Italian: Tuscany

Tuscany: Florence, Sienna, Pisa, Livorno, Arezzo, Fiesole

Just as Dante executed a kind of coup...claiming de facto by his masterpiece the Commedia, that the local Florentine dialect was henceforth to be known as THE Italian vernacular...so Florentine cooking, especially that of the early Renaissance, has become the resonant voice of Italian food in European history. Great Florentine

Irish

Modern Irish restaurant cuisine only scarcely resembles the rustic peasant foods of medieval days. Young chefs have traveled away from and back to their native island, training in between at Michelin starred restaurants and trendy American cooking schools. As a result, you can find indigenous ingredients prepared with French or Asian techniques and a decidedly lighter touch. In the kitchens of the

Sandwiches

1st Century B.C. -- First recorded sandwich made by rabbi Hillel; he pressed chopped nuts, apples, spices and other ingredients between two matzohs to eat with bitter herbs during Passover.

1762 -- Modern sandwich invented in London by John Montague, fourth Earl of Sandwich, when he asks for bread, cheese and meat to be brought so he can continue gambling. He holds the food -- bread outside a