In late September, as cool weather creeps in, I become aware that the waning moments of summer tomatoes are imminent. I hunger for a last bit of lusciousness that only food in its season can convey. I pick out some “real” tomatoes at the farmer’s market to savor the perfect, simple way I learned from my friend Anthony Giglio, and to preserve for winter enjoyment. And I read Pablo Neruda’s ode.
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I mark the day I started making great tomato sauce when I spent an afternoon in Lucia Lo Presti’s kitchen. The secret she taught me is simple and yields an astonishingly rich, silky sauce. With it came a glimpse of a unique way of life —Sicily in New Jersey— that her wine writer son-in-law Anthony Giglio first introduced me to…
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Everyone is heading out-of-town early for the 4th of July weekend, and we’re just wrapping our heads around the fact that it’s HERE! Since we’re unprepared for the celebration, we figured others may be, too. So we compiled our best quick n’ easy, truly do-able recipes — from cocktail to dessert— with ingredients you can easily pick…
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Inspired by Anthony Giglio’s instagrams using my herb-salt on pork, here’s the basic herb salt method and a recipe for Herb Salt Lamb, whether racks or leg (or cookies for that matter), along with a dazzling presentation…Enough in advance of the coming holidays to get shop and enjoy a stress-free celebration.
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One of the things we love about wine and spirits authority Anthony Giglio is his complete lack of pretention on matters of food and wine. So, of course, when asked to recommend wines to drink with pork rinds, pizza, Doritos and Dunkin Donuts (!!) and other humble junky foods we secretly love, he rose the occasion. You’ll…
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Anthony Giglio is journalist, sommelier, and author of Food & Wine Wine Guides, Cocktails in New York and Mr. Boston’s Official Bartender’s Guide. He is wine blogger for Details and Improvised Life’s deviser of brilliant, simple strategies for celebrations both grand and low-key. Of late, Anthony revealed yet another side of himself: a superb storyteller whose personal stories move and transform. He brought…
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Recently, our friend Jane Lear wrote us to say “This great tip stuck in my head, and I finally had a chance to reference it in this week’s food advice column for TakePart about ways to use less water.” The tip that stuck in her head —YAY! we LOVE that— was wine and spirits writer Anthony…
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Binder/presentation clips are essential resources for quick emergecy fashion fixes like the cuff links Anthony Giglio improvised on his way from the gym to a luncheon. We rely on them for all sorts of fashion and home solutions.
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A couple of years ago, we posted about wine and spirits writer Anthony Giglio’s inspired practice of writing the name of each guest on his/her wine glass to cut down on “lost” glasses (and the attendant OMG-there-aren’t-enough-glasses stress). Anthony uses a china marker, a wax or grease pencil that writes perfectly on glass or china…
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Wondering what wines or beers to serve with your holiday meal? Our wine-and-spirits authority Anthony Giglio’s recommendations —and the thinking behind them— will help you navigate your local wine and beer emporium.
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Ellen Silverman sent this image of the charming chairs her friend Lauren Malkasian‘s daughter made out of the wire cages from bottles of Champagne drunk during a celebratory dinner one evening. That got us thinking about sparkling wines so we asked our trusty wine/spirits/entertaining advisor Anthony Giglio for his recommendations. He sent us FIVE plus…
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Editor’s Note: Given the nation-wide heat wave, we thought it fitting to reprise one of our most popular summer posts: wine-and-spirits expert Anthony Giglio‘s brilliant advice for those who prefer their wine — red, white or rose — chilled. Sensible/sensual wisdom from a contributor who seriously KNOWS how to entertain. Practically every wine-loving American I meet…
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Anthony Giglio, a regular contributor to ‘the improvised life’ — his wine-friendly grape “ice cubes” remain a perpetual hit — recently posted on his website about his dad Tony Giglio’s unexpected, found ‘career’ in retirement. He makes walking sticks, and his story is pure ‘improvised life’: About a year ago my father found inspiration in a…
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Recently, a reader sent us link to an interactive wine-and-food-pairing website called Italian Wine Pairing 101 wondering what we thought about it. You choose a food group – say beef, or shellfish or fruit tarts – then recommended wines appear in a list below. (It’s one of many food-and-wine pairing charts and sites on the…
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If ever a meal were improvised it’s Thanksgiving, where cooks from tested to terrified face off with one common ingredient and end up with something completely different than practically everyone else’s. That’s because turkey challenges our sensibilities and confidence, from its oversize anatomy that cooks at different speeds, to its flavor spectrum that ranges from…
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Practically every wine-loving American I meet – even those who say they don’t know much about wine – is sure of one universal “truth” that couldn’t be farther from it: Red wine should be served “room temperature.” What does that mean? And who said so? Poking around in old British wine books from the Victorian…
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Our friend Anthony Giglio is a journalist, sommelier, and the author of many acclaimed books on wine and cocktails, including the Food & Wine Magazine’s Wine Guide 2011. He travels around the country leading wine tastings and helping people navigate the vast world of wine, cocktails, and “what goes with what”. He does all of this with…
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Our friend Anthony Giglio sent us this email: …being a vertically-challenged Italian-American with extra-tall kitchen cabinets, I keep a step-stool at the ready for a quick boost. This week while trying to pack lunch boxes for Sofia and Marco I couldn’t find my white, plastic step-up, and calls out to the family yielded not a…
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At a dinner party at wine writer Anthony Giglio’s house one evening, we saw him scribble the name of each guest on their wine glass with a white marker: a chic way of helping guests keep tab of their glass in a crowd (and avoiding unnecessary pours – and washing – of fresh glasses). There’s…
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“A snowman is an anthropomorphic snow sculpture of a human. They are customarily built by children… in celebration of winter.” –Wikipedia Anthony Giglio’s four-year-old son Marco spent last Sunday afternoon improvising his first snowman in Jersey City’s Overlook Park. Once he had rolled and stacked three giant snowballs, he hunted for natural scraps around the park to…
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