“Any dishes coming out from the [Sadaf] kitchen with rice, there is layer of saffron on the top of it,” said Mahmoud. He explained that before the Middle East war he was buying saffron at about 1,200 per kilo, but now his supplier told him the cost has risen to about 2,000 to 2,100 per kilo. “It's quite a lot,” he said.
I made a pastry cream with saffron, and bloomed it in the milk for the pastry cream - no vanilla, because we really want the saffron to shine brightly. I decided to make white chocolate tempered with saffron, which I blended and dipped the pastry into, which creates that nice little crunch. It's very saffron-forward, but the white chocolate helps break it up.
Risotto alla milanese is, like the city it calls home, elegantly simple, but very rich. The saffron that gives the dish its striking colour is rightly expensive (it takes about 150 flowers to produce a mere gram), but you don't need much and, though it's often served alongside osso buco, I think it makes a fine meal on its own with a bitter-leaf salad.
I always thought my first foray into Michelin-starred culinary territory would involve sitting in a fancy restaurant feasting on some perfectly seared scallops or a magnificent rack of lamb doused in a rich jus. Instead, I'm in a fitness studio with Doja Cat blaring through the speakers watching my Michelin-starred shake come together in a blender. Inside is a scoop of vanilla protein powder, the flesh of a guanabana
When most head to Italy for a vacation, they get off the plane at destinations like Milan in Lombardy, Rome in Lazio, or Florence in Tuscany. And while all of these well-known locations are great to visit, Abruzzo also arguably deserves the spotlight, too. The lesser-known region in southern Italy is home to stunning national parks, bustling cities like Teramo, picturesque coastline, rolling hills, impressive peaks, and lots of fascinating historical architecture.