Italian restaurants sizzle with invention and controversy
Now that the dollar is worth princely piles of lire, Americans in Italy should be getting more of everything for less, right? Yes, unless they happen to be gastronomical pilgrims in search of the Continent's current culinary wonder, la nuova cucina italiana, the new Italian cooking. In this case, the less-is-more rule applies. Also, less for more. La nuova cucina is found in expensive, often formidably serious restaurants, most of them in Northern Italy, where the fare is spare, artfully presented and somewhat outlandish. Surprising and...