JBF x Apicius Culinary Institute Dinner

Please dine with us at the historic James Beard House for a historic evening showcasing the famed Apicius Culinary Institute of Florence, Italy!

Friday, September 27, 2024
The James Beard House
7 pm

This dinner will include a cocktail hour, 5-course dinner and wine pairings, in collaboration with the Apicius Culinary Institute who have showcased for years at the Beard House.

MENU

WELCOME RECEPTION
IGT Il Rose' Verrazzano 2023
100% sangiovese
Canapes & Finger Food
Pecorino pate choux puffs with rosemary mousse
Bartolomeo Scappi’s eggplant redemption
Biancomangiare
Greens and herbs pie

ANTIPASTO
Chicken salad with almond and lemon, pears, tubers and roots
Chianti Classico Castello di Verrazzano 2021

PRIMO
Potato and thyme tortelli with wild boar dolce-forte … inside out
with Traditional Balsamic Vinegar from Modena PDO 25 years old
Chianti Classico Riserva Castello di Verrazzano 2020

SECONDO
Venison sirloin with red wine and berries sauce, cabbage and honey glazed onions
IGT Navigatore Castello di Verrazzano 2017

PREDESSERT
Citrus and fennel

DESSERT
Apple tart, cooked sugar and spices
Vinsanto Castello di Verrazzano 2016

Coffee and petit-fours

500 shades of Tuscany, a New Renaissance.

Flavors from a distant past, teleported.
Iconic and modernist in the 1500s, still on the rise.

One often overlooked theme is food and its impact and reflection on Italian culture. During the Renaissance, a clear demarcation separated peasant food from the sophisticated cuisine of the nobles. Food could be seen both as a social activity and a social status indicator: peasants, merchants and nobles had access to very different groceries, and this was reflected in the dishes they consumed.

In general, the poor ate more of foods low to the ground, such as turnips, garlic, onions and carrots, while nobility dined on "higher" foods such as almonds, peaches, game, and pears.

This menu represents a journey into iconic dishes of the Italian 1500, where humble and rich ingredients meet to give birth to a kaleidoscope of flavors. Renaissance cuisine in its most contemporary twist.

Don’t be surprised to find fruits in every dish of this menu: fresh, dehydrated, candied or turned into a sauce.

During the Renaissance, fruit proudly entered the aristocratic cookbooks, as the contemporary trendy ingredient, offering a taste considered the coolest of that time: sweetness.