I’ll never forget the two best meals I’ve ever had in my life (so far). The first one was in 1997, my father and I were two starving travelers who had just gotten off a train in what was about to become my favorite city in the world, Florence. My father has a knack for getting a hunch about an establishment, going in and finding something amazing – this was the first time I had that experience with him. Dragging our luggage, he had a hunch about Otello, one of the small, ordinary looking restaurants and trattorias surrounding Santa Maria Novella train station, mostly catering to tourists.

Without knowing it, I was about to get the first important lesson in my life about Italian food. The food was astonishing! I had never, ever had anything like a bistecca alla fiorentina, with a side of spinach. The food looked simple enough, alright, but I had never tasted anything quite like it! How? Why?

The other best meal in my life so far was in 2009, in Rome. I was visiting my cousin Sarah, a university student at the time, and she and her friends took me out for dinner one night. I couldn’t figure out where we were going. They parked the car in what looked to me like a very residential area, and I could see no restaurant or trattoria anywhere around. We got to a door and from the outside, it looked like we were going inside a house; I thought we were picking up more of their friends. Instead, we were led into a hidden trattoria, super small  and completely packed! That’s when I saw Sarah in action for the first time; despite there being barely any room for breathing, she knew the people running the place and of course got us a table. She took me there so I could experience real pasta alla carbonara, the good one from Rome, and she decided to take me to the best place for it: Beto e Mary. The pasta was unlike anything I had ever tasted before, freshly made yet al dente, with a carbonara bursting with flavor.

Flash forward to July 2017. Where am I? You guessed it: in Italy. By now you should also where in particular: a tavola, that is, at a table enjoying a meal. I was in Umbria this time, visiting Sarah, since she lives there now, and we were enjoying an incredible antipasto, rich with Umbrian cold cuts, which are a regional delicacy, as well as cheeses, bruschetta and supplì, which was not only a feast for the stomach, but for the whole senses, including the eyes.

An antipasto fit for the gods

When our parents, her husband, Sarah and I were finishing this exquisite appetizer, I thought about all the food knowledge Italy and my Italian family have taught me throughout many years of trips and I told Sarah: “I’ve never had a bad meal in Italy. In fact, I dare someone to take me to a place in Italy where you eat badly. I bet we won’t find one.”

That’s how this food challenge was born, they way we do most important things in our family: at a table,  with good food, family and friends, and of course, some wine – that day, Sagrantino, to be precise. That’s how this blog was also born.

During that same trip, after walking through the beautiful town of Narni, as we were getting ready for a meal, Sarah told me I should start a blog, see if writing about all my Italian food experiences I managed to find anything which was bad. She also said she’d keep looking to see if she came across any establishment we could catalogue as bad. Yes, there are places where you can find regular or just ok food, not great or magnificent, but not bad either. And that is our whole point.

Detail, Narni City Hall. This medieval city was the inspiration for the name of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.

Ah, genetics, so strong. By now you have already figured out that Sarah and I share something else besides our last name: we are extremely passionate about food. Italian food in particular speaks to me like no other. Yes, I am Mexican and have a soft spot for Mexican food. Yes, I am also American and as such am grateful for the trouble fast food can get you out of in an extremely busy day, but my Italian background has come out strongest when it comes to food. It’s my favorite food in the whole world. At age 4 I declared to my parents my favorite food in the world was pizza – I still live by that, although by now I lean more towards an extremely thin margherita baked in a brick oven over something that gets delivered to my house.

Sarah is passionate about always finding the next best place, the next culinary adventure. It’s no surprise that she’s taken me to the best places I’ve ever eaten in Italy and that I’ve learned so much about the different regional cuisines from her. Our family hails from Maddaloni, a small town outside of Naples, and she grew up with what studies are now calling the best diet in the world, the Mediterranean diet. In a nutshell: they enjoy a bit of everything. However, they enjoy it with very natural and fresh ingredients. Sarah has lived in Campania, Lazio and now Umbria, and her job implies a lot of traveling throughout the country. And so she continues to find the best place in the next town.

I’ve given you a glimpse of our passion for food; now do you understand why this challenge is important to us? We are on a quest to prove that, despite the fact that you have fast food restaurants, international chains and what not, the typical way people eat in Italy makes it impossible to find a typical Italian food place where you eat bad. I’ll say it again: yes, there are places where food is regular, not so good, simply ok – but not bad. It’s important for Sarah and I to prove it impossible to locate a place in Italy where someone goes out disgusted by their food experience. We dare you too. If you find such a place, let us know!

The beginning of the Apperti challenge – sfida in Italian – is also the beginning of a culinary journey. All the time we’ve been gathering our experiences across many Italian tables has also meant a lot of travels, discovery of new cities, new recipes, and that of course, makes for very good stories.

Come, join us with a glass of Pinot Grigio and we’ll let you in on some of them, you might find some of the information useful for your own culinary adventures. And to start off with that, here are two important lessons learned from my best two food experiences in life:

Lesson 1: The best food is usually the simplest one. Bistecca alla fiorentina is simply the favorite meat cut used in the kitchens of Florence. It has no sauce, no heavy condiments, nothing. A steak on a grill, so to speak. But it was the quality, freshness and naturalness of the meat, the devotion into the way they cooked it, the dedication that was put into it, that made it the best Bistecca I’ve ever tried.

Lesson 2: Never judge a book by its cover. My best food experiences have happened in regular, maybe even odd looking places. Don’t be afraid to try new places, you never know what surprises you might find. If you don’t know the language, ask a local, they’ll usually point you to the places they know and like and in most cases, you’ll get pretty good food. Plus, that gives you a more round experience: you’ll eat like a local. Through your palate, you’ll be making what was once a once foreign city a little bit your own.