone from the Ancient Egyptians to Jesus Christ. This is a quest to find the oldest mothers on the planet – living, breathing, bubbling sourdough starters that helped build the pyramids, fed the Roman Empire and nourished a gold rush.

I’m a travel writer. Many of you might not know what that means or what that entails. But at its heart, it means that I travel around the world, finding fascinating stories, meeting artisans, chefs, hoteliers, and craftspeople. I try local cuisine, I learn new skills, I explore new surroundings, and I get to write about it with the hope of giving you wanderlust and encouraging you to book trips to new exciting places.

My job is to make you forget. Forget about your job and your responsibilities and your problems. My job is to make you daydream about far-off lands and exquisite meals.

When people tell me I have the best job in the world, I don’t argue. It is (minus the pay). And I’m not even going to bore you with the bad parts like washing your underwear in the sink, living out of suitcases, never sleeping, and long days away from loved ones at home. It’s still the best job in the world and very little can change that.

Phil Rosenthal is a talker. And when you get him going on his two biggest passions, food and travel, the conversation can leave you laughing, endlessly curious about the world, and really, really hungry. As the inimitable host of the hit Netflix food and travel show, Somebody Feed Phil, Rosenthal has taken his ever-positive persona around the globe in search of the best things to eat, and with a mission to get you off your couch and to explore the planet.

As the pandemic (hopefully) winds down and the wanderlust kicks into high gear, not only should you watch Rosenthal’s show for travel inspiration, but also as a tool to get you into a mindset to truly enjoy life.

I’ve been fortunate to have numerous conversations with Rosenthal, and this latest, like the others, unveils new nuggets about the man, keeps you smiling, and of course, makes you want to eat.

It’s easy to fantasize about explorers of the past. The ones who mapped continents, searched for the source of the Nile, plumbed the deepest trenches, and trekked the most unreachable heights fill us with a sense of wonder and awe. The desire to see something new has driven human exploration since the beginning of time.

Today, exploration takes on different tones. With the highest mountains summited, landmasses discovered, and the bottom of the ocean all but mapped, exploration has become as much about how you do a thing as where a thing might actually be.

For writer Mark Synnott, a professional mountain climber, adventurer, and National Geographic writer/photographer, exploration is more about a good story than it is anything else. Synnott is the author of the new book, The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest, about an ill-fated climb to the top of the world by British explorers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine that might pre-date the historic ascent of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to Vancouver, Canada. It's too cold, it rains all the time, it gets so dark, etc. Not only are these preconceived notions misguided, Vancouver actually has some of the most temperate weather in the entire country, making it an ideal destination to play, explore, and have adventures inside and out.

Once you realize you're not going to be swept away by freezing rain year-round, you can begin digging into the wide variety of things to see, do, eat, and explore. Canada's third largest city is a multicultural hub with stunning architecture that sits on the Strait of Georgia and is surrounded by epic mountains and lush green forests.

Because of its natural beauty, the city is set up for outdoor adventurers, whether cruising the streets of one of the largest Chinatowns in the world, riding bikes along the city's seawall, or hiking in nearby woodlands for some of the freshest air on earth.

Vancouver is a city that is proud of its diversity, its indigenous history, and its tolerance. Davie Village is a neighborhood in the city's West End where a thriving LGBTQ+ community comes out to play, while the city also boasts the third-largest urban Indigenous population in all of Canada.

So, throw your mistaken beliefs out the window and think about booking a ticket to Canada's western hub, you will not regret it.

Los Angeles is a city of makers, of creators, and of doers. It’s the kind of place where a simple idea can spread like wildfire and a cult following can form overnight. It’s a city where hype can blaze an enormous path, but where quality ultimately rises to the top.

This is a story about a pair of makers. A humble couple brought together by love and lucid dreams. A story about creation and perseverance and drive. It’s an LA story, forged from desperation and melded with connection.

At first blush, you might confuse Arielle Skye and Chris Moss for beat poets and resourceful vagabonds. The couple is rustic and beautiful and kind. They speak in a language of fantasies and adventures and romance. Second-hand threads hang off their lithe bodies that could instantly thrust them into a civil rights protest of the 60s or a spoken-word night in the East Village. But there’s something pure going on here – it’s an effortless authenticity that’s hard to come by – especially in Los Angeles.

What if I told you that the best caviar in the world hails from the Caspian Sea…but on the Iranian side?

It just so happens that the world’s most expensive indulgence comes from the hands of two Iranian immigrant brothers with a long sturgeon legacy that starts on the shores of the Persian Sea, travels all the way around the world, and ends up in the City of Angels.

The story actually starts in the 1980s when the Dorasti Caviar Brothers’ father, M.R. Khaligh, introduced sustainable fishing techniques while running the largest seafood company in Iran. Part of their father’s success was taking the bounty of the Caspian Sea and making it accessible to the average Iranian instead of simply exporting the products overseas. For years, the Khaligh family not only built a massively reputable seafood company, but refined processes to cultivate the highest quality caviar in the world.

Whether it's making pasta, fermenting wine, or just enjoying life, the Italians seem to have it pretty much figured out. Granted, it's taken a couple thousand years to get it right, but today, the culture that puts food first has a way of doing things that is the envy of the world.

Eating and drinking are not just pastimes for Italians, they are ingrained in every part of the day. From the first espresso to the final digestivo, the Italian day is infused with intricate rules around how, when, why, and with whom you share meals and imbibe with on fine wine.

It's a way of life, and arguably, the best way. These are 10 rules that Italians live by and you might want to adopt for yourself.

With no concrete end in sight to this pandemic (thanks anti-maskers), we’re forced to think about what the future of travel may hold. And by the time we’re actually able to leave the country and explore our beautiful world, there may be an even wilder option for the adventure seekers out there—space travel.

That’s right, in the next few years, multiple companies are gearing up to take you to space. You’ll be able to float in zero gravity, marvel at our beautiful blue ball from afar (flat earthers be damned), and see more stars than you could ever imagine. This isn’t a giant hoax (like the idea that masks don’t work), this is a real thing that you’ll really be able to do—that is, if you have the money.

So, here’s to hoping that locking ourselves in our homes for a year or two will be rewarded with the ultimate travel adventure of leaving Earth behind.

If you want to learn how to make pasta, there are a million websites to scour, cookbooks to read, classes to take, and blogs to follow. But if you really want to know the secrets to pasta perfection, it helps to talk to a master.

Luckily, there's a very modest, yet extremely gregarious, master who was willing to divulge a thing or two about making pasta that might help you at home. That master is none other than Massimo Bottura, the three-Michelin-starred chef of the uber-famous Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy.

A quick primer on Bottura in case you're one of the last handful of people on Earth who don't know about him: The Modena, Italy-born chef first became interested in cooking by watching his grandmother, mother, and aunt in the kitchen. Since opening his restaurant, Osteria Francescana, Bottura has not only earned three Michelin stars, but also the No. 1 spot on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list. Today, between opening restaurants around the globe, Bottura and his wife, Lara Gilmore, run a non-profit called Food for Soul that advocates for healthy and equitable food and helps feed thousands of people in need around the world. In addition, Bottura and Gilmore have started Tortellante: part lab, part school, part business that primarily helps kids and young adults with autism achieve active roles in society through making pasta.

The past year has been cataclysmic for the restaurant industry, with the pandemic wreaking havoc on owners, servers, bussers, as well as disrupting supply chains, hitting farmers, and more. Building and maintaining a successful restaurant is hard enough during good times, but during a pandemic, it’s nearly impossible.

The good news is that necessity is the mother of invention, and Covid-19 has driven restaurateurs to find new ways of doing business they never thought possible. No more so is this true than at the high end of dining in Los Angeles. Fancy and expensive LA restaurants have been forced to recreate entire business models on the fly, and as a result, turned a disaster into opportunity. The outcome is a new type of takeout and delivery from the city’s best and most creative chefs.

Here are some of the most interesting (and tasty) takeout and delivery options on the higher end of the LA dining scene.

Manga fans and anime tourists looking for a very big (post-COVID) reason to visit Japan in 2021 should really head down to the port city of Yokohama—and that’s to see a 60-foot-tall Gundam robot that moves.

First, some basics. Yokohama is a major port city about an hour south of Tokyo. Its port is widely recognized for helping bring modernization to Japan in the late 19th century. But don’t sleep on Yokohama as just an industrial town filled with giant cranes.

In fact, Yokohama has a bevy of cultural treasures, amazing food stops, and incredibly unique museums.

When I was a little kid, my mother used to make me manicotti. She used thick, store-bought, dried manicotti shells, and a filling of ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, and parsley. I was always enamored by the oozing cheese dripping out of the sides of the tubes, the chewy noodle layers that encased the molten filling, and the smells that would consume the kitchen and waft through the entire house.

Manicotti, which translates to little sleeve in Italian, is very similar to the Italian cannelloni in that both are large tube-shaped pastas filled with deliciousness and baked to perfection.

Forget the cherry blossoms and the flashy Tokyo hotels, because starting this April, for the first time ever, it’s possible to rent out an Edo period castle in the heart of Japan—and get the shogun-style treatment while you’re there. Dating back to 1617, Ozu Castle is set in the town of Ozu on the western side of Shikoku island, and sits atop a hill, encircled by the winding Hijikawa River. After a careful restoration, the castle is now ready to welcome incoming vacationers in the same way a shogun would have received a visiting lord to his castle—complete with a re-enactment ceremony that rolls out the proverbial red carpet. Adding to the exclusivity, only thirty such private stays are being offered between April 2020 and April 2021.

As an American, one of the most depressing moments of 2020 was finding out that our passports went from one of the strongest in the world to the weakest, with barely more than a handful of countries letting U.S. citizens through their borders.

The shock to my system was immediate, with all the stages of grief rushing through me at once. Denial hit like a wave as COVID cases started delaying overseas flights I had already booked. Anger washed over me when mass gatherings continued with no social distancing and little mask usage, and flights went from delayed to canceled. Bargaining had me trying to convince as many people as possible that this could be over sooner rather than later, and if we just listened to Dr. Anthony Fauci, those flights would come back. Depression kicked in hard when no one listened to Fauci. And finally, acceptance. Acceptance that we were going to be stuck in America for a very long time as spikes ravaged the states and a second (and sometimes third) wave took over the rest of the planet.

OK, that was a depressing paragraph (Stage 4), but there’s a lot you can do to satiate your travel bug while being stuck at home for the foreseeable future. First, you can travel virtually to hundreds of locations around the world and get free access to museums, archaeological sites, and more. Second, you can buy every Fodor’s guidebook and begin planning your next excursion (please buy guidebooks). Or, third, you can do what I did, and attempt to live in a foreign country vicariously by learning a language through travel apps.

Food is art. Art is food.

Pasta lovers will have a lot to love in the latest installment of La Cucina Italiana’s Instagram Live Sessions. Led by Meryl Feinstein from Pasta Social Club and LCI contributor Paul Feinstein, the two non-related Feinstein’s delve into the world of herb-laminated pasta from scratch.

Meryl Feinstein is an incredible chef who is known for teaching the world both in-person (pre-covid) and virtually the art of making the perfect sheets of pasta. In this Instagram Live session, Meryl walks Paul through all the ins and outs of laminating herbs into the pasta sheets and creating some of the most beautifully edible art.

While Italy isn't exactly known as being a cocktail bar hotbed, there are a bevy of incredible drinks that were invented there. From the spritz and the famous Negroni to the Bellini and the Americano, there are plenty of original libations to try that have nothing to do with Italy's premier wine scene.

But hidden in plain sight, among the coffee shops and wine bars, there actually is a bubbling cocktail culture that has a very long and distinguished history with an even brighter future. Here are some of Italy's best, oldest, and coolest cocktail bars across the country.

Now that the longest year in the history of civilization is coming to an end, it’s finally time to start thinking about the Holidays. And because we’re likely to be indoors for most of the winter season, it’s also time to start thinking about upping that cooking game for you, your friends, and your family.

This year, you can give the ultimate gift that keeps on giving – pasta makers! So, if you want to make family and friends happy with their own fresh fettucine, then this is the perfect guide to a long, and silky season of homemade fresh pasta.

If there’s one word to sum up the viewing experience of the Netflix show Somebody Feed Phil it would simply be “positivity.” During every minute of the hour-long episodes, Phil Rosenthal exudes pure joy over finding something new, discovering a hidden treasure, and of course, devouring one-of-a-kind flavors all around the world.

In season four of the show, Rosenthal travels to Rio De Janeiro, San Francisco, Singapore, the Mississippi Delta, and Hawaii where he makes lifelong friends through food, sharing stories across the dinner table, and even shedding light on charitable organizations that are doing selfless work in their respective cities.

Talking to Rosenthal on the phone is no different than watching him on TV. What you see is what you get, and by the end, you feel like you’ve made a lifelong friend after only a 30-minute conversation. There’s another singular word that comes to mind when describing this hungry globetrotter, and that word is simply, “mensch.

Anyone who has been to Sicily is familiar with the bevy of treats this glorious island has shared with the rest of the world. Sicily is known for arancini, pesto Trapanese, caponata, and most notably the sweet, crunchy dessert – the cannoli.

When I first traveled through Sicily, my mind and tastebuds exploded with all the island provided. Every seaside town offered up a mix of Italian seasonings crossed with North African spices for otherworldly flavor combinations. The interior exploded with golden fields of wheat that turned into slurp-worthy spaghetti at bustling restaurants.

But with every stop, there inevitably would be room for cannoli. Places like I Banchi in Ragusa where crispy rolls of dough doused with powdered sugar tickled the back of my throat. Or Antica Dolceria Bonajuto in Modica, which is the oldest chocolate factory in Sicily, and offered up hand-sized confections toppling over with pistachios and filled with their perfect cocoa creations.

A global pandemic, drastic climate change, and a presidential election for the ages understandably have people on edge and re-thinking their own place in the world. While billionaires build luxury bunkers, buy private islands, and use private planes to leave the country at will, the rest of us are left to fend for ourselves in the face of immense crises.

During this pandemic, countries have closed their borders to citizens and residents to limit the spread of the disease through travel, and, as a result, made people reevaluate their own countries, where they want to live, and where they can possibly turn if something bad really happens.

As a travel writer who can’t travel, I immediately began looking for loopholes around travel restrictions across the globe and one thing became very clear—every country takes care of their own people before anyone else. So, the next natural question is, how do you make other countries think of you as one of their own?

One of life’s true pleasures is strolling the cobblestone streets of Rome and happening upon the wafting smells of fried appetizers emanating from little shops throughout the city. And one of the most special fried street food mainstays of the Eternal City is the simple supplì. A traditional supplì is a fried snack filled with risotto rice, tomato sauce, often a meat like chicken livers, and oozing with mozzarella cheese.

Supplì is often confused with its cousin, arancini, which is more common in Sicily, and while they’re similar, there are plenty of differences when it comes to fillings and shapes. Arancini are often molded with a bulbous cone that is more reminiscent of Mt. Etna, while supplì can be round, oblong, and other geometric variations.

I became enamored with this Italian treat when I happened on a tiny store called Supplì Roma along the narrow streets of Trastevere in Rome. Since 1979, they’ve been serving everything from supplì cacio e pepe or carbonara to arancini with speck and truffles.

Sukiyabashi Jiro, or more commonly referred to as Sushi Jiro, is one of the most famous and hardest to get into restaurants in the world. And with scarcity, there’s demand. And with demand, there’s hype. So, is this uber-famous Tokyo restaurant worth the effort? Read on to get the 411 (and check your bank account before proceeding).

Angelini Osteria is arguably the best Italian restaurant in Los Angeles, and if you ever have the pleasure of dining in this elegant eatery, you must order the lasagna. Gino Angelini named his famous lasagna after his nonna Elvira (though as Gino will tell you, Elvira thought his version was too light), that simply glistens with green sheets of pasta and oozes with bechamel and mouthwatering ragù.

If you’re ready to go on a lasagna journey where you make everything from scratch, tuck in for a few hours because the end result is more than worth the long ride.

Let me preface this entire article by telling you that I am NOT a camper. Even though I grew up in Colorado camping, hiking fourteeners, and spending every weekend in the mountains, it did not rub off. I’ll take a five-star hotel in some far-flung country over any other accommodation any day of the week—and won’t think twice.

With that said, in a pandemic, your five-star hotel options are quite limited, as are your flying options to foreign countries. And, as a travel writer, cabin fever is a very real thing, and the need to go somewhere, anywhere (just to get away!), was of the utmost importance.

With that in mind, I turned to the idea of renting a recreational vehicle–yes, an RV–and venturing off into the wild. So, this is the comprehensive guide for any city slicker like me on how to rent an RV, what to bring, what not to do, and how to survive traveling in a pandemic in a hotel on wheels.

Mimi Thorisson is a mom, a chef, an international nomad, a nonna wannabe, and a cookbook author. Known for her envy-inducing life with her family in the French countryside (including two beautiful French cookbooks), Thorisson and her brood decided to move to Italy, a country whose culinary traditions had a siren call she simply couldn’t resist.

Leaving her idyllic farmhouse behind, Thorisson and gang embarked (are still embarking) on an epic journey across Italy, finding regional cuisine gems, historical food traditions, and the many, many wonders that Italian food has in store. The culmination of that journey is Thorisson’s new stunning cookbook, Old World Italian: Recipes & Secrets from Our Travels in Italy. The book follows the Thorisson family from the mountain straddled towns of Piemonte to the lush farmlands of Abruzzo to the endless wheat fields of Sicily.

“Old World Italian” is a travelogue about food and a cookbook about travel, and somewhere in between are easy-to-follow recipes that will help you vicariously venture through Italy during a time when getting to the country is nearly impossible. We wanted to know more from the intrepid author, so we sat down (over Zoom) with Thorisson to learn about the book, her thoughts on Italian food, and how it differs from French cooking techniques.

To achieve mastery in the cooking world, it takes years of training, years of practice, and the ability to work under intense pressure. In Japan, mastery isn’t just about achieving a goal, it’s a way of life that consumes the very essence of being.

The book, Sushi Shokunin: Japan’s Culinary Masters by Andrea Fazzari, published by Assouline, delves into the world of Japan’s (and beyond) best sushi shokunin, what makes them tick, how they strive for perfection, and what it takes to reach the highest level of culinary excellence.

A shokunin has no direct translation in English, but the word can be used to describe a master of one’s craft. For the 20 shokunin in Fazzari’s book, mastery almost isn’t a strong enough word. We wanted to get a little more insight from the author, so follow along and take a peek inside this insular world of sushi shokunin.

Understandably, we’re all afraid to fly right now. Afraid of catching COVID, afraid of mile-long lines, afraid of cramped airplanes, and afraid of conspiracy theorists who think Bill Gates is microchipping masks to control our brains.

To combat those fears, airlines have begun to step up, reassuring customers that their experiences will be safe, sound, and sane. American Airlines has started working with the Global Biorisk Advisory Council to get a GBAC STAR rating for their disinfecting and cleaning practices. They’re requiring all travelers and employees to wear face masks, asking customers to certify that they’ve been free of COVID symptoms for 14 days prior to check-in, and are using HEPA filters to help keep the air inside the planes cleaner.

In July of 2019, or as we now think of it, 27 years ago in pandemic time, I was invited on a trip to Sicily to follow star chefs Adam Sobel and David Nayfeld in the search for the perfect olive oil and tomatoes.

Sicily is known for many things, there’s Mount Etna, which is the biggest active volcano in Europe, it’s littered with ancient Greek temples, and it’s often referred to as the bread basket of the country.

The Japanese city of Kobe may primarily be famous for its namesake beef, but the capital of the Hyōgo Prefecture is also home to unique festivals and events. Here are Culture Trip’s top picks.

All year round, Kobe offers up festivals and events that bring in tourists from other Japanese cities and from around the globe. Whether you’re a fan of music, food, art, dance or fireworks, there’s a festival or event for you in this magical city. So, check the calendar, book your flights, and get ready to party in the great port city of Kobe.

The tug of war between authentic Italian and Italian American has been raging since the first wave of Italian immigrants landed on the east coast of the United States at the end of the 19th Century. In an effort to please the American palate, “Italian” food was chopped up, redefined, and redistributed in ways that any Italian arriving for the first time would hardly even recognize.

When defining the two types of cuisine and comparing or contrasting, it’s important to understand what makes authentic Italian authentic. It really boils down to a few simple ideas. First, Italian food isn’t a monolith. It’s regional, and every region of Italy has its own customs, traditions, and cultural touchstones that define its food. Second, Italian food is seasonal. There’s a right time to be eating white truffles (late fall/early winter), tomatoes (May through October), and artichokes (March through May). Third, Italian food is a lifestyle, where courses come slowly, pasta is not a main, and cappuccino is breakfast and breakfast only.

Yes, the rest of the world is banning the United States from tourist travel because of the horrendous response to COVID-19. And yes, you might think you have plenty of time to renew or apply for a passport when the rest of the world decides we’re mature enough to re-enter the travel space. But no, it’s not that easy, in fact, it’s nearly impossible.

Did you know that the pandemic has a backlog of 1.7 million passports? One. Point. Seven. Million. That means there can be waits of up to eight weeks to renew or apply for a new passport through traditional methods. The State Department just reopened 11 passport agencies, and they hope to process 200,000 applications a week, but that’s if the pandemic stays as is or gets better. Many of those offices might have to close back down.

While it has never been a perfect source of determining the quality of a restaurant, Yelp is a good resource for vast economic data, and on June 25, 2020, it released its economic impact report, and the news was not good–in fact it was apocalyptic.

According to the report, 140,000 businesses have closed since March 1, and of those, nearly 24,000 are restaurants. Now, not all of those restaurant closings are permanent, but 53% of them are, and that number continues to grow with every single spike of Covid-19 across the country–not that we should have to reiterate, but, wear a mask, people.

One of the hardest and most confounding things we do every day is figuring out what food to eat, whether it’s good for you, and how to be conscious about where it all comes from. Author Sophie Egan is here to help.

Egan’s book, “How to Be a Conscious Eater: Making Food Choices That Are Good for You, Others, and the Planet,” is a one-stop shop for the practical ways to eat, purchase, and think, and covers everything from food allergies to how to read confusing labels in the store.

Daniele Uditi is chef and pizzaiolo at beloved Los Angeles restaurant Pizzana. Paul Feinstein is a food and travel writer based in LA. They collaborated to produce Ricettario, a multi-volume cookbook released in hybrid digital and physical formats, with a portion of the proceeds going to World Central Kitchen. The first volume, Sourdough, is available now.

OMG are you totally buggin’ that Clueless is 25 years old!? The Alicia Silverstone film that turned her into a household name is celebrating its quarter-life birthday. So, let’s party and paint the town red by taking a virtual LA-tour to visit all the most memorable locations from our favorite ’90s flick. Ready to go rollin’ with the homies?

Author of “The Flavor Matrix” and two-time winner of the hit show “Chopped,” James Briscione is a chef with a million scientifically-proven tricks up his sleeve. Briscione’s accolades also include a stint as the sous chef at world-famous Daniel in New York City along with a decade run as the culinary director for the Institute of Culinary Education in New York.

Today, the chef presides over his own Italian restaurant, Angelena’s in Pensacola, Florida where he takes his one-of-a-kind flavor combinations around the entire country of Italy. One of the best treats on the menu is his Crawfish and Asparagus Carbonara, which utilizes local ingredients from the Gulf Coast and a little bit of science to blend beautifully into this classic Roman dish. Now, follow the chef's directions:

Working tirelessly to save the world (no hyperbole), frontline workers deserve our admiration, our support, and frankly, a ton of R&R. Fortunately there are companies across the globe that are stepping up to show their gratitude for the men and women on the front lines.

One such company, Beverly Hills Car Rental, wanted in on the selfless action and is giving away luxury cars to five fortunate frontliners.

Peter Klosse is somewhat of a mad genius. And what he’s attempting to do, may seem impossible, but through scientific rigor and a lot of eating, he’s on the verge of cracking the code on taste.

Klosse is a taste scientist and he and a team of researchers are endeavoring to quantify taste through objective methods. Klosse has broken taste down into subcategories to be able to measure attributes of deliciousness that includes mouthfeel, aroma, balance, naming, presentation, and the ever-elusive umami.

So, what does this have to do with Italian food? Well, everything. If we can live in world where Italian chefs have a baseline for why their food tastes good, they can take their authentic methods of cooking the best food in the world up to an entirely new level.

Part chef, part mad scientist, James Briscione is a Jersey-born, Pensacola, Florida transplant who has experienced practically every facet of the restaurant industry and knows more than almost anyone how to make your food taste better.

You might be familiar with Briscione as the sous chef from world-famous restaurant Daniel in New York City. Or perhaps you know him as the first two-time champion of the hit TV show “Chopped.” Maybe you studied under him during his 10 years as the culinary director for the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in New York. And you might have purchased his invaluable cookbook “The Flavor Matrix,” which delves into the science behind your food pairings.

While the world is coming apart at the seams due to a global pandemic making us all collectively go crazy, there remain places that have been hit worse than others. New York, London, Wuhan, and Italy have all been decimated by COVID-19, with city resources being stretched to the limits. But one city has a different problem. Las Vegas has been left to question: What happens to a city whose entire claim to fame is tourism and crowds?

Las Vegas has some very unique challenges ahead of it. How do you social distance on a dance floor at a nightclub? How do you have a drink at a table while wearing a mask? And how do you regulate the $7.99 buffet (hopefully they’re gone forever)?

When you think of pizza in America, it’s typical to lean on New York and their amazing slices, Chicago for the deep-dish deliciousness, and even Los Angeles for their cleverly topped concoctions and noteworthy Neapolitan’s.

So, it may come as a major surprise (as it did to us), to discover that a small part of Pennsylvania might just be the pizza capital of the world (at least per capita).

The city of Kobe holds a certain mystique for travellers and carnivores around the globe. Its namesake beef (actually a strain of Wagyu beef that is prized for its unique tenderness), is world-famous for its marbled fat that simply melts upon hitting your tongue. But if you were to only visit Kobe for its sizzling steaks, you’d be missing out on its sumptuous sake. One of the true hidden treasures of Kobe is in the neighbourhood of Nada, where you can discover dozens of sake breweries that offer cheap or free tastings along with history lessons on their unique rice wine region. So, if you’re ready to walk off that belly full of beef, lace up your trainers, and get prepped for the ultimate sake brewery bar crawl.

The evangelist of Italian pasta has returned, and for his second coming, Evan Funke has gone full Roman with an all al fresca joint in the heart of Hollywood. Funke is one of LA’s most celebrated chefs, known for his ode to pasta restaurant Felix Trattoria, in addition to his pasta bible American Sfoglino, and his many turns on TV, including the recent release of Shape of Pasta on the newly formed streaming service Quibi.

The new restaurant is appropriately named Fingers Crossed as its opening takes place in the middle of a pandemic and is nestled in between sceney bars, clubs, and restaurants in Hollywood. But during a time that American passports are worthless, and Italy is closed off to foreign travel, Funke brings a much-needed vicariousness with an all Roman eatery featuring undeniable classics. The crackling appetizers like fiori di zucca (zucchini flowers), polpette di manzo (meatballs), and supplì with fresh fior di latte (rice ball with cheese), are reminiscent of classic Roman haunts like l’Arcangelo and Sisini's Supplì. The freshly extruded tonnarelli and heart-stopping rigatoni alla carbonara come straight from the bowels of Da Felice a Testaccio and the al fresco dining at Trattoria Da Cesare al Casaletto. And the tonda-style pizzas with blistered crusts evoke visions of the non-descript La Pratolina in Rome’s Prati neighborhood.

Who needs a passport, anyway?

Whether it's making pasta, fermenting wine, or just enjoying life, the Italians seem to have it pretty much figured out. Granted, it's taken a couple thousand years to get it right, but today, the culture that puts food first has a way of doing things that is the envy of the world.

Eating and drinking are not just pastimes for Italians, they are ingrained in every part of the day. From the first espresso to the final digestivo, the Italian day is infused with intricate rules around how, when, why, and with whom you share meals and imbibe with on fine wine.

It's a way of life, and arguably, the best way. These are 10 rules that Italians live by and you might want to adopt for yourself.

With protests filling the streets of Los Angeles and rioters taking advantage of the spread-too-thin police forces, many a shop and restaurant has borne the brunt of vandalism and looting across the city. Italian restaurants like Terroni in both downtown and the Fairfax district were vandalized and lost thousands of dollars in wine and liquor, while others in Beverly Grove like D’Amores pizza were smashed and wrecked along West Third Street.

Like Tibetan sand mandalas or the Italian festival of Infiorata, Linda Miller Nicholson’s pasta art is meant to be destroyed. And by destroyed, she means boiled in scalding water, sauced with creamy goodness, and devoured for dinner.

Known to fans as Salty Seattle, Nicholson is part chef, part artist, and has carved a unique niche out of both worlds with her ever colorful, naturally-dyed, creative pasta concoctions. Nicholson started kneading dough when she was just four years old, and a lifetime of pasta-making has brought her to the forefront of food art.

When tourists think of Kobe, Japan, the first thing that usually comes to mind is the world-famous A5 beef. But, there’s much more to this port city than perfectly cooked strips of steak. Kobe has incredible mountains, mesmerising museums, loads of local delicacies and even a late-night jazz scene. Spending 48 hours in this city is hardly enough to soak everything in, but we’ve figured out a way to make the most of a two-day trip to this fantastic Japanese city.

Phillip Frankland Lee doesn’t like to be put in a box. When he opened Scratch|Bar in an Encino strip mall, people said no one would come this far into the Valley for experimental dining. When he opened Sushi|Bar next door, people said a white kid from Encino couldn’t and shouldn’t be making sushi. And when he thought up Pasta|Bar and turned a concept into a restaurant in three short weeks during a pandemic, people said he must be crazy.

And he might be crazy, but he hasn’t been wrong yet.

Pesto. She’s a green goddess that oozes and clings to freshly cooked pastas and generates images of the winding streets of Genoa where the subtle, yet pungent, topper was born. Pesto dates to the 16th Century and traditionally is made with pine nuts, garlic, sea salt, extra virgin olive oil, Parmigiano Reggiano, Pecorino Sardo, and Genovese basil.

But my journey into the world of pesto started a few years ago when I was first knocked off my feet by an Italian chef in Los Angeles redefining what pesto could truly be. At Factory Kitchen, helmed by Bergamo-born chef Angelo Auriana, there’s a pesto so green, and so creamy, you would swear he’s using some unknown chemical compound to create this otherworldly concoction.

It’s time to talk about food and coronavirus. There are a million rumors out there about how you can catch the virus, and we’re here to confirm or contradict them. If you want to know whether you can contract the virus from your food, read along and get informed. Also, for the love of god, wash your hands.

On Thursday, June 18, 2020, Barilla Brand, along with the Future Food Institute, and Food for Soul are teaming up for a webinar on World Sustainable Gastronomy Day to discuss how conscious, sustainable eating can fully enrich people’s lives – especially during a pandemic.

The event will be broadcast live at 6.30 PM CEST | 12.30 PM EDT and will feature a prestigious panel that includes Barilla VP of Nutrition and Wellbeing Dondeena Bradley, How to be a Conscious Eater author Sophie Egan, Peter Klosse from The Academy for Scientific Taste (TASTE), and Sara Roversi from the Future Food Institute.

Los Angeles is known as a city of dreamers, and while not everyone can be a Hollywood star, they can experience a whole host of exciting activities. Want to ski and surf in the same day? No problem. You can hike, bike, swim and even take to the skies to experience the beaches, mountains and inner-city offerings of LA via one of these expertly curated experiences.

Daniele Uditi is the owner and head chef at Neapolitan nirvana restaurant Pizzana in Los Angeles. There, he uses his family’s 60+-year-old starter to create masterpieces with mozzarella and hand-crushed tomatoes. But since we all can’t have the perfect starter, a Stefano Ferrara oven, or the inside track to the best farmers, Uditi was nice enough to share some at-home tips to get your pizza as close to the real thing as possible. Here are his thoughts – please repay him by ordering takeout from his restaurant.

Sure, burgers and hot dogs are a Memorial Day tradition, but this year, after being cooped inside for months, it’s time to think more broadly about how to celebrate this uniquely American holiday. And that means adding a little Italian into your festive feasts. The Italian restaurants around Los Angeles have stepped up with incredible at-home barbecue kits, mouthwatering meatball sandwiches, and beef patties that would make any nonna proud. This holiday weekend, think like an Italian with special pastas, pizzas, and more!

When it started to don on the American public that COVID-19 was going to be a serious problem, people flocked to stores, Amazon, and anywhere else they could to buy out the national supply of hand sanitizer. Price gougers like this guy looked to make a profit off of the situation, which helped spur an even larger crisis with shortages for frontline workers including doctors, hospital administrators, police forces, and fire departments. The national supply of sanitizer became so hard to come by that producers were completely unable to meet the demand.

Enter the newest heroes of this national emergency: beer/liquor distilleries. Some cocktail purveyors are helping out in their own way, like Sourced Craft Cocktails, who are donating parts of their proceeds to the United States Bartenders Guild’s Bartender Emergency Assistance Program. Other major companies like Bacardi and PATRÓN® tequila have pledged millions to support frontline workers. But the biggest difference-makers are the independent distillers who have turned their factories into hand sanitizer distribution centers, practically overnight.

The word ‘hero’ is being thrown around a lot these days, and obviously should be reserved for frontline workers, hospital staffs, and anyone who directly combats the Covid-19 virus. But I’d like to propose a new addition to the hero class, and that’s the Italian restaurant employees and owners who have taken it upon themselves to feed the doctors, police officers, nurses, homeless, and anyone else in need of sustenance during this emergency. These are the additional heroes, and ways you can help them help others.

The route through the Kootenay Rockies is often dubbed “The Powder Highway” for its unmatched snow, unbeatable ski areas and pristine landscapes. But one of the overlooked gems of this region is its seemingly endless access to natural hot springs. Filled with steaming hot and freezing cold plunge pools, plus scenic vistas and world-class cuisine, the Kootenay Hot Springs Highway gives weary visitors a respite for their burning legs from long days on the slopes. If you’re more into the après-ski portion of ski trips, you might want to soak into these melt-worthy springs instead.

One of the best-kept secrets for making the perfect pizza has nothing to do with the milky mozzarella, or the sweet and savory San Marzano tomatoes, or the carefully crafted dough recipe. Because if you don’t have the right oven, there aren’t any ingredients that can bring the whole thing together.

In the quest to find the perfect pizza oven, the adventure begins and ends with the Mecca of pizza itself – Naples. It’s here, where the family of Stefano Ferrara has perfected a secret recipe and now makes pizza ovens that are shipped all around the world.

Kobe is a Japanese port city known around the world for its succulent kobe steaks. But if you came here just to eat the famous meat, you’d be missing out on a place filled with cultural wonders and a much deeper culinary cornucopia. Kobe has fabulous museums, natural springs, stunning vistas and loads of other local foods to tantalise all of your senses. So, hop into Kobe and see all the great things this city has to offer.

Michael Cimarusti is the winner of the James Beard award for ‘Best Chef’ and executive chef and owner of the two-Michelin-starred Providence in Los Angeles. Cimarusti is fanatical about fish and when combined with his Italian roots, he makes magic in the kitchen. Since we’re all looking for new ways to cook at home, now is your chance to see how a celebrated Michelin chef makes his own version of Pasta Mista and try whipping it up for yourself.

A quick primer, pasta mista translates to mixed pasta, which is usually a dish of leftover noodles of all shapes and sizes and whatever odds and ends you can add to make a dish. Cimarusti’s concoction is the elevated, seafood version of that concept. Enjoy…and good luck!

As we sit at home during this strange and tumultuous year, we naturally turn to our kitchens to think about new concoctions to create. Many of us have tried our hands at making bread and pizza or have simply baked sweets for hours of stress eating.

But one of the simplest and most rewarding pleasures to be found in the kitchen is making pasta from scratch. The meditative elements of mixing eggs and flour and kneading a little dough ball until it turns that lustrous yellow color and bounces back to the touch has a certain Zen-like quality, especially after it’s cooked and devoured. At La Cucina Italiana, we are obviously obsessed with pasta, and sharing with our readers the best and most innovative ways to make those slurp-worthy strings of spaghetti.

With that said, we collected a roundup of some of the best pasta-making cookbooks to help you join the legions of pastai and sfogliare who have discovered the wonders of practicing pasta-making at home.

When you speak to Chef Pino Posteraro of famed restaurant Cioppino’s in Vancouver, Canada, it’s unclear as to whether you’re talking to a chef or an artist. Everything that Posteraro does in the kitchen is a blend of his traditional Italian roots and the inner workings of a creative mind that is never at rest.

“My cuisine is personalized and is deeply rooted in tradition but focused on evolution and the future. I use a lot of modern techniques that reflect my culture and roots but are tailored to 2020. I want people to have a unique experience,” said Posteraro.

Los Angeles is one of the great cultural hubs of the world, and nowhere does this shine more than in its culinary eclecticism. No matter which section of the city you’re in, you’re bound to find dining gems that traverse the world in exceptional ways. One of the cuisines that Los Angeles truly excels in is Mediterranean. Wafting around every corner are the sizzling smells of tantalizing tagines, fluffy, hummus-topped falafel, crunchy croquetas and dazzling dolmas. While you can’t always find the time to travel to the mystical Mediterranean Sea, you can always be transported by L.A.’s chefs who are doing yeoman’s work to bring you the best across the city.

Dan Buettner is an international journalist who writes about Blue Zones around the world. A Blue Zone is an area where people repeatedly live to 100 or more and the reason has a lot to do with their diets. Blue Zone diets utilize loads of cruciferous vegetables, tons of extra virgin olive oil, fresh herbs and spices, and plenty of red wine.

So, if you’re looking to live to 100, do as the Blue Zoned Italians do, and try out this delectable recipe for Pane Carasau, otherwise known as Sardinian Flatbread.

If ever there was a time to break away from the madness in the world, that time would be now. Luckily for all of us, there’s a piece of escapism that’s about to drop that is the perfect fodder to keep our minds off the insanity. Renowned author Frances Mayes of Under the Tuscan Sun fame is releasing a new book called Always Italy. Part travelogue, part travel guide, the book covers every region of the country and delves into the history, the culture, and most importantly, the food and wine.

I spoke to Frances about her new book, what she learned about the country she loves, and a lot about the food she devoured along the way.

Can you even say you had a meal if there was no bread involved? Every time I think about bread, it brings me back to the rare moments as a kid when my family would venture to a local Italian eatery and a warm basket of gluten-loaded loaves would make their way to the table. Slathered in butter or doused in olive oil, filling up on bread before dinner was almost a rite of passage.

Self-isolation is bad enough in the comfort of your own home. Imagine being locked down in a house north of Quito, Ecuador, or having an enforced curfew at an Airbnb in Peru, or sleeping overnight in an airport in Munich. Governments worldwide are taking piecemeal approaches to what is and isn’t permissible in terms of travel, border closures, lockdown policies, and other coronavirus-blocking measures. But without coordinated efforts, there are travelers stranded all over the world. Both U.S. airlines and the government share blame in these difficulties, with shifting or unclear policies, everchanging flight coordination (if any), and overburdened resources.

I spoke to three different travelers who all have different stories to tell.

March is National Reading Month, so put down your phone, pick up your favorite read, and get ready for a bookish adventure. To truly celebrate the event in style, we’ve designed the ultimate road trip for bookworms with a literary tour of California. We’ve got stops for Kerouac disciples, Steinbeck stans, Twain groupies and Chandler devotees. So, it’s time to hop in the car, blast your audiobook through your speakers and zip along the California coastline with Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson regaling you with tales along the way.

Risotto is comfort food. And in times like this, there isn’t a dish that soothes the soul quite like the soft and supple taste of this lovable rice dish. The process of making risotto is meant to evoke a caressing kitchen, where your nonna stirs the pot over the stove in her well-worn apron. It’s warm. It’s creamy. It’s comfort.

I first fell in love with risotto as a kid, enticed by the exotic name while ordering second-rate Italian food in Denver, CO. Any time I’d see it on a menu, I’d be enthralled by the different variations: red wine with shrimp, white wine with asparagus, risotto with mushrooms, risotto with guanciale. The steam would rise off the plate as the gooey cheese strung off the fork making my head spin with each savory bite.

The restaurant industry is on the edge of a cliff. Restaurants are shuttering all over the country or are forced to offer takeout, delivery, or drive-through options only. With thousands of servers, bartenders, cooks, and bussers now out of work, the question lingers, “What can I do?”

If you want your favorite bars and restaurants to be around when COVID-19 goes away, it means you need to spend money. In this article, I offered a bunch of solutions for helping food establishments from takeout and delivery to gift cards, but a team of expert public relations experts has come up with a better solution: dining bonds.

While Daniele Uditi is most well-known for his pizza prowess at his Pizzana restaurants in Los Angeles, it’s important to realize that his pasta skills are pretty close to perfect as well. Bucatini All’Amatriciana is typically grouped together as part of the four mother pastas of Rome, which also includes Cacio e Pepe, Gricia, and Carbonara. But Amatriciana actually hails from the town of Amatrice, which is a two-hour drive northeast of the capital city. Regardless of its origins and what it’s now known for, the dish is heaven on a plate that combines the sizzling fatty oils of guanciale with hand-crushed tomatoes and finely grated pecorino. So, grab your bib, get your stomach ready, and prepare to devour this super easy and super tasty Italian treat.

While it’s extra critical you stay inside during this insane pandemic, it’s equally critical to support the dying restaurant business at the same time. Luckily, your favorite Italian eateries are stepping up in major ways to offer you the silkiest pastas, most mouth-watering pizzas, and loads of cook-at-home options to keep your Italian bellies full. So, please step up and support these LA trattorias so they can come back even stronger once this godforsaken virus goes away.

And because LA is an enormous city and not all restaurants deliver to all areas, here’s a list of must-haves based on different parts of the city:

You know L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele as the masters of Neapolitan pizza, but hidden at the end of their menu is their incredibly tasty tiramisu.

From the mind of Chef Antonio Giordano from Da Michele in Hollywood, CA. comes a remarkably simple recipe for one of the most delicious Italian desserts.

So, while you’re staying at home and fixating on the news, distract yourself with these pizza impresario’s tantalizing tiramisù.

First things first. I don’t want to write this article. As a food and travel writer, my entire world has been canceled, as has the livelihood of all my fellow freelancers who bring you the best photos, the most interesting articles, and who continue to discover the most amazing places. But I need to write this article and you need to read it.

I’m going to talk about restaurants in the age of coronavirus. At this very moment, every restaurant you’ve ever eaten at is hurting. Every waiter that you’re friends with is thinking about how they’re going to pay their rent. Every chef is trying to educate the public on what you can do.

You say, “above-water bungalow.”

I say, “catamaran through the lagoons.”

They say, “why not both?”

As if Tahiti couldn’t get any better, there’s now a way to get an above-water villa that moves with the tides. Introducing the Exclusive Lagoon Yachting Package – the first floating houseboat in French Polynesia.

Moored in Bora Bora (because where else), this super-luxe accommodation sleeps up to eight people with four separate cabins and two bathrooms. Plus, it floats through the pristine blue water inside the Bora Bora lagoon at around five knots. Want to see blacktip sharks at night? They’ve got that. Schools of fish swarming the reefs? That, too. Sea turtles and stingrays floating by? Yep.

As a city, Bangkok can easily keep you busy. There are dozens of Michelin-rated restaurants, towering temples, majestic statues and a bevy of sights, smells and sounds you can’t find anywhere else. However, if all you do is stay inside Bangkok, you’ll be missing out on a number of exciting day trips just outside the city. Whether you’re into adventures like ziplining or mountain biking or would prefer strolling around an ancient walled city, here are 13 incredible day trips to make the most of your time in and around Bangkok.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or simply don’t care about your diet), you’ve probably heard of Blue Zones – areas of the world where life expectancy is much higher based on a number of critical factors. New York Times best-selling author Dan Buettner has been writing about Blue Zones for nearly two decades and just published a book, The Blue Zones Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100 that chronicles the diets and lifestyles of Blue Zone inhabitants, and how you can increase your life expectancy at home.

With booking sites offering sometimes thousands of reviews for a single property, it can be challenging to sift through all the information to book the perfect hotel room. Anything — from a chain restaurant to an all-inclusive resort — can be rated online, and these ratings depend on so many different factors. A hotel could be a "five-star" property with a "three-star" user rating, leaving a lot of room for confusion. Besides the user ratings, various countries and booking sites have specific standards that they use to rate hotels, adding to this uncertainty.

If you’re trying to understand what a hotel's rating actually means, it can be helpful to consult an expert. Jim Carreker is on the board of the luxury brand Relais & Châteaux which has 600 worldwide hotels, and he's the owner of the stunning wine retreat, The Louise, located in Australia's Barossa Valley. Carreker says that the problem with most rating systems is that they “don’t account for more important attributes of charm, courtesy, friendliness, a local staff, etc.” Carreker also notes that to get five stars in some countries, you must fulfill certain room requirements, like, “a television, a certain thread count in the linens, the size of the mirror, a pool, or even the square footage of the room.”

To say pizza is having a moment in Los Angeles doesn’t really do justice to what’s happening in this city. The fact is the pizza scene is exploding and there doesn’t seem to be any slowing down. There was a time when New York transplants would complain that you couldn’t find a New York slice worth the cheese that was baking on it. And they were right, and still mostly are. But what LA chefs finally realized was that trying to imitate New York was the problem in and of itself.

Once the idea that the New York slice was the thing to strive for was stripped away, LA’s pizza scene could thrive on completely different merits. As a result, the war for pizza supremacy has officially arrived, and it’s time to take some sides.

Tokyo is one of the greatest cities on earth and there are endless things to see and do. But after a few days of zipping around the subway, eating all the sushi and gyoza, and navigating the hoards of people everywhere you turn, it can be a nice change of pace to get out of the city for a spell. At Culture Trip, we pride ourselves on finding some of the best experiences all around the world, and we’ve put together a unique list of day trips from Tokyo that will keep you busy once you’re ready to escape this crazy metropolis.

Eating healthy these days can mean many different things to many different people. Food allergies run rampant, intolerances are higher than ever, and gut health seems to be top of mind for conscious eaters all over the world. When it comes to gluten intolerance or clinically diagnosed celiac disease, gluten can cause stomach pain and suffering in unimaginable ways. And for lovers of Italian food, this is the biggest curse of all, because nearly every pasta, bread, and pizza crusts are filled to the brim with gluten.

For those not in the know, gluten is a protein that’s commonly found in wheat (and other grains) and helps create the bonds in dough that allows breads to rise, pastas to properly form, and pizza crusts to achieve that chewy texture.

Fortunately for the gluten sufferers of the world, a variety of kitchen wizards have devised ways around these intolerances with a bevy of new flours and cooking methods to give you access to the best food on the planet – namely, Italian food. And if you live in Los Angeles, the options seem nearly endless. Below is a list of some of the greatest gluten-free and celiac-friendly spots for you to slurp your spaghetti and bathe in all the bread.

Los Angeles has more than enough sights, sounds and smells to handle on any vacation. However, if you really want to understand everything Southern California has to offer, you should think about getting away from the city, as the mountains, beaches, forests and deserts beckon with one-of-a-kind experiences. Here are the best day trips to take from Los Angeles – whether you want to hike, swim or get an adrenaline rush.

Winding markets, lush gardens, endless desert and epic palaces make up just a few of the incredible sights and sounds of Marrakech. To fully explore this wondrous city, it can be useful to have a guide to lead the way. This hand-selected list of Marrakech tours highlights what’s best about this city. So, hop on that camel, wind through the Medina and soar over the desert as we take you on a wild ride through this majestic North African city.

Mimi Thorisson is the nomadic author of the just-released Old World Italian: Recipes & Secrets from Our Travels in Italy where she and her very large family traverse the country from end to end discovering the best of Italian cuisine. For lovers of classic regional dishes, the book is a must-buy with simple recipes and travel nuggets that you leave you both salivating and green with culinary adventure envy. Lucky for you (and us), Thorisson was happy to share one of her favorite recipes, which is a Sardinian Ragù with Saffron Tagliatelle. You can almost smell it off the page and will have you booking a trip to Italy the moment you’re allowed to fly again.

When visions of Italian food come to mind, there is an array of cheeses like Parmigiano Reggiano, ricotta, provolone, and pecorino. There are meats like prosciutto, guanciale, porchetta, and mortadella. And then there’s pasta, shining gold from eggs beaten into flour and rolled to perfection, oozing with Italian cheeses and meats and emulsifying in ways the gods intended for food to be eaten.

The natural question then might be to ask: what in the world is a chef doing making vegan Italian food?

Covid-19 has necessitated a new kind of innovation that aims to be pandemic proof in times of massive economic uncertainty. And the latest fad to enter the LA dining scene is the ghost kitchen. Today, restaurants are looking for unique ways to both cut costs and provide their customers with fast, reliable, and safe delivery services, and these kitchens are beginning to make an impact.

Ghost kitchens or cloud kitchens are typically a collective of restaurants, housed in large warehouses, where chefs can prepare food in a way that’s meant solely for delivery and carryout. Theses kitchens are home to big-name spots and upstarts alike and typically rely on delivery apps like Postmates, GrubHub, and others that often charge restaurants exorbitant fees. While the collective model helps lower rents, some restaurants have simply resorted to investing in their own spaces for the purpose of delivery, and other spots are clandestinely operating out of homes, apartments, and who knows where else.

Anyone paying attention knows that L.A.’s dining scene has risen to meteoric levels in the past five years. An influx of celebrity chefs has flooded into the city, elevating L.A.’s food to a level that truly serves its eclectic nature. The Michelin Guide coming back to Los Angeles for the first time in 10 years only validated what L.A. diners have known all along: This city can cook. And, now, both the city’s new and classic hotels have gotten in on the action, raising the bar and competing with destination-worthy joints featuring award-winning chefs and unmatched cuisines that cover the wide range of L.A.’s food culture. If you’re looking to dine out in 2020, throw the stereotypes about hotel restaurants out the window, because these options very much stand on their own.

Los Angeles is known for many things: the entertainment industry, expansive beaches, a great culinary scene and a renowned nightlife. But if you want to boil LA down to its most essential bits, it’s important to experience the attractions that make it the spectacular city that it is. On any given day, you can swim in the sea, hike up a mountain, see someone famous and shop until you drop. So, as you think about packing for the ultimate LA adventure, make sure your suitcase is filled with swimming suits, hiking boots and plenty of space for souvenirs.

Marrakech is a city with an incredible history, filled with exciting experiences from cooking classes and live music to Go-Kart racing and scintillating spas. Whether you’re visiting for a weekend or opting for a longer stay, discover some of the best activities to get up to in the city.

Chef Massimo Falsini is a man of a thousand recipes – literally. Falsini has binders upon binders of dish creations that he’s been molding throughout his long career in the kitchen, making it almost criminal that he doesn’t have his own cookbook. Luckily for diners at his restaurant Caruso’s, which is set inside the luxury Rosewood Miramar hotel in Montecito, California, Falsini uses his encyclopedic knowledge of Italian cooking to whip up mouthwatering masterpieces on a nightly basis. The Roman-born chef didn’t get to this position overnight, however—and his culinary journey has taken him through multiple countries and lots of famous restaurants and five-star hotels.

Time, patience, precision, and passion are the four main ingredients you need to become a master pizzaiolo. Of course, you’ll also need flour, water, yeast, and salt—but when it comes to performing the art of Neapolitan pie-making, we recently learned that first four ingredients might be more crucial.

Chef Luca Zamboni is a master pizzaiolo. He lives, breathes, and (possibly) dreams about dough and how it grows and forms to become the ideal combination of crispy and chewy when it finally hits your plate. Born in Tarquina, north of Rome, Zamboni worked for four years under the tutelage of Gabriele Bonci of the world famous Pizzarium in Rome, then brought his passion for dough to the United States. Now operating the Buona Forchetta restaurant group in San Diego, with owner Matteo Cattaneo, Zamboni uses time, patience, precision, and passion on a grand scale—as we saw when we followed him on a typical day.

Chef Evan Funke of Los Angeles’ Felix Trattoria is an evangelist—not the stand-on-a-soapbox, preachy kind, but more a soft-spoken (albeit profanity-laced) proselytizer who lets his cooking do all the talking. And what it’s talking about is pasta, which Funke lives, breathes, and makes like the art form it is. “I've never been one to dabble,” the Bologna-trained master says. “I'm either one hundred percent in or one hundred percent out. And pasta making is like that to me.”

The town of Corleone in Sicily has a storied, sometimes tragic, and fascinating past. The small hamlet has only 11,000 inhabitants but it was once considered ground zero for the most ruthless members of the Sicilian mafia (this is very much in the past at this point). But if all you think about is corruption and Sicilian stereotypes seen in "The Godfather," you’d be missing out on one of the most beautiful and charming places in all of Italy.Once you drift away from the center of town, Corleone glistens with rolling gold hills stocked with wheat grains whistling in the wind that help form the perfect al dente pastas on your dinner plates. And if you want to experience everything Corleone has to offer, there’s now a luxury farm getaway that will simply take your breath away.

In part two of our LCI interview, the L.A.-based chef chats about his bestselling book, his philosophy on ingredients, and why handmade pasta is the ultimate “conversation” between diner and chef.As Chef Evan Funke of Los Angeles’ Felix Trattoria revealed in Part 1 of our interview, his time spent learning from master pasta makers in Bologna revealed to him his “life’s work”—to carry on these fading artisan traditions of handmade pasta. “I'm kind of offering myself up as this godson of pasta to these Nona to allow me to continue the passage of technical and practical knowledge,” he told us. “It’s not just the shapes, it's not just the know-how—it’s the history, the people, and the origin story that is the most important thing to me.”In this second part of our chat, Funke explains why his book (now on The New York Times best cookbook list) is less a cookbook than an “apprenticeship,” and why he likes to view California as if it’s “a region of Italy”—unless he needs a dish to “taste of the grit” of a Bologna street.