My first guest this week is Award-Winning Chef and Restaurateur Luigi Diotaiuti with his new book “The Al Tiramisu Restaurant Cookbook. The book is a unique collection of 100 of the restaurant’s mouthwatering recipes and tells the history of Washington DC’s “most authentic” Italian restaurant as well as the life story of its chef/owner.
Dining at Al Tiramisu restaurant, located in the heart of Washington, DC, is like taking a trip to Italy without leaving the country. The award-winning restaurant is cozy, warm, and joyful—reflecting the effervescent and playful personality of Chef and owner Luigi Diotaiuti. Now Chef Luigi lets home cooks everywhere experience his Italian culinary heritage and favorite recipes with his new book, THE AL TIRAMISU RESTAURANT COOKBOOK: An Elevated Approach to Authentic Italian Cuisine, a collection of 100 of the restaurant’s most popular recipes. The book is also part culinary memoir taking readers from Chef Luigi’s birthplace in Basilicata, Italy, to kitchens in Sardinia, Paris, Venice, Tuscany and ultimately Washington DC. Each chapter is devoted to a distinct phase in the chef’s career and features recipes that can create a complete menu.
“As chef-owner of Al Tiramisu, I love to keep learning and refreshing my skills. But as a teacher at heart I also enjoy sharing my knowledge and discoveries with others, whether it’s my staff, guests, students in my cooking classes, or audiences on television and radio programs,” Luigi explains. “In that vein, I also offer culinary tips in these pages that I accumulated over my long career. I share advice on selecting top quality products and where to buy them, and on using authentically Italian cooking techniques.”
Chef Luigi Diotaiuti
“But the heart and soul of this book are my treasured recipes. Each recipe is special to me and starts with a bite-size memory of an event, person, or emotion that the dish evoked. They are culled from family recipes and from those of friends and colleagues in far-off places. Many appeared on the very first Al Tiramisu menu in 1996 and remain on the menu today. Others I have created more recently and I am very excited to present them in my book.” Learn more about Chef Luigi and the restaurant here!
In the second half I’ll tell you all about a great Italian wine from Tuscany. Tenuta La Badiola lies in the heart of the Tuscan Maremma, southwest Tuscany. It is located in a delightful natural setting of gently rolling hills carpeted in olive groves and vineyards. The view from the estate stretches to where the turquoise of the Mediterranean waves merge with the intense blue of the Tuscan sky. Learn more here! This wine is rated 93/100 by the Beverage Testing Institute and 90/100 by Wine Spectator.
Good Life Guy’s Wine of the Week:
2009 Tenuta La Badiola 642
“642° is produced on the ‘Tenuta La Badiola’ estate at the 42nd degree of latitude in the Tuscany region of Maremma. It’s unique blend of 6 different types of grapes creates a rich, luscious, complex and extremely elegant wine that combines the best of tradition with a new interpretation of European varietals.”
Area of Production: Maremma (Tuscany, Province of Grosseto) Designation: Maremma Rosso IGT
Cepage: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Syrah, Sangiovese, Montepulciano (The grapes used to produce 642 are organically farmed and vinified, although the wine is not organically certified). Alcohol: 14%
Wine Notes: Aromas are of wild berry fruits, like blackberry and dried plum which then yield to richer impressions of candied fruit and dark chocolate. Nuances of vanilla and tobacco leaf. Rich and full-bodied in the mouth, this wine has tannins that are perfectly balanced and well integrated. A lively acidity brightens its fruit. The long-lived, delicious finish is infused with aromatic, ripe fruit. Recommended Food: Game, steak, and roasted meats. Also pairs with Aged Cheeses.
Pick up a bottle at Jacob Liquor Exchange on North Rock Road and join us 🙂