II Viaggio Di Vetri: A Culinary Journey

In 1993, Marc Vetri boarded a plane with a note of introduction in one pocket and a few hundred dollars in the other. He landed in Bergamo, in northern Italy, where he spent the next eighteen months immersed in the soulful cooking and great-hearted hospitality of some of the region's top chefs and restaurateurs. Four years later he was ready to open his restaurant, Vetri, in Philadelphia, where he continued to develop his style of authentic yet innovative Italian cuisine, gaining acclaim as one of the finest Italian chefs in the country.

Il Viaggio di Vetri, Marc's long-awaited debut cookbook, celebrates the core of great Italian cooking: a superb meal shared with family and friends. Chapters cover a full range of cold and hot appetizers; pastas and risottos; fish and shellfish; meat; poultry, game, and organ meats; vegetable side dishes; and desserts, giving the home cook more than 120 skillfully presented dishes to choose among, including:

Foie Gras Pastrami with Pear Mostarda and Brioche
Squid and Artichoke Galette
Chestnut Fettuccine with Wild Boar Ragu
Olive-Crusted Wild Bass with Confit of Leeks
Pork Rib and Cabbage Stew
Rustic Rabbit with Sage and Pancetta
Fennel and Apricot Salad
Mascarpone Custard with Puff Pastry and Figs

Accompanying wine notes by sommelier Jeff Benjamin deliver lively lessons on both the classic and lesser known wines of Italy. Throughout, Marc Vetri shares tales of his cooking apprenticeship in Italy and, with generosity and passion, shows how to bring the lessons he learned there into the home kitchen.

Marc Vetri is the chef/owner of Vetri and Osteria, both in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was named one of the top ten new chefs in the United States by Food & Wine and won the James Beard Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic Award in 2005. In 2006, Gourmet selected Vetri as one of the top fifty restaurants in the country.

David Joachim is the author or coauthor of many cookbooks, including Mastering the Grill and the New York Times best seller A Man, a Can, a Plan. He lives in Allentown, Pennsylvania.