Post card from Italy: A motley crew of American food press and restaurateurs – on the annual Gruppo Restoratori Italiani pilgrimage with San Domenico’s Tony May – are being wooed at lunch by food and spirits producers of Salentino province in Puglia. With dessert comes a woman pouring a murky dark syrup into a small plastic cup. It tastes like melted chocolate. “Dolcenero” it says on the bottle. Literally, sweet black or black dessert I ask for the label hanging from the neck of the bottle. It shows a page from a newspaper with a photo of our President and the proud boast: “The drinking chocolate preferred by President Obama.”

            Sweet black. Doesn’t that seem a little racist? My friends and I wonder.

           “The issue of racism would never occur to the Italians,” says Tony Mantuano, chef of Chicago’s highly-regarded restaurant Spaggia who made news in Italy when he served the non-alcoholic Dolcenero to the Obamas on fig ice cream at dinner the first weekend after election day. “I love the product. We Americans are very sensitive to racist issues. But the Italians simply adore him.”

            Since news reports of the Obamas’ Spaggia dinner appeared in Italy, the Chicago chef has been deluged with Italian products. And he leaves soon for Italy to be honored by the town of Molise. “Some olive oil producers convinced the mayor I should get a medal.” By the way, the odd elixir comes from the Calogiuri family who have guarded the secret of their vin cotta since 1825. It’s sugarless, as well as alcohol free. Click here to see the Dolcenero story on the Calgiuri web site.

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