From the Pond to your Neighborhood

“Wow! Look at all this cheese! I can’t believe you have so many different kinds of Itali…Wait a minute…This isn’t all Italian cheese! I thought Via Umbria was an Italian store! What’s going on here!?”

This happens at my counter a lot. Like, every week. Well, really more like every other day. And I understand the confusion–Via Umbria is, as the name would suggest, an Italian store filled with unique, delicious, and beautiful Italian things. So what’s the deal with the cheese counter?

While it is true that Italians make some supremely excellent cheese, my little counter has been given a bit more freedom and has a wider reaching focus than solely Italian curds. Our goal is to give a platform to unique, artisanal, handcrafted cheeses from all over the world, giving our customers a chance to explore myriad delicious products that they may not have regular access to or even have heard of before.

In this spirit, I’m pleased to announce that Via Umbria will be delving into the wide world of British cheeses this fall by teaming up with famed London cheese emporium, affineur, and exporter, Neal’s Yard Dairy.

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I’m thrilled about this partnership for a few reasons. Firstly, and most selfishly, British cheeses tug at my childhood-memory heartstrings. For much of my young life, I spent summers in the English countryside on my grandparents farm, where I ate lots and lots and lots of locally made cheese. I spent many happy hours learning how to milk goats, collect eggs, feed pigs–happy hours that were fueled by delicious farmhouse cheese. Even when I was back home in Chicago, my mum packed many cheese and chutney sandwiches in my school lunches (yup, kids at school totally thought I was weird), and we always had Stilton and port at Christmas. All of that to say, I have a very dear place in my heart for the lovely British cheeses from my childhood, and I’m looking forward to sharing them with my customers.

Secondly, I’m thrilled to be able to give British cheeses the audience that they deserve. When most Americans think of European cheese, they think of cheeses like French Brie, Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano, or Spanish Manchego–the UK, unfortunately, very rarely comes into the picture. To be honest, this is a bit bizarre–one of the most beloved cheeses in this country, Cheddar, originally comes from the UK. Be that as it may, British cheeses remain relatively unknown the US.

Part of that has to do with the fact that in Britain, cheese was traditionally part of a workman’s diet, not something for the rich and influential. Because of this lower status, local cheeses weren’t given the same importance as many of their continental counterparts. For a long time, these cheeses weren’t seen as significant enough to protect or maintain. Thus, with the global rise of factorization and mass production of cheese, traditional British farmstead cheeses were largely pushed aside to make way for cheaper, less flavorful, grocery-store friendly options.

Enter: Neal’s Yard Dairy. Started in the early 1980’s as a small cheese shop in London, Neal’s Yard Dairy has become, quite simply, the preeminent champion of British cheese. Neal’s Yard searches out farmers and cheesemakers, working with them to not only preserve traditional British cheeses – what they call “territorials” – but to improve the cheeses quality, age them to perfection, and expand global awareness of these cheeses. Simply put, they find (and/or help create) the best tasting cheeses that the UK has to offer, and then give them a global stage. They go out and visit each of the farmers that they work with, about 40 in total, on a regular basis in order to both taste their cheeses and to select the best cheeses to mature and sell. Farmhouse cheeses like Cheshire, Caerphilly, Lincolnshire Poacher, and Shropshire, to name just a few, now have a global presence in the world because of the efforts of Neal’s Yard Dairy. What they’ve been able to do for British cheese has been absolutely remarkable.

Our first shipment from London should be arriving in just a few weeks, so please come by and taste some delicious British cheese with me at the Via Umbria cheese counter! It’s a fantastic way to explore the world and get to know some some new and exciting cheeses!”

A new partnership with Neal's Yard Dairy Read more

"Wow! Look at all this cheese! I can't believe you have so many different kinds of Itali...Wait a minute...This isn't all Italian ...

Finger Lickin’ Chicken

Growing up, I always hated chicken. It was almost invariably dry and tasteless, unless of course it came battered and fried with a side of biscuits. I rarely ordered it in a restaurant, and rued the days when my parents would make some for dinner. As I grew older I developed an appreciation for the dark meat, which lead to the realization that the thing I was most opposed to was the dryness and blandness of the chickens of my youth. Now, having had access to and experience with great chicken I have realized that there are many other factors that go into cooking the perfect chicken, but for the sake of brevity let’s focus on the two major issues and breakthroughs that led me out of this dark, chicken hating place and into a brand new food world where we would want a chicken in every pot.

Chicken Dish

Well, not in a pot, necessarily. In fact, that’s probably my least favorite way to cook it but that’s neither here nor there. There are a myriad of things you can do to a chicken to help it along, beginning with a good brine, but again, that’s an issue for another time. For now, let’s talk cooking. You may have heard of spatchcocking, where the spine of the the bird is removed and the whole chicken can be laid out flat on the grill for cooking. Most food blogs bring up this method in the months of October and November as a quicker way of preparing a Thanksgiving turkey. This also has the added benefit of keeping the moisture in the meat, preventing your Aunt’s usual dried out turkey. Before I had even heard this word, however, I had come across a very similar method in a cookbook by celebrity chef Sean Brock. What he refers to as “Chicken Roasted Simply In a Skillet” comes there alongside garlic confit and pan sauce, is easily modifiable and made even simpler than the recipe says. All it requires is a cast iron skillet where halves of chicken are seared skin-side down for several minutes, flipped skin-side up and finished in a preheated oven. While his recipe is delicious, I’ve come to find that you can modify the seasoning to whatever you like, skip the step of weighing down the chicken, forgo the pan sauce–and as long as you stick to the technique of searing the skin you’ll have a hit on your hands. Cooking chicken like this traps the juices in the meat and, keeps it so moist and flavorful that it rivals the dark meat in tenderness. This is of course, not to defame your traditional roast or your barbecue grilled chicken, but why not try something new? It takes less time than a roast and is harder to mess up!

I close with the second thing that makes a big difference–the quality of your chicken. As with everything, you get out of a dish what you put into it, and if you start with a high quality product you’ve already won half the battle. In terms of quality of meat, there are a lot of buzzwords that get thrown around and associated with chicken. Organic, free range, hormone free, local, are incredibly common descriptors, but comprise only the tip of the classification iceberg. While I will say that no chicken is ever grass feed (so don’t count on that one) most of the words are actually relatively meaningless. Local can come from hundred of miles away, organic is a certification many producers can’t afford, hormone free chickens may have eaten feed that is laced with hormones or pesticides. That being said, in the grocery store it is relatively easy to see the difference between the factory chicken and the farm chicken. The factory chicken will undoubtedly be huge. The farm chicken will likely not be broken down–it will be available only whole until the butcher breaks it down for you. Our chickens are relatively local, coming from a cooperative of farms in Pennsylvania and upstate New York, and labeled as “naturally raised.” Almost intentionally meaningless, this phrase is in this case meant to communicate a commitment to letting the chickens live good lives. This means that while they don’t have the organic certification they eat mostly organic food, they may get some antibiotics when they are sick, but not as a part of regular life. And all this pays off, they are some of the best chickens I’ve ever been able to eat.

Scott Weiss
Scott Weiss

Cooking with quality meat will change your dish Read more

Growing up, I always hated chicken. It was almost invariably dry and tasteless, unless of course it came battered and fried with ...

That Was Toga-lly Awesome

Et tu Brute?” I gasp dramatically, clutching my chest and looking wistfully out as I collapse on the steps of the Roman senate, taking the fabled and famed Shakespearean line and bringing it to vivid and dramatic life. Or at least I thought so.

When I graduated from college, I took some time off to travel across Europe. One of my stops was Rome, and on a walking tour with people from my hostel, the tour guide mentioned that these were the steps where Julius Caesar was thought to have been stabbed. Now, I couldn’t very well pass up that opportunity, and so, clearly, I didn’t. Theatrical deaths had always been this English major’s personal favorite after all.

DSCF2588Fast forward four years and here I am, at Via Umbria, taking part in a Roman-themed murder mystery dinner party. And what a party it was! True to form, I got to play an intriguing character (I won’t name any names), who so luckily for me was that unlucky soul cruelly murdered halfway through dinner. I took my cue (the lights shutting off), and once more allowed my inner diva to take over as I fell to the floor, pausing momentarily to gasp, one hand pressed to my heart, the other reaching forward as my laurel wreath fell off my head.

My flair for the dramatic however, was more than topped by the amazing guests we had turn up to last Tuesday’s “Terror in a Toga” murder mystery dinner party. False identities, three courses of feasting and feuding, and head-to-toe Roman garb made this dinner party a night to remember. As we sat at the table, fully enthralled with the characters around us, we experienced this story come to life with each accusation, question, or declaration of love and fealty. Accompanying this plot of intrigue was a meal worthy of the Roman Senate, and the only time there was silence on this raucous evening was when the food momentarily pulled us away from the ‘whodunnit?’of it all.DSCF2581

Bribery (with our Roman coins), backstabbing and bardic soliloquies were strongly encouraged, and very well received. This evening thrived because the guests were toga-lly down to party ancient Roman style: with delicious food, gladiator fights and of course a healthy dose of intrigue.

So, what do you get when you mix a room full of strangers with false identities, good food and a selection of Italian wines to dazzle? Your new favorite Tuesday night activity of course! For those of you who missed it this time around, definitely keep your eye on our calendar for the next Murder Mystery Dinner Party, and sign up to get your chance to act, eat and laugh your heart out. Maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll even get a chance to one-up my delightfully dramatic dying skills. Maybe.

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“Et tu Brute?” I gasp dramatically, clutching my chest and looking wistfully out as I collapse on the steps of the Roman ...

See You in the Wine Room

Between the rugged overhead wooden beams and the long elegant glass table, you may feel caught between the modern and traditional in the Enoteca. It’s the perfect starting point for our “Choose Your Own Bottle” or CYOB dinners, where guests can relax in the comfort of family-style Friday night dinners while trying something new. What better way to do that then with a bottle of wine?

Wine Tasting with Our Experts

As the Wine Program Intern, my job is to help select a wine that not only pairs well with the menu, but also with your own tastes. My advice would be to arrive early so that before the dinner starts I can treat you to a private wine tasting in our Wine Room. Although our Enoteca boasts more than 100 different bottles of wine, I’ll narrow it down to a few for the occasion.

Often when you go to a restaurant there is a separation between the wine list and the guest. There’s a sort of needle in a haystack mania that takes over as you scour the selections and try to find something just right. I think part of why I love CYOB so much is because I can help connect every guest to the wineries. Sharing stories of harvests and visits is just a part of how I am able to take part in a more personalized selection. Though, the best part would have to be the look on their faces when they first taste the wine with their meal in the Laboratorio. Led by the chef, Johanna, the entire evening is focused around Via Umbria’s mission to Discover, Savor, [and] Share.

Dinner in the wine room

At CYOB you’re not just having a drink with someone you know. At CYOB you are discovering a new favorite wine from over 100 different bottles hailing from artisanal producers. You are savoring a delicious meal prepared right in front of you. Best of all, you are sharing this entire experience with everyone around you. A modern twist on Friday night dinners never tasted so good!

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Between the rugged overhead wooden beams and the long elegant glass table, you may feel caught between the modern and traditional in ...

Umbrian Lentil Salad

It’s the middle of summer and the last thing anyone wants to do in the [sometimes unbearable] heat is spend a long time hovering around the stove to make dinner. Enter Umbrian Lentil Salad –one bite of this vibrant dish and you’ll instantly be transported to the refreshing Mediterranean seaside. This healthy and delicious salad is filled with fresh vegetables–making it fantastic as a snack, side, or light meal. And best of all, it’s simple to prepare!

Umbrian Lentil Salad

Ingredients

2 cups lentils
1 bay leaf
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 medium red onion, diced
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
8 ounces Feta, crumbled or cubed
Kosher salt
Fresh cracked black pepper

Directions

1. Place lentils and bay leaf in a large pot and cover with 3 inches of water.Bring to a boil then reduce and simmer for 30 minutes.
2. Drain the lentils well and spread them on a baking sheet. Drizzle with vinegar and olive oil and let cool.
3. While the lentils cool, sauté the onion, carrot, and celery together in a pan with a little olive oil until they are slightly soft. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Remove from heat and add herbs. Combine cooled lentils with sautéed vegetables and Feta and stir gently.
5. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour–this is what makes it perfect for a hot day!
6. Serve with a bit of Feta on top.

Download a printable version of the recipe here!

A quick and healthy dish for summer Read more

It's the middle of summer and the last thing anyone wants to do in the [sometimes unbearable] heat is spend a long ...

Meet Johanna Hellrigl

Head Chef Johanna HellriglVia Umbria is thrilled to announce the latest addition to our culinary team, Head Chef Johanna Hellrigl, who will be bringing her Italian culinary expertise to our dinners and cafe.

Have you always wanted to be a Chef?
Yes and no. I was born into a family with a Chef for a father and grew up in the restaurant industry so I’ve always had a deep admiration and respect for chefs and restaurateurs. Rather than following in the footsteps of my family, however, I was determined to prove I could do my own thing and seek out other passions. For four and a half years, I worked for a democracy building organization where I focused on empowering women from around the globe to increase their political participation. Through that experience I was fortunate enough to travel to every region and meet unique individuals. This had the added bonus of exposing me to the flavors, cuisines and cultures of many different countries.

When I wasn’t traveling, I found my solace in cooking. I would come home from a long day at work, excited to walk into the kitchen and create something. Cooking allowed me to use a different part of my brain and it became a way for me to relax and express myself. I sought out opportunities to cook for other people, inviting friends over to share a meal and taking the time to find my own voice in the kitchen. Cooking for my friends and for my (now) husband allowed me the time to explore this pursuit, and helped me realize that it wasn’t just something I did, it was something I had a real gift for, and a unique perspective on. It was then that I decided that this was the passion that I should be pursuing.

How did you start cooking?
My father was a world-renowned chef from Northern Italy and one of my first gifts was a [rubber] knife. One night he was cooking at home and handed me a zucchini to play with in the meantime with my rubber knife. I apparently cut the zucchini perfectly and my father was shocked- he said to my mother, this one will end up in the kitchen. Although my father passed away when I was only four years old, my mother embodied his spirit, continued to pursue his endeavors and kept his American dream alive through his restaurant in New York City. Her perseverance, despite his absence, in such a tough industry is what makes her my role model to this day.
Through the restaurant, I was able to learn the art of cooking from those my father entrusted with his recipes and techniques. Every Saturday was the highlight of my week. My mother would bring me to the restaurant, dress me up in my chef outfit and I would be placed in the pastry section (the other sections were too dangerous and fast paced for my age). I would help in any way I could and soak up all the lessons there were to learn. The racks of apple strudel to the utilization of a blow torch for the crème brulee are images that are ingrained in my memory. Years ago, I realized that my desire to bake as much- if not more than- I cook must come from the decade-worth of Saturdays spent in the pastry section.

How would you describe your style of cooking?
I think the most important thing when you cook is having respect for food and for the ingredients. Cooking shouldn’t be about piling things on top of each other to create an end result, but rather finding ways to highlight fresh flavors and make them complement each other as well as enhance their flavors. I’m a huge proponent of community supported agriculture and because of this I find myself drawn to seasonal ingredients, which is something that is central to Via Umbria’s philosophy and mission. My favorite challenge is to create menus based on what is available and I think that is where a chef’s creativity is really seen.
While my background has exposed me to many spices and unique flavors, many of which I use and love, I find myself always drawn back to Italian cooking and the history behind it. Traditional recipes and the Italian style of cooking is not about creating things that are complex or complicated, it’s about enhancing the flavor of ingredients by focusing on simplicity, balance and freshness.

How important are ingredients to your recipes?
In Italian cooking, and in my mind, ingredients are everything. Starting with quality ingredients is what makes or breaks a dish and I am fortunate at Via Umbria to have access to the highest quality, authentic Italian ingredients. Honestly, if you can’t actually be cooking in Italy, this is the next best place.
I strongly believe that you also get out of a dish what you put into it. I would rather take the time to blanch and peel fresh tomatoes than use canned tomatoes because the flavor is completely different, and to me that flavor is worth the extra effort. That having been said, when looking at a recipe, I think sometimes people get too worried about following the directions instead of trusting their instincts. I often compare cooking with a recipe to driving with a GPS system to navigate you: Nowadays when you drive you are completely reliant on a GPS system to get you to your destination. By just following each step of the navigation, you sometimes take the longer route, but because you’re following the directions so closely you don’t even realize that there might be a better way. However, if you take a step back and start to study the directions and the roads, you become more confident in creating your own directions and navigating yourself to find the what works best for you. I view cooking in much the same way. Study the ingredients in the recipe, familiarize yourself with what they are and what they taste like, figure out why you put them together and how the combination changes or enhances their flavors, and you will be more likely to understand the amounts and purpose of each ingredient. This in turn will allow you to experiment with the recipe, become more confident in the kitchen, and create a style of cooking that works for you.

What do you always keep the ingredients on hand for?
Homemade tomato sauce. It’s one of the easiest things to make, and yet something that makes all the difference when you’re cooking. I have never bought it from a jar and never will.

How did you end up at Via Umbria?
It honestly was a “right place at the right time” scenario. I was wandering through Georgetown looking for ingredients and inspiration for recipes and I happened upon the store. As soon as I walked in I was impressed by the selection and authenticity of the products- it honestly felt just like shopping in Italy. I walked from section to section, finding unique products from all over Italy, admiring the butcher counter and the cheesemonger’s selection, but when I walked into the Wine Room I was hooked. I found bottles from small production wineries in Alto Adige and Liguria and felt instantly that I had found a little piece of home in Washington. When I started talking to (owners) Bill and Suzy Menard, it became clear that we had a similar mission and passion- I am very dedicated to bringing awareness of Italy and what authentic Italian cuisine means, rather than the Americanized Italian foods, products, and ideas you see so often, and it was clear right away that this was something we shared.

Via Umbria uses the word “simple” to describe their food – how would you describe “simple”?
Italians have a tradition of making good food and respecting flavors and I think that’s a large part of what draws me to Italian cuisine. Simple doesn’t mean basic or bland, it means food that is organic in its composition. Overcomplicated food has been done- there are so many restaurants, amazing restaurants, where you can go and have a once in a lifetime meal with all the bells and whistles, but I want my dishes and the food we bring to Via Umbria to be something that you trust to always impress yet comfort your palate. We do unique and different things compared to other Italian restaurants in DC, but our primary focus is to draw people with our ingredients, flavors and the experience of community we have at Via Umbria. Food is the the tangible part of a meal, but there is so much more that goes into the overall dining experience. For me, mealtime is about the act of eating but also about the environment, presentation, and the people with whom you enjoy a meal, and none of that should be fussy.

What role does wine play in your meals?
If you ever have a meal in Italy or with an Italian, it’s easy to see that wine is an important part of the experience. Just as coffee is an important part of your breakfast in the morning, alcohol, whether it be beer, wine, or a spritz, is an important component of your evening meal. Because of this, and this idea that what you are drinking should enhance and bring complexity to your food, a lot of Italian winemaking ties in so well with regional foods. The winemakers in particular regions are creating things that taste good, but are also creating things that pair well with the foods that they are eating. Because of this, wines are what bring in the last piece of the puzzle when it comes to building the flavors of a meal and we have worked hard at Via Umbria to build a wine list and a retail selection that spans all of Italy’s regions, not just the most popular and most well-known, and to share our expertise with our dinner guests and retail customers to ensure they pick just the right wine for their meal.

What’s it like to cook in an open kitchen?
I’m incredibly passionate about food and bringing good food to people. I want to use my cooking to raise awareness of how easy authentic Italian cooking can be if you approach it the right way, and to empower people in the kitchen. Working in Via Umbria’s open Laboratorio kitchen is the perfect format for me because it really gives me the ability to engage with people and open up these conversations. Cooking in front of people, interacting with groups when they come in to eat, and walking people through the food as it’s served allows me to bring more to the table than just food- meals in the Laboratorio become more about the experience of eating than a typical restaurant. Every night I create a different menu which allows me to engage people in a new conversation and expose them to new regions and dishes. I get to challenge myself to explore different regions of Italy and the Italian landscape while creating an evening that is unique and memorable for our guests.

Q&A with our new Head Chef Read more

Via Umbria is thrilled to announce the latest addition to our culinary team, Head Chef Johanna Hellrigl, who will be bringing her ...