The Culinary Institute of America

Her name is Rosalba Lo Greco and she cooks for Barone Pietro Beneventano at his agriturismo, or farmhouse inn, Case del Feudo, outside Siracusa.

She learned to cook, Rosalba says, from watching her grandmother. My mother was a terrible cook, she told us, but every summer she sent me to spend three months with my grandmother in Piazza Armerina and she was a great cook. I’m passionate about good food—I love to cook, I love to feed people. To cook just for the sake of cooking, no—they say what I cook is pretty good, for me it’s just normal. And they’re the smallest secrets that make the difference—for instance, the eggplant in a caponata, it should be a little crunchy, it should have character…

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Nearby, in Trapani, we discovered something the Arabs brought to Sicily—or so they say—when they occupied the island more than a thousand years ago. This is couscous. Pino Maggiore, chef and owner of the trattoria Cantina Siciliana in the heart of Trapani’s old ghetto, showed Steve Jilleba, executive chef at Unilever Foodsolutions, how it’s done and Mary Taylor Simeti, an American writer who has lived in Sicily and written about its food traditions for a good 40 years, helped us to understand it.

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Our culinary adventure in Vietnam ends in Ho Chi Minh City, still informally known as Saigon. Ingredients and cooks from all over the country converge on this hustling city, the country’s largest, and despite Saigon’s wealth of sophisticated restaurants, there may be no more enjoyable place to eat in town than at the Ben Thanh Market. At its no-fuss food counters, diners can feast on steamed rice rolls or bun cha, (Boon Cha) grilled pork with rice noodles.

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In the early morning hours, on side streets and street corners, Hanoi’s hard-working cooks begin setting up their pho stations. A soup, a meal, a national treasure—pho is a widespread addiction. Many Vietnamese start the day with a steaming bowl of this divine noodle soup. Often mispronounced, but immediately appreciated, pho is pronounced like “fur” with a soft “r.” Once the broth is prepared, it takes only seconds to assemble—and not much longer to eat. Truly, pho is a fast food that even a dietitian can love.

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For a closeup look at southern Vietnamese cooking, let’s join Mai Pham on a visit to her grandmother and aunt in the village of Quoi Son (Kway son) near the city of My Tho (My Toe). Mai and her aunt will prepare a Southern-style meal featuring water spinach seared with garlic over a brisk wood fire; puffy, fire-roasted rice paper sheets; fluffy steamed rice from the local rice fields, and a rustic dish Mai learned from her aunt. As with much of the best cooking, there’s a secret ingredient.

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Inspired by her love of Caesar salad and salade Nicoise, chef Nancy Silverton created this splashy salad that combines the best of both, with roasted fingerling potatoes and sliced avocados. Layer with tender leaves of romaine hearts, or go upscale with Bibb or Boston lettuce, then garnish with grated hard-boiled eggs and pecorino cheese.

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