My love story is all about food,
and I'm joining local friends for dinner
at Enoteca Cangrande.
This is a classic little mom-and-pop restaurant,
with Giuliano helping diners match fine Italian wines
with just the right local dishes,
while stylish Corrina's in the tiny kitchen,
making sure every dish is just right.
My favorite way to eat in Italy is to trust the chef
and just say, "Bring it on!"
Giuliano is serving us an array of plates.
Each celebrates fine ingredients of this region,
and Giuliano, along with Franklin and Marina,
are helping us appreciate what we're eating and drinking.
Rick: This is such beautiful food and it's such beautiful wine.
Can you imagine having the beautiful food
with no beautiful wine?
Franklin: Not really.
It would be like being at La Fenice, the opera,
first row, and being in bad company,
someone who doesn't appreciate opera music
and would prefer rock music, let's say.
It wouldn't be the right thing.
Rick: Next up, eggplant parmigiana
and burrata from Puglia.
Do you talk about the food as you eat it?
Franklin: Yes, absolutely, constantly.
- [Laughter] - Any age
without getting bored.
We might get drunk, but...
[Laughter]
Not bored.
Italians love to talk about food.
It's in their DNA.
Rick: As the cannelloni with fontina and duck ravioli
with Amarone arrive, we learn that
even in a fine restaurant like this,
diners have a higher standard than you'd expect...
"La mamma."
Franklin: Italian men who adore cooking
will always refer to "la mamma," their mother.
That's... that's the answer to everything.
So it goes back to your childhood.
Absolutely, yes, sure.
To go to a restaurant is wonderful,
but how "la mamma" cooked,
no one, nobody can equal that.
Rick: And finally, beef cheeks,
stewed in Amarone with polenta,
just as "la mamma" made it.
Rick, "salute", cheers.
Rick: "Salute!" To mamma.
"La mamma," okay.
We're back in Amboise.
And a day of château-hopping puts me in the mood for
an elegant meal.
My friend and co-author of our France guidebook,
Steve Smith, is joining us,
as is so often the case, just in time for dinner.
The rustic yet elegant L'Epicerie
serves delicious and well presented traditional cuisine,
and is a hit with locals.
Its tiny kitchen manages just fine.
Tell me what you're having and why.
Steve: I ordered shrimp from the Loire River --
so, it's freshwater shrimp -- with tapenade.
Rick: Tell me about this, escargot, I love it.
Steve: Escargot is famous in Burgundy --
that's where it started.
But it became popular.
Every region in France seems to do an escargot.
Rick: The rosé is refreshing, isn't it?
It's summer, August in France, we drink rosé.
-Rick: Even escargot, red meat? -Steve: It's perfect.
Oh, here we go, what do we have?
That one for there.
And I will take this one.
Oh! "Merci bien." Thank you.
-Rick: Steve, these are classic dishes. -Steve: You have lamb.
I have duck.
Rick: Yeah, duck seems to be pretty common in France.
Steve: It is, it's on every menu.
It's normal.
It's like the chicken of France, really.
But when you look at the price, it's not that cheap.
You're right, in a sense, but it includes tax and tip.
That adds up to about 25%.
Rick: People should remember that when they're ordering.
It's included.
Aurora, the restaurant's owner,
enthusiastically introduces us to her cheese course.
"Alors," you have a local goat cheese, all right?
You have the Sainte-Maure de Touraine,
Selles-sur-Cher, Valençay,
and Pouligny-Saint-Pierre.
After, you have some cow cheese.
I have just one local cow.
It's creamy and soft
and it's from the Loir-et-Cher department.
The name: the Dreux.
You have stronger than but creamy too
with the Langres from Champagne.
If you like from Savoie, you have the Reblochon.
From the north, you have Maroilles.
Pont-l'Evêque, Normandy.
Saint-Nectaire, Murol,
and Fourme d'Ambert blue cheese from Auvergne.
So, you have goat cheese and cow cheese,
and it goes from mild to strong,
and it's like a map of France.
Aurora: Mm-hmm, yes, exactly, you visit different regions.
"Le fromage, vin rouge, et pain" -- it's beautiful.
"C'est formidable."
My friend and fellow tour guide,
Ken Hanley, is joining me for dinner --
and perhaps a better insight into Scottish/English relations.
Above the Old Bell Pub,
the New Bell restaurant serves up fine food
in an inviting living room ambience.
In researching my guidebooks,
I find that, throughout Europe,
the small husband-and-wife-run places --
especially if one of them is a talented chef --
serve the best meals for the best prices.
Rick: So this really is
contemporary Scottish, then, you'd say?
Ken: Absolutely, yes.
I think that it sort of
boils down to that they're not aware
that we have this old alliance with the French.
We have natural produce,
you know, from seafood to beef
and vegetables and that.
And because of that old alliance,
we have the French "je ne sais quoi,"
and with the Scottish local goodies,
and the end product is something that
really surprises people from the states.
Rick: A pleasant surprise.
It's more than a pleasant surprise, absolutely.
Rick: It's a delightful surprise.
The duck, I'm having the duck.
Ohh, it looks nice, thank you.
Ken: Thank you very much, dear.
So why are you wearing a kilt?
I wear a kilt because I'm proud to be Scottish,
and it shows my natural culture
and my natural history,
and that I'm Scottish, and not British.
So are you Scottish first or British first?
Ken: Scottish.
Scottish first? British second?
Second Scottish.
Scottish second also, okay.
Aye!
So is the Scottish spirit alive and well?
I'll tell you what, Rick --
the Scottish spirit is alive, vibrant,
and the lion is ready to roar.
Really, there's no doubt in your mind?
No doubt at all.
-"Slainte mhath." -"Slainte mhath."
For dinner, I'm joining my friend and fellow tour guide
Sabine Leteinturier back in Rouen.
For what you'd expect to spend
in a modest American restaurant,
we're enjoying the full, fun-loving ritual
of fine dining in France.
[ Speaking French ]
Rick: Oooh, very nice.
Sabine: This is classic Normandy cuisine
and tonight we're going to experience the four Cs.
Aha, four Cs.
We're going to have the cream.
Rick: Cream.
Sabine: Camembert.
Rick: Okay.
Cider and calvados.
Okay.
And the cream, you can find it right in the sauce.
They do mix it in.
You have red wine, foie gras and cream.
Okay, so cream is --
Sabine: Which makes it really smooth.
Cream is a part of the --
Sabine: It kind of smoothes out the sauce.
And the sauce is something that is very important
in the Normandy cuisine.
In a fine French meal,
the main plate is followed by a cheese course.
In this case, cream gives way to camembert,
which is only one of many tasty Normandy cheeses.
Server: Camembert,
Pont l'eveque,
livarot,
and neufchâtel.
Rick: So all of this cheese, really, is from this region,
from a few miles from here, really.
It's from Normandy, just about,
probably at the most, 30 kilometers from here.
Rick: I love this concept of eating locally.
Sabine: You eat locally, it's distributed locally
and you just enjoy it locally.
The region is also famous for its apples,
which are savored as cider, or as the liqueur, calvados.
What is this?
"Soufflé pomme calvados," sir.
Apple soufflé with calvados.
Rick: Ah.
Mmm.
Rick: Is it good?
Very good.
The four Cs of Normandy:
Crème, camembert, cider, and calvados.
You got it.
From this peaceful canal-side perch,
the hubbub of downtown Venice
becomes a romantically floodlit cityscape.
Piero's brother-in-law Roberto has joined us,
and after a day on the lagoon,
it only makes sense to opt for seafood,
the obvious forte and passion of Venetian chefs.
For antipasti, we have a tray of riches from the lagoon --
sardines, calamari, octopus, and baccalà.
This is like a cream. It's "baccalà mantecato."
So this would be a cod?
Rick: And along with it,
a bowl of fresh mussels and clams.
Spaghetti alla busara comes next.
This dish is common in the north Adriatic
Veneto? You know, Veneto?
And the first part of the Croatia that is Istria.
Okay.
Rick: It has a fresh tomato sauce,
spaghetti made from farro,
and it's topped with langostino.
The food is fantastic,
and this romantic setting makes it even better.