Having been to Italy, I can tell you that the “old-school Italian” joints we are familiar with here are nothing like the real deal. Their menus are built on the Americanized mantra of pizza, pasta with tomato sauce, and sandwiches. You’d be lucky to find much else on the menus at these spots, which captures only a fragment of the vast delicacies Italian cuisine encompasses.

There is so much more than “tomato gravy” and “slices of pie” that the boot-shaped peninsula has to offer. The breadth and depth of regional fare that makes every segment of the country you travel to unique is significant, to the point of re-imagining the average American’s experience with true Italian food.

Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis understands this well. Her food recommendations to those traveling to Italy change depending on what folks want to eat, because, as she told Foodbeast, “it’s a very regional country. If you're a red wine lover and meat lover, go to Florence. Florence is very meat-oriented. If you're looking for fish and white wine and tomatoes and olive oil, go south.” Even the pasta types can change by region, as De Laurentiis describes southern pasta as more durum-based and chewier, versus the softer, eggy noodles you’ll find up north.

There’s a movement of Italian specialists looking to present that regionality to the US and move us past the stereotypes of pizza and tomato sauce. From the constantly-rotating tour of Italy at Philadelphia’s A Mano to the modern refinement of San Francisco’s Perbacco, these culinarians are attempting to convince the nation to look beyond the norm and dive deep into an intricate world of tastes, textures, and sensations.

Duck Breast with rhubarb, pistachio, beet and treviso.

A post shared by A Mano Philly (@amanophilly) on Jun 15, 2018 at 10:01am PDT

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