Free Republic

An Italian restaurateur, dubbed the 'father of tiramisu', has died aged 93. Ado Campeol, the original owner of Le Beccherie restaurant in Treviso in northeastern Italy, died at his home on Saturday. Although disputed, Mr Campeol and his wife, Alba, are considered to be the inventors of the famous dessert. The dish, now a staple of Italian cuisine, was never patented by the family, but appeared on the restaurant menu in 1972. Le Beccherie, one of the oldest restaurants in Treviso, was opened by the Campeol family in 1939. But it wasn't until Mrs Campeol was pregnant in 1955 that...

We know how great avocado is in salads, sandwiches and especially on toast, but have you ever thought to have it as a dessert? We certainly hadn’t, so when we heard that local sweets chain Café comme ça was selling an avocado tiramisu cake, we immediately knew we had to pay them a visit. Unusual cakes like these tend to be incredibly popular, so we called ahead to reserve a slice as soon as they were released on March 18. When we arrived to pick it up at 3 in the afternoon, we were glad we’d thought ahead, because all...

Israeli military intelligence officials have accused President George W Bush’s administration of undermining their attempts to infiltrate Al-Qaeda’s operations in Iraq by revealing the contents of a secret letter written by Osama Bin Laden’s second-in-command. Israel passed the letter — in which Ayman al-Zawahiri outlined his Middle East strategy to Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq — to Washington last October on condition of strict anonymity. Israeli officials were dismayed, however, when John Negroponte, the US director of national intelligence, made it available in both English and its original Arabic on his office web site. Israeli intelligence...

This is a great site for Christmas recipes.

Dressed in bakers’ whites, Carminantonio Iannaccone sat down at a table as the lunch crowd filtered out of Piedigrotta, the bakery he owns in Baltimore’s Little Italy. He took a sip of coffee from a white cup, clearly spent from his morning in the kitchen. His day typically starts around 4 a.m. Asked his age, he replied 68 in August, then leaned in and added: “But I feel like I’m in my 20s.” That’s a remarkable statement from a man who has lived quite the life. He was born in 1946 in Avellino, Italy, when the country was economically depressed...