Quality Foods Market

05/13/2026

Well - it's that time of year again - the TBT's Best of the Best...

Ok, so we don't take it nearly as seriously as other places - this is and will be our only post on the subject. That said, if Emily and I are being honest about it, it is nice to be recognized.

This year we are nominated in several categories: Fine Dining, Italian, Pizza, Salad, Steak, and Wine Store.

Anyway, have some fun and check it out. Vote for your favorites in all the different categories. If we happen to be one of them, awesome! Regardless, show your love and support to all your favorites out there.

Know a company that deserves an award? Nominate and vote for your favorite local businesses in the Best of the Best contest here.

05/10/2026

Buona Festa Della Mamma!!

05/02/2026

Mother’s Day at Quality Foods Market

Reservations are now open to the public, and availability is already beginning to narrow.

Join us for a thoughtfully composed three-course experience, designed to be enjoyed at a relaxed, European pace in our intimate dining room.

Featuring 1881 Hereford Heritage filet with porcini jus and carciofi alla romana, along with a classic Torta della Nonna to finish. A celebratory toast will be offered for each mother upon arrival, with optional additions available, including pan-seared U8 Georges Bank sea scallops.

For many of our guests, Mother’s Day has become a tradition here. For others, it’s an opportunity to discover us for the first time.

$139 per guest
Reservations are limited and available through OpenTable.

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04/05/2026

Buona Pasqua!

03/31/2026

🐣 We have a few early tables left for our Easter Prix-Fixe.

Join us this Easter Sunday for a four-course prix fixe menu inspired by traditional Roman tables.

Centered around the ingredients that define the holiday throughout Italy—eggs, lamb, and lemon—this menu reflects a style of cooking that is simple, seasonal, and deeply rooted in tradition.

Each course is prepared to order and served at a relaxed, European pace.

🍋 Menù di Pasqua 🕊

Uovo Ripieno
anchovy and caper heritage deviled egg

Insalata della Casa
seasonal greens, roasted campari and garlic vinaigrette

Costolette d’Agnello alla Brace
double-cut australian lamb chops, carciofi alla romana

Torta al Limoncello
house-made limoncello cake

$109 per guest

Reservations still available from 3:00pm - 4:30pm. Please book via OpenTable.

https://www.opentable.com/booking/experiences-availability?rid=1043032&restref=1043032&experienceId=690110&utm_source=external&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=shared&covers=2&dateTime=2026-04-05T15:00:00

03/17/2026

Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona dhuit

While not quite the bash we throw here in the US, Saint Patrick's Day is widely celebrated throughout Italy. Pictured below is the historical Roman Colosseum that is lit green at 9pm every March 17th.

But the party doesn't stop at the Colosseum...

In Milan they celebrate for an entire week with live Irish folk and rock music, traditional dance, photography exhibitions, and Irish food across various restaurants and bars.

In both Bologna & Padua they celebrate Irlanda in Festa, a multi-day festival featuring international and Italian folk bands, craft markets, and of course, Guiness!

In a small village called Torre San Patrizio (Tower of Saint Patrick) in the Marche region, St. Patrick's Day is taken very seriously due to its very namesake that goes back to the middle ages, and is the only Italian municipality named after St. Patrick.

Beyond the green illuminated Colosseum, Rome celebrates with Celtic music and Irish street food throughout the city.

And if you just want a good pint, Irish pubs abound in all the large cities of Italy where Italian hospitality meets Irish food and drink. Although do your research before going - there are many great authentic pubs in Italy, however with only about 5,000 Irish immigrants living there, many of the "Irish" pubs are Italian owned and operated providing a less than authentic experience.

03/11/2026

Buongiorno! Chef Chris here!

Italian Regions Americans Misunderstand — Part 5

Over the past few posts we’ve explored several regions that help show why Italian cuisine can’t simply be divided into “Northern” and “Southern.”

Today we finish the series in a region whose food the entire world recognizes: Campania.

Located along the southwestern coast of Italy, with Naples as its capital, Campania has given the world some of the most iconic ingredients and dishes in Italian cooking.

Pizza Napoletana.
San Marzano tomatoes.
Mozzarella di Bufala.

These products are so closely tied to the region that many carry DOP protections, meaning they can only be produced in specific areas under strict traditional methods.

San Marzano tomatoes, grown in the volcanic soils around Mount Vesuvius, are prized for their balance of sweetness and acidity.

Mozzarella di Bufala comes from water buffalo raised in the marshy plains of southern Campania and is known for its delicate texture and rich flavor.

And then, of course, there is pizza.

The original pizza of Naples was a humble street food, built around simple ingredients: dough, tomatoes, olive oil, and sometimes mozzarella. What began as a food of the working class eventually became one of the most beloved dishes on the planet.

Campania also reminds us how strongly geography shapes cuisine. The region’s fertile volcanic soil, Mediterranean climate, and access to the sea produce an incredible variety of vegetables, seafood, and fruit that define its cooking.

But perhaps the biggest lesson from Campania — and from this entire series — is that Italian cuisine isn’t defined by a simple north-versus-south divide.

It’s defined by regions, traditions, agriculture, and history.

And often, the best way to understand Italian food is to look not just at the country as a whole, but at the small places and local traditions that shaped it.

Because in Italy, the story of food is almost always local.

03/10/2026

Ciao! Chef Chris here!

Italian Regions Americans Misunderstand — Part 4

In my last post, we talked about Rome and the cuisine of Lazio, where some of Italy’s most famous pasta dishes were born. Today we move just north into one of the country’s most historic and misunderstood culinary regions: Tuscany.

Many Americans assume Tuscan cooking revolves around tomato sauce and pasta, much like southern Italian cuisine.

In reality, Tuscany is famous for something quite different:
cucina povera, or “peasant cooking.”

Historically, Tuscany was not a particularly wealthy region, and its cuisine evolved around simplicity and resourcefulness. Originally the cuisine was based on abundant proteins like goat and lamb, root vegetables, olive oil, bread, and beans, with herbs being the primary seasoning instead of salt. Over centuries the cuisine has involved to focus on high-quality ingredients prepared with restraint. Sauces are used sparingly and tend to be light and quite the opposite of the rich tomato-based sauces of the southern regions.

Important to note, this "peasant" way of cooking goes back centuries, originating in medieval times, where high taxes and blockades on salt were imposed on Florence by Pisa, forcing the people of Tuscany to find ways to provide seasoning and flavor to their foods through the use of herbs and cooking techniques - like smoke.

Today, the lack of salt can still be seen in many Tuscan foods. Tuscan bread itself is made without salt and is the foundation for dishes like ribollita, a hearty vegetable and bean soup thickened with day-old bread; or panzanella, a rustic bread salad with tomatoes, olive oil, and vegetables.

Beans are so central to Tuscan cooking that people from the region are sometimes affectionately called “mangiafagioli” — bean eaters.

And then there is the region’s most famous dish: Bistecca alla Fiorentina - the massive porterhouse steak from the historic Chianina cattle breed (one of the oldest and largest breeds of cattle in the world), that originated as a festive dish, grilled simply over hot coals, and seasoned with little more than salt, pepper, and olive oil. And although today this would hardly be considered a peasant food, Bistecca alla Fiorentina was a celebratory meal that showcased the pride of Florence and its community, cooked in the style of cucina povera with minimal seasoning and consumed rare.

Tuscan cuisine reminds us that Italian cooking is often about letting exceptional ingredients speak for themselves, rather than covering them up with complicated techniques or heavy sauces.

Tomorrow we finish the series in the region that gave the world some of the most recognizable Italian foods of all: Campania — the home of pizza, San Marzano tomatoes, and mozzarella di bufala.

03/08/2026

Buongiorno! Chef Chris here!

Italian Regions Americans Misunderstand — Part 3

Lazio (Rome)

Over the last two posts we’ve talked about Emilia-Romagna and Liguria. Today we arrive in the center of Italy — Rome, the capital and the heart of the region of Lazio.

Roman cuisine is famously direct. It relies on just a few bold ingredients: pecorino romano, guanciale, black pepper, and olive oil.

From those ingredients come four of Italy’s most iconic pasta dishes:

Cacio e pepe – pecorino romano and black pepper
Gricia – guanciale, pecorino, and black pepper
Amatriciana – guanciale, pecorino, and tomato
Carbonara – guanciale, egg, pecorino, and black pepper

Notice something missing?

Cream.

Despite what many menus in the United States suggest, authentic carbonara contains no cream whatsoever. The sauce is created by emulsifying egg yolks, pecorino romano, pasta water, and rendered guanciale fat. There is no cream in cacio e pepe either, yet menus across the US bastardize these two dishes almost as much as they do Alfredo - more on that below.

Roman cooking is about simplicity and technique, not excess ingredients. In fact, cacio e pepe, which on the surface seems like a very easy pasta to make, is in fact one of the hardest to make correctly and consistently. Even though it's just pasta water, pecorino, and pepper, the pasta water must have the right amount of starch and be just the right temperature in order to create the emulsion.

Which brings us to one of the most misunderstood dishes in Italian cuisine: Fettuccine Alfredo - a dish that has its origins in Rome, yet by and large, Romans want nothing to do with it.

1914, Roman chef Alfredo di Lelio created the dish for his pregnant wife when she was struggling to eat. The simple combination of fresh pasta, butter, and Parmigiano Reggiano was one of the few things she could tolerate.

Then, in 1920, Hollywood actress Mary Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks were dining at Alfredo’s restaurant while on their honeymoon in Rome. They asked for something special, and Alfredo prepared that same dish.

They loved it so much that they returned to Hollywood and told their friends about “Alfredo’s sauce.” Yes, that's what the dish is actually called, Alfredo's Sauce, as in created by Chef Alfredo.

Soon the dish became a sensation among visiting actors and celebrities dining at his restaurant.

But when the story made its way back to Hollywood kitchens, something got lost in translation. Personal chefs tried to recreate the dish and interpreted the richness as coming from cream, which Alfredo himself never used.

And that is how the cream-heavy “Alfredo sauce” many Americans know today was born.

The original Roman version is far simpler — pasta tossed with butter, Parmigiano Reggiano, and pasta water to form a silky emulsion.

In fact, you can visit Alfredo alla Scrofa in Rome where Alfredo's Sauce is still prepared it tableside, finishing the pasta directly in a bowl with butter and Parmigiano Reggiano.

Note - Alfredo alla Scrofa was purchased in 1943 to Giuseppe Mozzetti, the restaurant's sommelier and Ubaldo Salvatori, its dining room manager. Chef Alfredo sold the restaurant name, allowing it to continue operating AND with its use of his signature dish. Today the restaurant is run by those gentlemen's great-grandchildren, Mario Mozzetti and Veronica Salvatori.

In 1950, Chef Alfredo opened another restaurant in Rome with his son Armando called Il Vero Alfredo (The Real Alfredo), still in operation today and run by Chef Alfredo's grandchildren.

Today, both restaurants claim to be "Home of the Original Alfredo's Sauce" and technically, both are correct.

Fun fact for Floridians and Disney/Epcot fans - as part of the original Epcot Showcase, Alfredo International (created by Chef Alfredo's son Armando), which had opened a similar restaurant in NYC's Rockefeller Center in 1977, partnered with Disney in 1982 on a 25 year contract to operate L'Originale Alfredo di Roma Ristorante in Epcot's Italy Pavilion. When it closed at the end of its contract on August 31, 2007, Alfredo’s at Epcot was the number twelve independent restaurant in annual dollar volume in the entire United States according to the trade publication Restaurants and Institutions.

Yet here's the thing - Alfredo was created in Rome and known worldwide - yet Italians, especially Romans loathe the very dish that is so associated with Italian cuisine in the US. Why? Because the world knows American fettucine alfredo, and not Alfredo's Sauce with Fettucine, the dish created by Chef Alfredo di Lelio.

All of which perfectly illustrates how Italian cuisine can be misunderstood, and a point of contention with Italians who fiercely protect their food culture.

Next we'll head north again to another misunderstood region: Tuscany.

03/06/2026

Buongiorno! Chef Chris here!

Italian Regions Americans Misunderstand — Part 2

Liguria

Yesterday we talked about Emilia-Romagna, arguably the culinary heart of Italy. Today we move west to the coast.

Welcome to Liguria - famous for being the home of Cinque Terre, or literally "five lands" - and a huge tourist destination. It's also a region that absolutely defies the perception of Northern Italian being all butter, cream, and rich, heavy alpine style dishes

Liguria hugs the northwestern Mediterranean coast, stretching from the French border to Tuscany. It’s a narrow strip of land wedged between the sea and steep mountains where farmland is scarce and cooking traditions evolved around what the land and sea could provide.

That means olive oil, seafood, herbs, and vegetables. In fact, Ligurian cuisine looks a lot like the coastal areas of Southern Italy, minus the heavy use of tomatoes and spice (heat).

Liguria is also the birthplace of one of Italy’s most famous sauces: Pesto alla Genovese.

But here’s where the American perception gets a bit narrow.

In the United States, “pesto” usually means one very specific thing — basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmigiano reggiano cheese, and olive oil. In Italy, the concept is broader.

The word "pesto" comes from the Italian "pestare", meaning “to pound” or “to crush,” referring to the traditional method of making the sauce with a mortar and pestle. At its core, pesto is simply a raw, thick condiment created by crushing any aromatic herb with nuts, hard cheese, and extra virgin olive oil.

So, while the basil version may be the most known, dozens of versions exist. One of my personal favorites is Pesto alla Trapanese from Sicily, which incorporates tomato along with almonds and basil. It’s a beautiful reminder that even within Italy, traditions constantly evolve from region to region.

And while Americans almost always see pesto served with spaghetti, in Liguria it’s most often paired with local pastas like trofie or trenette. When pesto of any kind makes an appearance on my menu, I generally pair it with fusilli al ferretto, where the twists help capture and hold the sauce.

It’s another example of how Italian cuisine is deeply regional and flexible, not a rigid set of rules.

Tomorrow we head to Rome (Lazio), where some of Italy’s most famous pasta dishes were born — and where the debate over certain sauces can become quite spirited.