Appetito's Italian language instructor Luna is back with another lesson: 2 useful sentences to use in an Italian restaurant to order better.

Italian Lessons With Luna: 2 Useful Sentences to Use in an Italian Restaurant

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Ankish Shetty is the Corporate Executive Chef at Restaurant Associates (Compass Group), where he oversees the culinary program for one of Wall Street&#8217;s most prominent financial institutions in New York City. Mumbai-born and Michelin-trained, he cut his professional teeth at Rasoi by Vineet — the Michelin-starred Indian restaurant at Mandarin Oriental in Geneva — and at the Kempinski Grand Hotel Des Bains in St. Moritz. His cooking sits at the intersection of classical Indian technique and European precision, a perspective he has explored through his fusion concept, Fusion Chef, which has built a following around the idea that Indian and Italian culinary traditions share more than food media ever acknowledges. He works and cooks in New York.

Ankish Shetty

Spaghetti al Makhani by Chef Ankish Shetty.

Features

When Makhani Met Spaghetti

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<div class="py-[3px] whitespace-pre-wrap u-break-words">Mario Traina is a Sicilian chef, gastronome, and educator based in Catania. A graduate and ambassador of the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo (founded by Slow Food&#8217;s Carlo Petrini), he is the founder of the Comunità Educativa Gastronomica Etnea, Sicily&#8217;s first educational gastronomic community. He works as a private chef across the island, cooking for travelers with a zero-waste philosophy rooted in local ingredients and Sicilian tradition.</div>
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<div class="py-[3px] whitespace-pre-wrap u-break-words">Website: <a title="https://chefmariotraina.com" href="https://chefmariotraina.com/">chefmariotraina.com</a> | Instagram: @chefmariotraina</div>
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Chef Mario Traina in the kitchen with an apron on.

Chef Mario Traina

What a Sicilian Stuffed Artichoke Can Teach About Memory and Family

Samuel Ghelli is an Italian scholar and educator based in New York. He teaches and directs the Italian and Food Studies programs at York College, CUNY.

Samuel Ghelli

A rustic Italian kitchen with broth simmering beside vegetable scraps and Parmesan rinds

Tutto Fa Brodo: The Italian Expression That Refuses to Waste Anything

Paola Marocchi is a NYC-based pastry chef who has worked for some of the world&#8217;s most acclaimed chefs and restaurant groups. Her passion for Italian food was ignited from early childhood, growing up in an Argentinian household of Italian background that valued all things homemade and food as the main guest in any celebration. In her free time, she travels all over Italy mingling with locals and sharing in the culture, food, language and love for all things Italian.
Follow Paola on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/paola_marocchi_/">Instagram.</a>

Paola Marocchi

View of Sanremo on the Italian Riviera with boats and mountains at sunset

Travel

Why Sanremo Is the Italian Riviera Escape to Know Now

Sharla Ault is an Italian based creator of <a href="http://sharlafied.com/">sharlafied.com</a>, a website on hospitality, with focus on the drinks industry. She has vast experience in the business and has conducted masterclasses, judged bar competitions and attended bar shows around the globe. As a freelancer, she has written about travel, luxury and spirits.
As a travel writer, she is a regular contributor to Excellence Magazine (Lugano) and has been published in Condé Nast Traveler USA and UK, the Sunday Times travel magazine, La Cucina Italiana, edited the Cadogan guide, and is a local expert for Condé Nast Johansens.
She produced two Nardini Grappa handbooks, collecting recipes from bartenders worldwide. Her latest project is Spirits of Adventure, documenting spirits in liquid and soulful forms in her sailboat that has covered over 3000 miles from Italy to the Canaries and is planned to continue in fall 2026 to the Caribbean.

Headshot of Sharla Ault, pictured with an orange background, smiling.

Sharla Ault

Sunset view of Bassano del Grappa with the covered wooden bridge and mountains in the background

Four Bassano del Grappa Restaurants Locals Don’t Want You to Know About

Cassandra Lena Santoro is a New York born Italian American, dual citizen and the CEO and Founder of <a href="https://www.travelitalianstyle.com/">Travel Italian Style. </a>As a personal trip planner, she has visited all 20 Regions of Italy and is currently based in Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. While she enjoys the seaside life of the south you can still find her traveling throughout the country discovering inspiring and immersive experiences for her clients.
Cassandra and her company have been featured in CNN, Forbes, La Cucina Italiana and more. She also leads motivational talks in hopes to inspire others on their journey. Her highlight appearance was being a speaker in Germany for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj5-PsRDvw8">TEDx DHBW Mannheim</a>. You can follow her adventures of Italian entrepreneur life <a href="https://www.instagram.com/travelitalianstyle/">on Instagram.</a>

Cassandra Lena Santoro, CEO and Founder of Travel Italian Style.

Cassandra Lena Santoro

Boats floating off the Sorrento coastline at sunset with Mount Vesuvius in the distance.

Exploring Sorrento’s Culinary Traditions with Access Italy

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Hello. My name is Joanna Moeller, and I am a passionate home cook residing in downtown Manhattan for 20+ years. I started my Instagram cooking page <a href="https://www.instagram.com/spaghettiroots_nyc/">@spaghettiroots_nyc </a>in April, 2023, as a way to showcase my cooking, as I initially intended for it to be more of an inspirational cooking page featuring my &#8220;No recipe, recipes.&#8221; It has truly been a wonderfully creative outlet for me.

Joanna Moeller

Grilled mortadella and mozzarella sandwich by Joanna Moeller.

Recipes

Grilled Mortadella & Mozzarella Sandwich for the Holiday Weekend

Alessia Angelini, Elena Martinolli &amp; Susanna Viola, are founders of Wanderlust: a project by Fast Track Italian Citizenship. These three Italian women live, breathe, and love Italy and founded Wanderlust: a project by Fast Track Italian Citizenship to share the real Italy: the intimate corners, the local flavors, the stories you won’t find in guidebooks. 
Think of us as your Italian friends who know exactly where to go, when to go, and how to avoid the crowds. We’re here to help you experience Italy with heart, depth, and authenticity, just like a local!

The Wanderlust Team

The Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) over the Brenta River in Bassano del Grappa in the northeast of Italy.

Northern Italy Is the New Destination for Culinary Travelers

Lowcountry Bella (Mandi Casey) is Italian by birth and Southern by choice. Moving to eastern North Carolina as a young girl, she was exposed to a whole new type of cuisine like BBQ and hush puppies. As an adult, she embraces both cultures so you never know what she may be cooking up in her kitchen! Currently she lives in both Pawleys Island, South Carolina and Fort Mill, South Carolina.
Her family continues to grow, and that makes her happy because there are more people to feed and love. What&#8217;s better than that?
In addition to creating, cooking and sharing great recipes, she loves to research the history of food origins. Understanding the flavors and ingredients helps her creativity, but more-so, appreciate the meal with even more passion.
Mandi loves to be a guest of events, signing books and donating a portion of her net proceeds to local charities. Her second cookbook, Mangia Y&#8217;all &#8211; Make Everyday Delicious, is scheduled to be released on July 19, 2025.
Please follow her on her website <a href="http://www.lowcountrybella.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.lowcountrybella.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1705416623316000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2qLX1Ag56lHqdrjNXYhkQG">www.lowcountrybella.com </a>or on social media: @lowcountrybella on both Instagram and Facebook.
Mangia Y’all!

Lowcountry Bella

Peachy Summer Salad

How to Make Spaghetti al Makhani

Vinny DelGiudice is the creator of <a href="http://alwaysfromscratch.com">Always From Scratch</a>, where he shares approachable, rustic Italian and family-style recipes inspired by tradition and everyday life. With a background in photography and a love for storytelling, Vinny makes cooking feel personal, not performative. Whether he&#8217;s perfecting seafood for weeknight ease or getting sauce on his shirt despite wearing an apron, his content brings heart, humor, and heritage to the kitchen, always with a nod to where it all started: home.

Vinny DelGiudice smiling in his kitchen, wearing a blue shirt and glasses.

Vinny DelGiudice

Mortadella on Focaccia by Vinny DelGuidice.

Real Italian, Real Fast: Mortadella on Focaccia with Italian Salsa Verde

Appetito Editors

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Regina’s Grocery eggplant sandwich inside the Orchard Street location with Roman Grandinetti and Joanna Moehler