Snobby NYC restaurants too good for garlic: 'It's Italian-American, not Italian'

[brooklynite]

In a symbolic moment in “The Godfather,” capo Clemenza teaches Michael how to make pasta sauce. “You start out with a little bit of oil,” he says. “Then you fry some garlic.”

For many cooks and diners alike, garlic is the staple ingredient of Italian cuisine, as critical to the flavors as tomatoes and Parmesan cheese. But increasingly, the city’s swankiest Italian spots are cutting down on the aromatic allium — or doing away with it altogether — to please finicky clientele worried about their breath, and let other ingredients shine.

“People always complained that it was smelly and gassy,” Thomas Makkos, the owner of Upper East Side celeb mainstay Nello, told The Post. “Finally, I made the decision to get rid of it all together, and my customers thanked me.”

Makkos said he banned the stinker of an ingredient in the summer of 2020 in response to diners’ requests. He blamed COVID protections: “Imagine eating a meal with garlic and putting a mask on,” he said. “You’re breathing your own bad breath.” (Some regulars miss the garlic, though, and the kitchen makes special accommodations for them.)

https://nypost.com/2022/04/14/snobby-nyc-italian-restaurants-are-now-banning-garlic/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Jesus, my kitchen always has at least two heads of garlic at all times.

[Pas-de-Calais]

2. Welps

[The Magistrate]

3. I Can't Think Of Much Off-Hand I Cook Without Garlic

Now if you're looking to do away with some noxious ingredient or other, there is always Parmesan cheese....

[smirkymonkey]

20. I prefer Peccorino Romano.

It's much more flavorful and you need less of it to make an impact on a dish.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Oh, dear lord.

When I lived in Minneapolis 40 years ago, there was a local Italian restaurant that was famous for not using any garlic. The Scandinavians who were then the majority population just loved it. Everyone else thought it was hilarious.

And the mask wearing/smelling your own breath doesn't hold water.

[Ocelot II]

9. I'm a Minneapolis Scandinavian who hates garlic.

Wish I'd known which restaurant that was.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. I understand.

This was in 1982 when we lived there, and I doubt it's still around.

I'm just fine with garlic myself. But I'm one for whom cilantro tastes like soap, and for me it's quite discouraging how often cilantro is in a dish that never had it in the past.

[Ocelot II]

17. Ha, I love cilantro!

Gotta have it in Mexican food, but it’s weird in anything else.

[intrepidity]

26. Thai and Vietnamese

Both have certain dishes that depend upon cilantro

[Ocelot II]

29. That, too. Good stuff.

[DonCoquixote]

19. does this mean

people can tease scandinavians about their food smelling like fish? These are the people who eat Lutefisk and surstommong.

[smirkymonkey]

21. It is so interesting how different ethnic groups can have such strong reactions to

ingredients they aren't familiar with. I wonder if developing a palate is learned or partially genetic. It's interesting, but many of my purely Anglo/Irish friends find my tomato sauce "very spicy" just because there is some garlic in it, whereas others who are central or southern european don't notice the "heat/spice" at all.

I am pretty much exactly half northern european (English, Dutch, Scottish, Swedish and Irish) and half southern european (Northern and Southern Italian, French and a tiny bit of Greek/Macedonian).
,
I enjoy most foods and flavors from all over the world, but I draw the line at organ meats, fermented animal products and really disgusting "delicacies" (don't make me get in to it).

[Pobeka]

5. March 2020. We were not worried about TP supply, only whether we had enough garlic and onions.

That's the serious truth.

[Kittycatkat]

6. Note to self: NEVER eat at Nello or hang out with their "finicky" clientele.

I have been to many fine Italian restaurants, I am part Italian, I grew up in a NYC neighborhood with many many Italian families. No one ever said "these clams are too garlicky" or "this garlic bread would be even more delicious sans the garlic". To all those tiresome finicky types out there whining and eeewwwing and ruining fine cuisine, I say (with garlicky breath if I just ate Italian) fu@kem. Then I get a stick of cinnamon gum from my pocket.

[RobinA]

18. Tell Me About It!!

May I never eat in a restaurant frequented by people who are felled by garlic. Not liking it, OK. Too gassy and smelly? Whaaaaaaaa!!! And I am no part Italian, but I happen to love it.

[smirkymonkey]

22. Seriously!

I love the smell and taste of garlic! There is a restaurant in San Francisco called "The Stinking Rose" which features garlic in almost all their menu items.

It's not my favorite restaurant, but that has nothing to do with the garlic. It just isn't the best food in the city, but it's kind of a novelty. Actually, the food is kind of bland, IMHO.

I am also part Italian and I agree that garlic is an indispensable part of their culinary heritage. What is the problem? Are people going all Royal Family now? No aromatics?

Pro tip: Eat parsley to cleanse the system of the scent of garlic.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

7. Being part Italian myself, GARLIC is to Italian cuisine

As Santa is to Christmas.

The aroma of Olive oil and Garlic together is what makes an Italian restaurant notable. Once I get a whiff of garlic in the air, I know the food is going to be good.

[intrepidity]

27. Right?

I mean, imagine walking by the place--what would it smell like? Nothing! You'd barely know it was a restaurant at all if there weren't tables and people.

[Ocelot II]

8. I wish I lived there so I could go to one of those restaurants,

because I totally hate garlic.

[TlalocW]

10. I just made my super salad

That lasts me a week - modified with some different ingredients because I joined Imperfect Foods, and they sent some stuff I had never had - including watermelon radishes. Anyway, a staple of it is always an entire bulb of garlic, diced.

TlalocW

[electric_blue68]

11. Hello from your neighbor across the Adriatic Sea. I'm 2nd Gen half 🇬🇷 Greek American...

We 💖 love garlic as much as Italians do! 😄

Almost every Greek recipe uses garlic usually minced, or occasionally rubbed on meat, and almost all use olive oil as well.

We have a side dish called skordalia which is basically
a garlic sauce or dip. So lots of minced garlic, or garlic paste. Having double checked ingredients I had -no idea- that instead of potatoes you could use bread in it's place along with almonds, and even walnuts. They both use olive oil.
The only way I've ever had it is potatoes, olive oil, garlic, and a touch of red wine vinegar.

[smirkymonkey]

24. Greek food is one of my favorites!

And i love the herbs and spices used in their cuisine, including garlic, oregano, mint, thyme, coriander, etc.

It is so delicious and healthy.

[BWdem4life]

12. I wonder if this explains the garlic-free garlic bread at Spiro's.

[drmeow]

13. and let other ingredients shine.

If you need to eliminate garlic to "and let other ingredients shine." you are not a very good cook!

[smirkymonkey]

23. So agree with this.

Garlic can be a very good complement to other flavors and even enhance them.

[Fla Dem]

14. NO GARLIC! Then they're not true Italian.

[Aristus]

16. I don't have a drop of Italian blood, but if the Italian cuisine I'm eating doesn't have garlic,

I'm sending it back to the kitchen to have it done right.

The garlic-haters don't seem to understand that putting up with garlic breath, even your own, is the price you pay for eating garlic, one of the most wonderful, sublime ingredients in the world.

[tblue37]

25. My grandparents came from Sicily. We consider garlic to be one of the major food groups.

[intrepidity]

28. My first thought when the pandemic hit was:

oh boy, time for unlimited garlic consumption! Proper social distancing is a natural consequence.

To this day, I practice both regularly.