Eat, love, eat.
A newsletter about the culture of eating and drinking better in Northern Italy.
Benvenut*!
Risotto & Steel will share articles, maps and suggested reads on food & culture in Northern Italy. We'll cover new openings, offer tours, plan travel, share chef collaborations, and more.
Thank you for sharing, and following along!
Elizabeth’s most recent Milan guide: The 20 Best Restaurants in Milan — Infatuation
What we’re reading: Beneath a Scarlet Sky, by Mark T. Sullivan, The story of a young Italian boy who helps Jews escape from Nazi-occupied Milan during WWII. A total page turner.
Favorite restaurants in Milan this week: Gusto della Nebbia, Sandi
While most newsletters will focus on Milan food, drink and travel in Northern Italy, I wanted to start by sharing a bit about how I found my way to this city.
I moved to Milan in the spring of 2015. What was supposed to be an eight-month stint has turned into nearly a decade.
The job that brought me here—working with the James Beard Foundation at the Milan World’s Fair—was meant to be temporary, but it also felt like the natural next step after years of immersion in the food revolution sweeping America. Back in Brooklyn, where I lived, food culture was exploding. The early 2000s were a golden era—food television, farmers’ markets, food trucks, and even Michelle Obama were redefining how we ate and thought about food. My friends and I lived and breathed it: third-wave coffee, grass-fed burgers in Brooklyn diners, and food flea markets.
Milan. A city I had barely spent time in before, yet arriving here felt like stepping into Mecca. Expo 2015 was a global gathering of food policymakers, students, and creatives—it felt like the beginning of something new. And for me, it was. Milan wasn’t just another stop. Weeks before my return flight to New York, I met the man who would become my husband. My Elizabeth Gilbert era had begun.
Landing in Milan, I tried to recreate the rhythm of my Brooklyn life—but quickly realized the city was on the cusp of its own transformation. Fair-trade coffee? Only one place across town. Good sourdough? Practically nonexistent. My sweet Italian man appreciated his 1-euro espresso while we waited for Milan to reach the post-industrial disenchantment that had already shaped other major European cities. (Starbucks, unfortunately, also arrived in 2018.)
Felipe was a true Milanese, eager to show me his favorite old-school trattorias—by tandem bike, no less. Through him, I discovered the historic, often overlooked Milan, riding along the canals that flood into the carnaroli rice fields, the lifeblood of risotto Milanese.
Fast forward nearly a decade, and the transformation is undeniable. The restaurant scene is dynamic, with more openings than one could possibly keep track of. Chinese cuisine has expanded far beyond Paolo Sarpi, and non-Italian food has found a firm foothold in new neighborhoods. Dumpling shops, wine bars, and cocktail spots are thriving. Milan may not have been ready in 2015, but it was hungry.
Allora, and now it’s time to dive into the who, what, and where of it all. A presto! (see you soon)
Please don't be shy about leaving a comment, sending me a DM or emailing me about topics you want to see here.
We are already planning trips for fall 2025 --it's never too early to drop us a line if you're planning to travel in Northern Italy.