Don’t Skimp On Ingredients! Due Forni Hosts Tasting

Great food starts with quality ingredients.  And there may be no cuisine for which that is truer than Italian, where simple recipes put all of the spotlight on ingredients and technique.

Unfortunately, most of the public, and far too many chefs, are willing to skimp on quality, opting for ingredients that are “almost as good.”  That’s understandable.  Most of us are satisfied with good products.  It’s only when we taste them alongside great products that we realize what we’re missing.  And that’s what Alex Taylor and Chef Carlos Buscaglia set out to remind people this week at Due Forni.

The team put together a tasting of some of the premium products they use in their pizzas.  Anyone who’s eaten at Due Forni knows their pizza and other dishes are amazing.  (I’ve publicly declared them my favorite Las Vegas pizza place on several occasions, and the owners recently appeared on one of my webcasts.)  But they wanted to remind everyone why.

The team brought out some of the ingredients of which they’re most proud: Piquillo peppers; Italian buffalo mozzarella; Roman artichokes; REAL Parmigiano Reggiano; Taggiasca olives; prosciutto Cotto; prosciutto San Danilel; and Nueske bacon.  Alongside those, they offered slightly less expensive, high-quality alternatives such as Napa Valley roasted red peppers, domestic cow’s milk mozzarella, Peruvian artichokes, domestic “Parmesan” cheese, Kalamata olives, Canadian bacon, Prosciutto di Parma and breakfast bacon.

The differences were obvious. Even for a group of seasoned food writers familiar with all of the products they use at Due Forni, the side-by-side tasting was a lot of fun.  I highly encourage anybody who’s serious about food to order one or two of these products and do a similar test.  Thanks to everyone at Due Forni for the experience, and the great lunch you served up afterwards!