Word: pasta
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...Colicchio hasn't looked at food prices in a long time. "Wow, pasta is more expensive than I thought it was," he says, scanning the shelves of the Ralph's supermarket on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Colicchio, the head judge on Bravo's Top Chef, hires people to buy food for his Craft, CraftSteak and 'wichcraft restaurants across the country. Plus, he's rich...
...also gone way up. And since Americans have been spending about 10% of their income on food for the past 25 years or so, rising prices do not mean people are eating less--they're just buying cheaper stuff. "We're seeing less meat and more pizza, sandwiches, Italian pasta and casserole-type dishes," says Harry Balzer, who tracks food trends for the NPD Group, a market-research firm. "The real change that occurred in the last bout of inflation was that one of the cheapest meats became more popular: chicken...
Colicchio has the same instincts as most consumers. In fact, when I asked a bunch of famous chefs to come up with a family meal for around $10, almost all of them gave me recipes for chicken or pasta. I had expected them to load up on organ meats or weird cuts people only eat in other countries. But Colicchio is in deep contemplation over a London broil steak for $6.75. Ham is too expensive, as are asparagus, fresh fish and even (when I bring them to him giggling) cow's feet. Instead, Colicchio considers first a beef stew...
...sauce of fennel, eggplant, zucchini, onion and a small store-brand can of peeled whole tomatoes. "I'd rather have a nice Italian Cento brand, but it's going in a sauce, so I don't think it needs to be great," he says of the tomatoes. This pasta is something he'd make at home, where he often combines spaghetti with broccoli, garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese or, more often, with bacon, cabbage and cannellini beans. I ask him why he didn't consider a rice dish, and he looks at me like I've never...
...journalist (and as a player when my club team toured) it was amusing to see teams replicate what I'd experienced in New York: the way an Irish team plays the offside trap; an Italian midfielder's pass to an outside back that is as predictable as pasta for dinner; the steely play of the Poles contrasted with the passion of the Greeks. New York City's Croatian teams impressed me with their technical approach; the Hungarians, once powerhouses, have faded; the Greeks are defending champions. Sound familiar...