This is a story that has a happy ending.
(See above.)
What happened before that ending, however, was not quite so happy.
There was the steady stream of smoke spewing from the oven; there was the coughing. And then there was the glowering from Mike (who was doing the coughing).
But there was a lesson learned while making focaccia for the Bread Baker’s Apprentice challenge this week:
Don’t be so greedy — use less olive oil.
Just about this time last year, I was in a little car, racing four hours across Sicily in search of a good meal.
At the end of the trek from Palermo, in far western Sicily, to Ragusa, in the Southeast, lay Ristorante Duomo, one of just two restaurants on the island at the time to have received a Michelin star.
Now, I’ve gone to many lengths in the name of sampling noteworthy food — this level of devotion is not anything new. But doing an eight hour-trip in a day just for a spot of lunch? Even that was a little insane for us.
What can I say? It was worth it.