Onesto Pizza & Trattoria (5401 Finkman Avenue; website) is holding its Summer Soiree event from 6-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 25. The event will highlight local agriculture, pairing food from chef Vito Racanelli -- made with fresh produce from local farms -- with local beer and wine vendors. The event will also include live music, raffles and vendors providing information on local agriculture. The Summer Soiree is a benefit for two area organizations, Alternatives to Living in Violent Envir
Robin WheelerVito Racanelli of Onesto Pizza & TrattoriaVito Racanelli, owner and chef of Onesto Pizza and Trattoria (website), comes by his food roots honestly. Born in New York City to parents from Bari and Calabria, he moved with his family to St. Louis when he was thirteen years old.The Racanellis brought a lot of Old World ways with them: "I didn't have peanut butter and jelly and things like that. Breakfast at my house was a couple of raw egg yolks beat with sugar. More of a Europea
Robin WheelerVito Racanelli of Onesto Pizza and TrattoriaAs I wrote in my profile of Vito Racanelli, the chef's food passion lies in the home cooking of his 71-year-old mother, who still cans her own tomatoes every summer. Don't skimp on the fresh flat-leaf parsley. The herb's the predominant seasoning in the Calabria region of Italy, where Racanelli's mother is from. If tomatoes aren't in season, opt for a high-quality canned version, like San Remo.
A colleague suggests an addition to today's list of ballplayer-branded foods: Matt "Butterfingers" Holliday.Ouch.Yes. It has been a gloomy couple of days around here -- St. Louis, I mean, not Gut Check International Headquarters, though we're still a bit misty-eyed over the closing of Gourmet -- but that didn't keep us from another busy week. Here is just some of what we did...Throwback of the House had a rare success, thanks to the Brits' love of beanz.Macbeth challenged the Sneak.The Noble
