Issue No. 17: That Italian Salami? It’s Not Italian

It’s been a dirty little secret for decades. The Italian salamis all of us merchants sell aren’t Italian. Also, the Spanish ones aren’t Spanish. The French ones aren’t French. In fact, none of them are what they seem. That’s because, with a handful of exceptions, foreign salamis are not allowed in the United States. We […]

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Issue No. 14: Selecting Ortiz Tuna

Decades ago, chefs used to select their preferred tuna batches in person at Ortiz’s cannery, Spain’s highly esteemed fifth generation tinned fish titan. Batch tasting is still a common practice among cheesemongers; in fact, it’s a specialty of some exporters like Neal’s Yard Dairy and Essex Street Cheese, but for some reason it fell out […]

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