Taste of Italy Houston 2022
Darrell Corti was invited to speak and participate in the events of the 8th annual Taste of Italy Houston Trade Show on March 13 & 14, 2022. The invitation came from Darrell's good friend, Jeremy Parzen, PhD, and Maurizio Gamberucci, Deputy Director of the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce South Central. The Trade Show is put on by the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce Southwest to promote all aspects of Italian food and beverage in their region. I Flew, rode, walked, and tasted along so I could share the experiences here.
Here is a link to the event website - www.tasteofitalyhouston.com
Saturday March 12, 2022
We left Sacramento under sunny skies on a 1:25pm United Airlines flight direct to George Bush International Airport in Houston Texas. Our flight was just shy of full and fortunately for us, no one took the middle seat between Darrell and I in the Economy Plus section. We departed right on time.
About 30 minutes into our flight, as we leveled off at 35,000 ft, Darrell reached into his bag and began unwrapping lunch.
Taste of Italy Houston 2022
Lunch absolutely hit the spot. Darrell brought a Gruyere and French Ham sandwich and a Corti Brothers Tuna Salad sandwich which he had our Deli prepare just before he left to the airport. I seriously doubt that anyone in First Class had anything better than our Corti Brothers sandwiches!
We arrived in Houston at 7pm, about 15 minutes early. The airport was very busy and retrieving our luggage was an exercise in frustration as not only did it take longer than it should have, our bags ended up coming in on three different carousels!
We were originally going to take a cab or ride share from the airport to our hotel, but as luck would have it, our good friend and industry peer Ed Revak very kindly picked us up.
Ed is a Certified Specialist of Wine and wine sales expert who has always called on Corti Brothers and has been a very loyal customer. Ed moved to La Porte, TX early this year. La Porte is about a 40 minute drive east from our hotel. I contacted him and told him about the events and suggested he attend. I told him that it would be great if we could spend some time together in his new surroundings. Not only did he do so, he also offered to be our chauffeur.
It was about a 35 minute drive to the Hilton Post Oak Hotel by the Galleria where we were staying. It is also where all of the Taste of Italy Houston events were taking place. www.hilton-houston-post-oak
After a quick check in, luggage drop, and freshen up, Darrell took Ed and I to dinner. Darrell chose to dine at La Table Houston. www.latablehouston.com
The restaurant is literally kitty-corner from the hotel, so be walked over. When me went inside, we were asked if we had a reservation. We didn't. We were told that the upstairs dining was booked out for the evening. We opted to be seated at a table just off of the bar area and began to give the menu a once over. Darrell ordered a 2019 Domaine de la Meulière Chablis, which was promptly brought to the table. For first course, Darrell ordered the Avocado Cucumber Salad, Ed ordered the Salade Lyonnaise, and I ordered the Octopus Basquaise. Darrell wanted their Petrale Sole entree special, but they had already sold out for the evening. He then chose the fresh Red Snapper with shrimp, fennel, peppers, picholine olives,rouille, and saffron broth served with a saffron aioli. I ordered the same. Ed ordered the Loup De Mer Grillé (Branzino) with romesco, fennel, and broccolini. The dishes came out well plated and were all very good. The Chablis paired nicely. Darrell placed a single order of the Gâteau Marjolaine layered hazelnut and chocolate cake with coffee anglaise for dessert for us to share. He cited that this was the most famous dessert in France. After a day of travel, this meal did go over very nicely.
After dinner, we walked back to the hotel. Darrell wanted to take a look at the hotel bar, but Ed decided to leave us and make the drive back to La Porte undeterred by any further alcohol consumption. Darrell and I went into the bar for a night cap. Darrell suggested we have a taste of Pyrat XO Reserve Rum, which is the rum created by John Paul DeJoria, who is the founder of tequila maker PatrĂłn Spirits Co. and co-founder of hair care company John Paul Mitchell Systems. Once the night cap was finished, it was time for bed.
Sunday March 13, 2022
Darrell and I met for breakfast in the hotel restaurant for a very typical and fresh hotel buffet breakfast at 8:30am after a very comfortable night's sleep.
After breakfast, I went back up to my room to arrange and set up my equipment to video tape and photograph the 10am Taste of Italy Houston food & wine seminar that Darrell was speaking in.
We met Jeremy Parzen in the lobby outside the conference room about 20 minutes before the start of the seminar. Jeremy lead us into the conference room, when I positioned myself to record. Jeremy is the MC for all of the Trade Show events and gave a very nice into to the seminar.
Here is footage of the seminar introduction.
Darrell met Jeremy for the first time during Jeremy's first visit to Corti Brothers years ago. It's a humorous story that Darrell tells in the following video, but first, you can learn more about Jeremy in his wonderfully written and constructed blog Do Bianchi. Here's the link - dobianchi.com
Here is the video of Darrell Corti's portion of the food and wine seminar.
Here is the rest of the food and wine seminar footage with all of the guest speakers included.
The seminar ended around noon. A buffet lunch was served just outside of the conference room as well as a Villa Sandi Prosecco tasting hosted by Jeremy.
After lunch, Jeremy went to get his truck to take us on a little sight seeing tour of his beloved city. It was a gorgeous sunny day with a stiff breeze that kept the Lone Star Flag waving in the wind.
After a short 10 minute drive to the offbeat neighborhood of Montrose, we arrived at our first stop. Jeremy wanted us to visit the Rothko Chapel.
The chapel is named after American artist Mark Rothko and displays 14 murals he created. It was established in 1971. The Rothko Chapel was founded and dedicated as an intimate sanctuary that was open for anyone of any religious or spiritual belief by Houston philanthropists Dominique and John De Menil and has hosted world leaders and people from all walks of life.
Outside of the Chapel sits the sculpture "Broken Oblisk" by Barnett Newman and is said to be one of the best sculptures of its time. For more, here's a link to The MoMA website. www.moma.org/broken-obelisk
We went inside to take a look. Upon entering, you see a simple wooden bench in front of the foyer wall which has copies of the major holy books of world religions sitting on it. Included are; the Holy Bible, the Torah, the Quran, and the Tipitaka. We maintained the strict silence requested on entering and while visiting. Jeremy and I sat on one of the wooden benches while Darrell took a closer look at the black murals which hang on the walls of the octagonal shaped chapel. The hues of black and grey are very dramatic and were greatly embellished by the changing light coming in through the octagon shaped, white wood slatted skylight above. This effect was at its height when clouds passed over the sun outside. They don't allow photography or video inside, so if your curiosity is peaked, take a look at their website.
The next stop was the MFAH ( Museum of Fine Art Houston) located just a little over a mile south of the Rothko Chapel. Jeremy arranged for Darrell to meet Dr. Bradley Bailey, the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao curator of Asian art for the MFAH. Jeremy knew that Darrell has a great appreciation for Asian art, so this was very high on the list of things to show Darrell.
Bradley was very generous to give us a personal tour of the museum's Asian art collection. Link to the MFAH website - https://www.mfah.org
After a wonderful tour, we were ready to make our next stop. I did quite a bit of advanced homework in preparation of our trip to Houston in order to get a good lay of the land. Whenever we travel for Corti Brothers, it's always very important for us to try our best to forage interesting, unique, and delicious food and drink items to bring back to Sacramento to offer our customers. I asked Jeremy if we could visit Phoenicia Foods, which was a five minute drive from the MFAH.
Phoenicia Foods has two locations in Houston. We went to the Flagship location in Downtown Houston right across from the Toyota Center, home of the NBA Houston Rockets. Founded in 1983 by a husband and wife of Lebanese and of Armenian descent, Phoenicia foods downtown location is a two story market filled with food and drink from over 50 countries. It also has a gastropub and cafe offering live music. We went inside to browse and forage. We did find a few products of interest and sat down to do some tasting. We will pursue a few of the items we found in hopes to offer them at Corti Brothers. Stay tuned. I also saw an etched bottle of Houston Astros Red Wine, but it was bottled in Kansas City! I guess since Sacramento is home to Dusty Baker's Baker Family Wines, Dusty Baker got the Astros into the World Series, and he is now in his second season as their manager, we'll have to see if we can held get Dusty's wines into the Houston market.
The clock hit 4pm. Jeremy wanted to take us to one of his favorite spots to hang out and sip some good wine. He drove us to the "How to Survive on Land and Sea" wine bar about 2 miles off the Downtown in Houston's EaDo (East Downtown), which even has it's own website - ww.eadohouston.com
How to Survive on Land and Sea is a wine bar that focuses on small and eclectic producers, offers live music, and food.
We walked in and saw the last three open stools at the bar, so we sat. We looked over the wine list. Darrell selected a 2019 Timorasso from the Colli Tortonesi DOC, which is the most south eastern DOC of Italy's Piemonte region. The David De La Garza Band was playing live Jazz/jazz fusion in the far corner of the wine bar. Here is a link to the David De La Garza Band's Facebook page featuring John Caldaron on guitar -
www.facebook.com/David-DeLaGarza
The band was extremely solid and played some really good music. I was especially taken with the guitar talents of John Caldaron. You can hear and see some of his fret board skill in the video below as Darrell Corti samples some of the fresh ravioli Jeremy ordered from the Ghost Hand Kitchen located inside the wine bar - www.ghosthandpasta.com
The quad colored ravioli was delicious. Each color had a slightly different filling and they were a nice taste to go along with the 2019 Cuvee Faustine red wine we also ordered.
Darrell and I made our way into their wine room just next to the bar. It had a very wonderful selection of wine from around the world including a few that were rare to see on any wine retail shelf in the U.S.
The How to Survive Land and Sea wine bar was an exceptional stop before dinner. It was now getting close to 6pm. Jeremy had made dinner reservations at Nobie's restaurant located about 15 minutes away back in the Montrose neighborhood - www.nobieshtx.com
Jeremy's wife Tracie was meeting us at the restaurant, so we waned to be punctual to dinner and made exit to be on our way.
Here's a short blurb about Nobie's for the Visit Houston website - "After time spent manning the stoves at Chicago’s L20 and Moto, native Houstonian and fine-dining Chef Martin Stayer returned to Texas in 2016 to open his new concept, Nobie’s, in Montrose’s former Au Petit Paris space. Named after Stayer’s grandmother, guests will find a menu of light bites, sharable plates and approachable entrees.
The casual and cozy spot, set in a converted house, features a linger-worthy deck in the front and a cozy interior filled with wrap-around banquettes, a cool wine storage wall and shiplap accents. Vinyl music emanates from behind the bar as guests mix and match grilled oyster plates, avocado crab dip and Nonno’s Pasta—Nobie’s spin on classic Bolognese. Beyond a well-vetted wine list, patrons will find craft beers and creative cocktails. "
We were seated in what looked like a former living room or dining room in the converted home. We arrived about 5 minutes before Tracie did. How's that for punctual?
We ordered and shared the Wagyu beef pastrami and tongue with duck fat potato, cubed bacon, greens and herbs. Roasted bone marrow maitre d'hotel butter, escargot, pickle salad. Texas tartare. I had the Branzino with prawns, mussels, romesco, tomatoes, and focaccia. Roasted ceci beans and ended up sharing the massive portion served. We had two Italian white wines, and a delicious Serbian skin contact Pinot Grigio.
Dinner was fabulous! Night had fallen and it was time to return to the hotel, so Jeremy drove us back. We all had a long day waiting for us in the morning with the Taste of Italy Houston trade tasting and mush more to see and do in Houston.
Monday March 14, 2022
Darrell and I met in the hotel restaurant at 8:30am for another buffet breakfast. After breakfast, I went back to my room to set up my recording/broadcasting gear for the 11am Taste of Italy Houston trade tasting. I was not only capturing the event for our Corti TV blog, I was also scheduled to do a live remote broadcast for CW31's Good Day Sacramento newscast with anchor Tina Macuha at 12:20pm from the trade show floor.
The Taste of Italy Houston did not do a live event in 2021 because of the pandemic, so this year's trade tasting was scaled back from the usual show of 100 vendors to about 40 vendors. It was till packed with Italian food and wine from the entire length of Italy.
Here's the video of my Good Day Sacramento live broadcast.
Darrell and I spent a few solid hours tasting and communing with the vendors. We were able to make good connections to some products, which we will possibly procure for Corti Brothers. Stay Tuned...
We finished around 1:45pm. Darrell wanted to walk a few blocks north of the hotel to visit Kenny & Ziggy's New York Delicatessen, which Jeremy strongly recommended. Here's there website - www.kennyandziggys.com
We entered Kenny & Ziggy's at 2pm. It looked like we must have gotten the last table in the house as the place was packed. Founded in 1927 and still going strong into the third generation, they are obviously doing something right! Darrell and I order a beer, then Darrell ordered a Matjes pickled herring with sour cream plate, a plate of their famous chopped chicken liver, and a plate of sliced lox. While we waited for our food to arrive, we were completely amazed at the dishes we saw whizzing by to be served to the other guests. The proportions were huge! We asked the waitress if it was always this busy. She said they recently moved into this new location a few months ago because they out grew their previous location down the street. She said it was the first day of spring break, so they were busier than normal for a Monday, but they typically had at least an hour wait on weekends. Our dishes came and we went to it. Everything was delicious. After we polished off the plates, Darrell asked if we should try the matzo ball soup and confessed that it's one dish he never actually had before! I love a good matzo ball soup, so of course I said yes even though I was getting pretty full. It's tough being a true professional sometimes! The soup arrived and was really fantastic! The matzo ball was so tender and the chicken broth near perfection. On our way out, after taking a closer look at their cold cases, Darrell said that we should order when we get home to see how they deliver long distance.
Correction: A dear friend, Elaine Corn, corrected me after she had a chance to read this blog. Elaine told me that she made chicken soup and matzah balls for Darrell during Rosh Hashana at her home in September, 1986. She also said "That was a long time ago. He's forgiven." I thought Darrell's confession was too good to be true!
Elaine is a career Culinary journalist, author, writer, Award-winning food editor, James Beard and Julia Child cookbook awards Hall of Famer , Friends of The Daily Texan, University of Texas-Austin Moody School of Journalism, and her collection of published texts sits in the Archives & Special Collections at Shields Library University of California-Davis. Elaine doesn't miss much!
We returned to the hotel by 3:30pm. Jeremy was finishing up a Chianti and BBQ seminar, so we peeked in for a bit. We settled into the main lobby right after and Darrell sat down. I told him I was going to take a walk to help burn off some of the calories we just took in. The weather was sunny with clouds passing through. The sun felt a bit hot when poking past the clouds. It made me think that when the humidity is high and temps get into the 90's, the Houston area must be a challenge to those opposed to sweltering conditions. I got back to the hotel after a good hour walk and just in time to receive a text from Ed Revak, who was just pulling into the hotel lot so he could take in the final 30 minutes of the trade show. The events of the day concluded at 5pm.
Darrell had taken a brief power nap in the lobby. He woke up when Ed met up with us after the trade tasting was over. Now it was time to find Jeremy who said that we would all go to another favorite spot of his so we could have a few beers then order proper Texas BBQ from the adjacent kitchen.
I opened up Facebook the see if Jeremy had messaged me and quickly found that Jeremy had already posted a picture of his beer from the Patio at The Pit Room were he was already winding down after the end of two days of events at the Taste of Italy Houston. I showed Ed and Darrell the post and said "shall we Go?" Ed drove us back to the Montrose neighborhood where we found Jeremy and Tom Dobson at the Patio at The Pit Room, a neighborhood bar next door to "The Pit Room" hand crafted Texas BBQ. www.thepitroombbq.com
The five of us moved to a table and Jeremy order the first round of beer. Darrell had a Yuengling lager, which is apparently very popular in Houston. Since it had been a very long time sine I'd had one and I was in Texas, I figured I had to have a Lone Star Beer. It was really very delicious and as easy to drink as I remembered. We were soon joined by three friends of Jeremy's who also attended the Taste of Italy Houston events. After the second round of beer, Darrell decided it was time to walk next door to the Pit Room to order some Texas BBQ. Ed and I went with him and brought a tray full back to our table to eat.
The BBQ was absolutely delicious. Darrell was pleasantly surprised at how tender, flavorful, and not as dry as some BBQ can be, but rather juicy. It paired very well with our third round of beer. We had a very nice time at the patio after seeing close to three hours pass by. Ed left right after we ate. Jeremy was headed home in the other direction, so I went to my Lyft app and summoned Darrell and I a ride. It began to rain as I did and became quickly became a heavy shower just before our ride came. Luckily it let up a bit when we dashed for the Lyft driver's car. It was a short 10 minutes back to the hotel. I had already checked us in for our morning flight and printed our boarding passes in the business center of the hotel earlier in the day, so all that was left was to pack up most of my equipment and get some sleep.
Tuesday March 15, 2022
Darrell and I were up at 5:30am so we could grab breakfast by 6am and be out of the hotel by 7:15 am. It was an easy 35-40 minute drive to the airport and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to spare in case of any traffic. Our Lyft driver pulled up at 7am and we made it to the departure C terminal by 7:40am. United's app listed our flight as departing from the A terminal and the E terminal, which are on opposite ends of the airport. Thank you United! I told the driver to drop us at the C terminal because it was the main United terminal for domestic flights and in the center of the airport. We dropped our luggage and Darrell asked me to check for an upgrade. There was only one first class seat listed, so I told Darrell to take it, but he didn't want to. I had TSA Pre and there were only 12 people in front of me, so I flew through security in under 4 minutes. Darrell took about 15 minutes, which isn't bad. Our flight was actually in the E terminal, so we hopped on a United electric cart and were driven to our gate. At the gate, Darrell checked for an upgrade again. He came back to our seats at the gate with the last two first class seats and handed me my new boarding pass. Thank you Darrell! Our flight left on time, and once in the air, were were served breakfast. I chose the Belgian waffle, which was pretty good, but I remember a time long again when it was the kind of breakfast served in economy on a plus 4 hour flight. The return flight was 30 minutes longer than the flight to Houston, so I looked over the list of entertainment. I ended up watching "Roadrunner" the documentary about Anthony Bourdain which I hadn't seen.
We made it home safe and sound about 15 minutes early.
Our sincere thanks to Jeremy Parzen for being such a wonderful host and tour guide! To Ed Revak, for spending some quality time with us as well as also having driven us around, and to all of the people behind the 8th annual Taste of Italy Houston! It was a very concentrated, interesting and delicious trip.
Thank you Houston!