At Long Last Love; Nancy's Fancy Goes On Sale Thursday At Gelson's

There are jackets, then there is the Marni runway coat. There's grape juice then, there is the  '47 Chateau Cheval Blanc. There are watches, then there is the Rolex Paul Newman Daytona. There are cars and there is the 1962 Ferrari GTO. These are the “zultra premium” options. 

Now, at long last, the world of frozen treats has a zultra premium option: “Nancy’ Fancy”, the gelato and sorbetto of Nancy Silverton and it will be available this Thursday, May 7th at Gelson's Markets throughout Los Angeles. Soon, markets throughout America will be offering Nancy's Fancy .

You may have noticed Nancy’s Fancy was defined simply as “the gelato and sorbetto of Nancy Silverton”.  Superlatives on Nancy could be used lavishly – and with truth.  But, like the '47 Cheval or the '62 GTO, time and coolness will soon prove that the mere mention of Nancy’s Fancy shall simply come to mean the best.

But, since Chef Silverton, co-founder of Pizzeria Mozza, Osteria Mozza and Chi Spacca, is not a “TV chef” and not a household name across America, let me boast about her. Check this out. Nancy Silverton is the only chef in the United States to win the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef in American and the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef in America. Like Muhammad Ali used to say, “It ain’t bragging if it’s true.”

When we asked 20 of the greatest chefs in America to give their comments on the prospects of having gelato and sorbetto made by Nancy readily available across America, every one of them replied with great anticipation, to put it calmly. Mario Batali responded in less than two minutes with a tantalizingly poetic preview for what gelato and sorbetto lovers across the land will soon be able to enjoy. World famous master chef Daniel Boulud poured on the praise. San Francisco’s Dominique Crenn, the only female chef in America with two Michelin stars, responded with a text so titillating only adults over the age of 35 should be allowed to read it.  Chris Bianco, the master pizzaiola from Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, echoed Roy Scheider in the movie “Jaws” and announced “I’m gonna need a bigger spoon.”

Silverton and Dahlia Narvaez, herself  a James Beard Award winner in 2016 for best pastry chef in America, worked for months sourcing, mixing, freezing, tasting, tuning, tasting, refining and tasting ensued.  The glorious result is Nancy’s Fancy.

Scoop into the FLAVORS page of Nancy's Fancy site to see what frozen treats will be waiting for you in stores soon

1962 Frank Sinatra "At Long Last Love"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4GfV0pf_zQ

"At Long Last Love"
Is it an earthquake or simply a shock?
Is it the good turtle soup or merely the mock?
Is it a cocktail, this feeling of joy?
Or is what I feel the real McCoy?

Is it for all time or simply a lark?
Is it Granada I see or only Asbury Park?
Is it a fancy not worth thinking of?
Or is it at long last love?
 

 

Surgery To Remove Bottle of Champagne Attached to Mike Hoagland's Body Called "Dismal Failure"

When two young doctors at the Mayo Clinic announced last week they were confident they could removed the bottle of champagne attached to Michael (Mike) Hoalgland's right rib cage, medical professionals from Napa to Reims were encouraged, yet skeptical.

Sunday morning, the skeptical side won out as the surgery proved to be what one hospital administrator called a "dismal failure."

"There were high hopes the bottle could be removed, but i think deep down most of us knew it was unlikely," said Douglas P. Zamensky, CFO* of the Mayo Clinic, generally thought to be the world's greatest hospital named after a sandwich spread. 

Hoagland, who once considered a career as  PGA golfer until he made up his mind to be an professional alcoholic, had for several years denied rumors the champagne bottle was actually attached to his body. In an effort to dissuade those rumors, Hoagland, a former server at Osteria Mozza, would changed the labels on the stuck-to-his-ribs bottle.

"I had heard the rumors, but then I'd see Mike with a Krug Grand Cuvee bottle, then a Dom Perignon Rose, then a Pol Roger Winston Churchill and I figured it couldn't be the same bottle." said Pilar Arias, the storied three Michelin-starred server formerly of Pizzeria Mozza.  "But, the way he would poured the bottle was weird.  Always with that crazy handstand, It was impressive at first. Then cute, But, after a while it was like 'Just pour that motherfucker.' Now, I know why. i hope MIke will be all right."

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"I Just Want To Say...", Nancy Silverton Begins Palestinian Israeli Peace Negotiations in Jerusalem

Tired of the bullshit, American chef Nancy Silverton has decided the key to unlocking the door to lasting peace between Israel and Palestine is for her to just go there and start cooking and eating and drinking. So she did. 

"I think food and wine are the missing negotiation ingredients in the seemingly endless conflicts between two people who both love the same things," said Silverton, the only chef to win the James Beard Award for best chef and best pastry chef in America. "Look, you can argue forever who made the first hummus, but why? The key is to eat the best hummus together, have some good kebab,  some great red wine, and then quote Rodney King."

yasser and nancy

"I just want to say, you know, can we, can we all get along" Can we get along?" - Rodney Glen KIng III, May 1, 1992

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sONfxPCTU0

 

Dario Cecchini and Mario Batali To Open Meat Palace Restaurant on Island in Middle of Atlantic Ocean

New York City's most famous chef, Mario Batali, and Italy's most famous butcher, Dario Cecchini, are joining forces to open a meat-themed restaurant in an unlikely location; an island almost smack daube in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

After considering both Manhattan and Tuscany as sites, the two foodie superstars have finally agreed to meet roughly halfway from each other's home turf and that turns out to be Flores Island, the westernmost island of the Azores Archipelago 

Tentatively entitled il Gran Palazzo di Carne, the joint venture came about after Batali and Cecchini had lunch last year at Katz's Famous Delicatessen in New York and began toying with the idea of uniting to form what one food professional called "A Temple to the Cow". 

"This could be the greatest thing to happened to beef since Moses put two cows on that ark of his," said Sir Charles Dillingsworth, the United Kingdom's foremost food critic, but also a man woefully inept when it comes to ark ownership. 

Neither Batali nor Cecchini would comment on the project.

However, Cecchini's wife, the American-born Kimberly Wicks, was caught off guard when asked about the apparently tight-lipped collaboration. "I can't believe you found out about it!", she said in an E-mail reply from Tuscany.

A leading travel agent in the Mid East said when she heard of the partnership of Cecchini and Batali "it was one of those It's about time" moments. 

"Mario and Dario together makes total sense," said Julianne Nebuchadnezzar  from "Let's Get Away Now and I Mean Right Now!!" a popular travel agency based in Fallujah, Iraq. "If one is traveling from America to Europe, or from the Middle East to America, a stopover in Flores Island not only breaks up the flight, it provides a special destination dining adventure that will rank high on anybody's fucket list."  

Flores Island, with a population of about 3,900 - mostly-Portuguese -inhabitants,  gets it name from the profusion of wild flowers, ( especially hydrangeas)  that grow, ugh, um, wild on the island. The main municipality is Santa Cruz, where il Gran Palazzo di Carne will be located. 

Mario Batali, holding the flag of flores island, and dario cecchini, wearing the traditional red pants of flores island

Mario Batali, holding the flag of flores island, and dario cecchini, wearing the traditional red pants of flores island



Wanted Chef Dominique Crenn - Superhero to Many, Anarchist to Others - Returns To Los Angeles, Arrest Imminent

Nearly one year after she fled town following a very public assault, renowned chef Dominique Crenn is returning to Los Angeles where a warrant for her arrest remains active.

Crenn, who assaulted a rare and endangered Japanese Suzuki fish while it was in the possession of chef Josiah Citrin, is expected to be arrested as soon as she enters city limits which could be as early as Thursday, authorities said. ( http://krikorianwrites.com/blog/2014/3/23/chef-dominique-crenn-wanted-by-police-flees-to-france )

"We will have officers waiting at LAX, Union Station and various highway entrances to the city limits," said former LAPD homicide detective Sal LaBarbera, now in charge of the City of Los Angeles'  Fugitive Warrant Division (FWD). "I'm stunned she is coming back knowing full well she will be arrested. However, I understand she is not adverse to being handcuffed."

Crenn, the only woman chef in America with two Michelin stars - earned at her San Francisco restaurant Atelier Crenn -   will be risking the arrest to participate in the second annual All-Star Chef Classic event at the L.A. Live , the scene of the crime last year. 

"I have come to save the world from the mundane, from the cliche, from the boring," Crenn said in a phone interview at an undisclosed site. (A global positioning unit later pin-pointed the site as the southwest corner of Highland and Melrose.) 

Sources in the LAPD said it was very possible Crenn would be allowed to compete in tonight's All Star Chef Classic once she posts bail after her arrest.  Bail is expected to be set at $500,000. Pressure by the Japanese government is being cited as the chief reason the high bail, normally set at $100,00 for this crime.

Chef Jonathan Waxman believes the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office would face an uphill battle if they decide to press charges and take Crenn to trial for assault. 

"The main witness was consumed [and] therefore unable to testify, hence her ability to circumnavigate the charges," said Waxman, who will be at the L.A. Live event Saturday. .

Chef Citrin, whose restaurant Melisse in Santa Monica also has two Michelin stars, said he was going to avoid Crenn at the event.

"I'm going to keep my mise en place as far from her as possible," said Citrin "I'm avoiding danger this year."

In the brief phone interview, Crenn said that her actions,  her passions and even her recipes will all be unveiled in her first book, "Dominique Crenn: Metamorphosis of Taste" which is available for pre-order at http://www.amazon.com/Atelier-Crenn-Metamorphosis-Taste-Dominique/dp/0544444671  

Nancy Silverton, seen below in a photo taken at the Mozza Kingdom with a woman who resembles Crenn, could not be reached for comment.

photo (36).JPG



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Jeremiah Henderson Suspended After Only One Week As Beverage Director of Heaven's Best Restaurant

After yelling 'This beer and wine list sucks!" in the main dining room of "The First Supper", the greatest restaurant in all of heaven and the entire solar system, beverage director Jeremiah James Henderson, 32, was suspended for five working days by his boss, God, 4,569,269,007.

Henderson, who landed the prestigious job just a week ago after a relatively brief stint on the much-maligned, though extremely promising planet Earth, said the restaurant's chef, Georges Auguste Escoffier, was "too damn slow" in implementing his new beverage and food pairing suggestions. Henderson let this be known in the middle of Friday night service at the 667 star Michelin restaurant on the Southside of Heaven that serves only 250,000 fortunate diners a night.

"Look, kid, these old farts are still using a wine, booze and beer list curated  by Dionysus and Bacchus,' said Henderson with his infectious. but mischievously boyish  smile. "Dionysus was good.  Bacchus, too.. In their time, kiddo. In their time. Things have changed. Hell, they are still have Olde Babylon 800 in cans, for god's sake. They're still pouring  the Battle of Arbela Syrah, Alexander the Great Vineyard, 331 b.c. by the glass. Even Alexander himself thought that shit was way too tannic. Duder, in five or six centuries no one will be drinking red wine, anyway. Plus, God has his kid running the place and he's never there "

That "kid", General Manager Jesus Christ, 2014, who critics also say is rarely at his restaurant, preferring to travel and promote his own brands and self-help books, was reached in East Saturn where he is opening a branch of the popular "La Buffet 'd Jesus Christ." chain. 

"Jeremiah? I love that guy," said Christ, a carpenter by trade. "A week in and i love him.  He's got the fire. But, maybe a week off might chill him down a bit.  Look, I wouldn't have hired him if he didn't have the passion.  And do you have any idea how many "somms" come to heaven and tell me or John the Baptist they know all about wine, booze, beer and shit? But, Jeremiah, he did know. But, he also knew not to take it too seriously.." 

However, Christ said it wasn't the vast food and beverage knowledge that convinced him to hire Henderson, but rather a particular correspondence with an Earthling.

"In key positions here, before I take on anyone, I like to talk to the family and friends of the potential hire from their previous world," said Christ who grew up in a small town on Earth without a "normal" father. "So i talked to Jeremiah's father, cat named River Rock Mike,  He told me something that I thought was so moving, so soulful.  He told me that his son 'Jeremy wasn't bigger than life. He made the lives of others bigger.' 

"I heard that and I told our host, St. Peter 'That JJ guy ever come up in here and I'm on tour, hire him on the spot. You feel me, Pete?'  That's why we hired him. Because of what his father said. Not because he could blind identify a 149,000,047 B.C. Screaming Pterodactyl."

But,  after three days on the job, Henderson began to clash with Escoffier and chef de cuisine Fernand Point over the future direction of The First Supper's food and beverage parings. Jeremiah was urging the kitchen to incorporate more Thai and Vietnamese dishes on the menu, food he knew matched well with wines and beers he loved. That didn't go over well. Monday night, Jeremiah took a 10 and had a martini with a bleu cheese-stuffed olive backed with a tumbler of garage-made California Apple cider he had brought with him from Earth. He then returned to the dining room and let it rip.

After being suspended during service, Henderson stormed out of the restaurant and went to a hill overlooking the entire world and sat on a lone chair arranged to appreciate the view. A reporter caught up with him. Henderson rose from the chair. He started getting nostalgic for his previous jobs, all of them on Earth, which looked so little, so fragile, yet so damn achingly beautiful  on this heavenly night. Henderson took off his L.A, Kings cap and wiped his brow with the back of his wrist. He sniffled a few times and his eyes grew as shiny as the stars when he wondered aloud what his family and his beloved crew were doing. He even lamented leaving so soon.  

"I wonder if they're missing me. You think they miss me, bud?"

The reporter assured them they did indeed. "Very much so. More than you know."

Henderson pointed to the now-vacant chair. "My crew used to make fun of me because I was always late. They'd send me pictures of an empty chair like that one and say I was there in spirit. Sweet, huh?"

Yeah.

"Earth gets a bad rap lotta the times, but when it's on, bud, when it's on, no place in the universe can beat it. One time, I had the crew dancing to James Brown on a hardwood floor in their stocking feet, sliding around and jumping on the bed like we was five-years-old. Pure, unfiltered, unrestrained  joy. Get on up!" I'll always remember that. Get on up!" 

The reporter asked if Henderson was concerned when he came back to work in a week that he would still have his job at The First Supper.

"I'm not worried at all," said Henderson as he gazed off at Mount Olympus. "But, either way, it's bool.  I hear Zeus is hiring. Yowza!"

Then Jeremiah Henderson looked even further away. Off at galaxies so distant they don't even have formal names. "Maybe I'll just go traveling. Rock a few casbahs.  Hey, kid, you know the best part about traveling?"

The reporter thought about that for awhile, then said 'No. What?'

"Gettin' lost."

IMG_8271.JPG

This story was reported by Mike Henderson, Taylor Grant, Kate Baratta, Alexis S. Kozac, Gary Alan (who is often mistakenly called Alan Gary),  Bethany Walls, Jared Hooper, Adam Vourvoulis, Verona Masongsong, Daniel Flores, Kim Trac, Rachel Kerswell, Matthew Kaner and  Kate Green. It was written by Morty Goldstein, Jr.

Twitter nom is  @makmak47

 

"Fire Alarm Biscuit" of Nancy Silverton/Ruth Reichl Disqualified in International Competition

 A biscuit designed by Nancy Silverton and assembled by Ruth Reichl was disqualified Sunday at the prestigious World Biscuit Championship in Lyons, France by a panel of judges who ruled it had "Violated the spirit of friendly and fair competition."

The biscuit, dubbed the "Fire Alarm Biscuit" due to its propensity to set off alarms because of the copious amount of butter deployed in its assemblage, had taken an overwhelming lead in the competition when the Belgium team filed a formal complaint with the international judges. Brussels Biscuits United claimed the Nancy/Ruth biscuit was more butter than actual biscuit.

What also put the biscuit in the illegal zone was the after-baking addition of two inches of  Buerre de Baratte of Rudolphe Le Meunier. (See http://krikorianwrites.com/blog/2014/1/29/the-dangerous-french-butter-thats-despised-by-its-peers )

"This is a biscuit championship, so enter a biscuit," said Roger DeCoster, team leader of the Belgians. "There were more fire alarms going off in Lyons during the event than their were in the South Bronx in 1977."

The recipe for the biscuit is expected to be released to the public in Silverton's next cookbook.

Both Silverton and Reichl could not be reached for comment.


Squad 7 - The Nancy's Fancy Flavors

There are seven  flavors of Nancy's Fancy. Like the United States Navy's SEAL Team Six, they are an extremely elite unit;

So, with just a little further ado, Nancy Silverton is proud to announce “Squad 7”, the first flavors to qualify to be called Nancy’s Fancy. Five are classified gelato and two are sorbetto.

Before we reveal them, let it be known that Nancy’s Fancy is not intended to shock the world of gelati and sorbetti with joy-dropping flavor combinations. You will not find any overly-manipulated, complex flavor combinations that twist and yank ingredients out of their natural role. They’ll be no main course for your dessert. No fried chicken gelato.  

What you will get from a pint of Nancy’s Fancy - scheduled for release this spring in markets across the United States - is a refinement and enhancement of traditional flavors we’ve all enjoyed. The classics:  chocolate, coffee, peanut butter, coconut, butterscotch, banana, berries. All combined with components that turbocharge Squad 7 to an extraordinary level of concentrated taste. 

Here they are:

GELATO

Chunky Salted Peanut Butter/with Crunchy  Chocolate 

Butterscotch Budino / with  Salted Caramel Swirl  

Roasted Banana  / with Bourbon   & Pecan Praline 

Cold-Brewed Spiced Stumptown Coffee/ with Cracked  Cocoa nib

Fruitti Di Bosco /with Greek Yogurt & Mixed Berries

SORBETTO

Coconut Stracciatella  /with Bittersweet Chocolate Strands

Chocolate  Rum Fondente/  with  Dark Rum & Chocolate Chips     

These seven have an esprit de corps about them, a frozen swagger knowing that of the hundreds of flavor combinations that tried out, they were the ones selected by Nancy Silverton and her executive pastry chef Dahlia Narvaez to be Nancy’s Fancy.

They are a tight-knit group as well. Not only do they chill out together at the pastry kitchen of Mozza or the L.A. Creamery complex in Chatsworth, California where they develop, but at tasting parties and other gatherings. 

And like the Original Rat Pack, they are there for each other and, man, do they know how to have a good time.

For example, check out what happened at a gathering in January. Chocolate Rum Fondente with Dark Rum and Chocolate Chips had a few too many at a Southern California park and cracked wise to three local ice cream sandwiches. Soon, Fondente was surrounded by more than three dozen ice cream sandwiches, many of them frozen hard, frosty cold and steaming.

Suddenly, out of a Nancy’s Fancy Squad 7 freezer, two team members, Coconut Straciatella and Chunky Salted Peanut Butter rappelled down. It was now Fondy, Coco and Chunky, side by side. Talk about a combo. Never in recorded history have so many ice cream sandwiches melted so fast.

It is that closeness, that raffish bond they share, that makes the seven flavors of Nancy’s Fancy so deviously delectable to enjoy together

###.

Here’s a little info on some of the squad.

Chunky Salted Peanut Butter/with Crunchy Chocolate      

On a spring day in 2014, Nancy Silverton took a forkful of just-made micro-batch of peanut butter gelato and slowly savored its intense flavor in silence. Then the nods began. One, two, three, four and then, in the most rarified of reviews, Silverton nodded for a fifth time. The storied “Five Nods from Nancy” had been achieved.

It was salty. Almost too salty, but not. It was like the gelato itself had tip-toed up to the salt limit wall and set up camp. It was a gelato that brought instantaneous pleasure to the taste buds. The zero to 60 time on Chunky is the fastest of any production gelato or ice cream in the world. 

Since then, Since then, in the officina of  Dahlia and Nancy - the pastry kitchen of Mozza -  this salty peanut butter landmark has been given the zultra treatment. For crunch we fold in chocolate-dipped French cookie wafers that are enrobed in 70% bittersweet chocolate.

Let the nods begin.

Butterscotch Budino with Salted Caramel Swirl.

This Nancy’s Fancy is named after the most popular dessert in all of Mozza Land, Dahlia Narvaez’s fabled Butterscotch Budino, which is now copied all over America. Budino is the Italian word for pudding so the gelato is extremely smooth and delicious. And then, as Nancy and Dahlia love to do, it is taken to the zultra level by having salted caramel swirled throughout its lusciousness.

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Fruitti Di Bosco with GreekYogurt & Mixed Berries

Inspired by the classic Greek breakfast of yogurt and berries, this gelato releases wave after wave of mouth-filling sweet tart flavors that invigorate the mouth, linger on the palate and bring a sense of contemplation. Although neither Aristotle, Socrates nor Plato were known to be particularly aggressive and violent, one has to wonder how the three giants of philosophy would react if they were together at a market and all that remained was a lone pint of Nancy’s Fancy Greek Yogurt with mixed Berries.

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Cold-Brewed Spiced Stumptown Coffee/ with Cracked Cocoa nib

Take a Los Angeles base,blend in ingredients from Oregon, Zanzibar, Colombia, Indonesia, Madagascar and India and the result is this eye-opening member of Squad 7. 

We source our cold brew from Stumptown Roasters in Portland, Oregon and mix it with a quintet of Earth’s most beloved spices; cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves and vanilla beans. Once the gelato is spun, Corderilla cocoa nibs, (unfermented cocoa beans) from Colombia join the festa. The result is a gelato that brings mind exotic faraway places and confirms coffee’s place in the pantheon of tasteful pleasures.

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Chocolate Rum Fondente/ with  Dark Rum & Chocolate Chips   

Melted 70% bittersweet chocolate is brazenly, if not downright recklessly folded into a Nancy’s Fancy base with Colombian cocoa powder from Corderilla Chocolate for this insanely rich sorbetto fondly referred to above as “Fondy”

To make matters even more delicious, Meyers dark rum is poured in to give it a kick in the pint. The final blast of flavor and texture come from chocolate chips.

The Fondente family in Italy is planning a week long festa in the spring of 2015 to celebrate the official release of this intense sorbetto.

There will be more flavors that make it to Nancy’s Fancy, but Squad 7 will always be there for you to enjoy.

squar 7

Squad Seven

Still to come profiles of Roasted Banana / with Bourbon & Pecan Praline and Coconut Strach, both of whom were available.

 

Chef Matt Molina Resigns From Mozza To Pursue Career As Race Car Driver, Silverton Calls Him the"George Washington of Mozza"

James Beard Award-winning chef Matt Molina stunned the Los Angeles restaurant world, his family and even his boss, Nancy Silverton, when he announced Saturday he was leaving his job as the Executive Chef of Mozza to chase his dream of becoming a professional race car driver.

"Matt is like the George Washington of the Mozza kitchen," said Silverton shortly after hearing Molina was moving one.  "I'm stunned he is leaving. Especially to race cars."

Within one hour of the news, Team  McLaren announced that Molina, who has been secretly testing road and race cars, had signed a seven-figure contract to be the chief test driver for the esteemed British automobile manufacturer.  McLaren founder Ron Dennis said it was "with profound relief I can finally let the world know it was Matt Molina behind the wheel when the McLaren P1 recently lapped the Nordschilfe at the Nurgurging in under seven minutes."

It had been assumed that McLaren test pilot Chis Goodwin had been driving the P1 during this stunning lap. Check out the video of Molina in the P1 at the Nordschilfe;  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9IWiTpWeiM

Molina had been hinting he would leave to race cars for months. The San Gabriel Valley native  who won the James Bead Award for Outstanding Chef in the Pacific region in 2012 ( http://www.grubstreet.com/2012/05/matt-molina-james-beard-award-mozza.html) was often seen wearing a golf cap with the letter "M" on it, but most thought it meant for either "Matt" or "Molina", It is now known it symbolized McLaren.

It was a 2014 trip to Las Vegas to celebrate the birthday of his friend Adam Levine that really charged Molina when he got to drive an Aston Martin Vanquish S at a local track. "Matty was really happy when he came back from that racing weekend," said former Osteria Mozza sous chef Chris Feldmeier. ."If I'm not mistaken, I think he even asked me how my children were doing. I don't have any kids, but, still." 

News that Molina, who worked with Silverton at Campanile, was leaving stunned the Mozza family.

In New York City, Mario Batali, who gave Molina his nickname "Ponce" because of his uncanny ability to get lost in Italy, wished him well. 

"i have known Ponce for 20 years and have driven long on the golf course and slowly on the 405 with him and  he is truly great at both, but his true metier is in the saute pan,"

Batali added he expected Mclaren's arch rival to try to lure Molina away..

"i wish him the best of luck with the McLaren team, but do not be surprised if the Ferrari team comes knocking," Batali said. "Matt's heart, his palate and his engine are forged of steel and titanium near Modena in Emilia Romagna."

In Los Angeles, there was sadness.

"I am saddened and shocked," said Kate Green, Silverton's assistant. "Hey, let me ask you something. Do you know if I will still be able to get free food with Matty gone?"

Silverton had little to say.

"It's really sad Matty is leaving," said Silverton. "Like I mentioned, the strange thing to me is his new job, racing cars. Every time I've ever been in his car, he drove like an old lady."

Still, she praised her chef who opened Pizzeria Mozza in 2006 and Osteria Mozza months later. "Matty will always be part of the Mozza family."

Liz "Go Go" Hong, formerly the chef at Pizzeria Mozza will move over to the Osteria Mozza as executive chef.  

Molina has not ruled out a return to cooking and opening his own restaurant. 

"The race  season lasts only eight months," said Molina as he enjoyed a smoked short rib at Odysseus and Penelope on La Brea. "I'll have to do something during the other four." 

A sources close to Molina said he would either open a restaurant or join the PGA Tour. Another source said Molina has been offered a job as the private cook for the Tips For Jesus guy

AFter his farewell "lineup" talk, Matt Molina listens as Nancy Silverton toasts his mozza career. Pastry chef Dahlia Narvaez Looks on

AFter his farewell "lineup" talk, Matt Molina listens as Nancy Silverton toasts his mozza career. Pastry chef Dahlia Narvaez Looks on

*For the 2015 season McLaren has already signed Fernando Alonzo and Jenson Button as their Formula One drivers, however Molina is expected to replace either one if they falter