From Houston to Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, December 12 marked the celebration of the launch of San Marco 1, Italy’s first satellite, sent into orbit on December 15, 1964. This milestone established Italy as a key player on the global space exploration stage. To highlight the contributions of Italian science and technology to humanity’s progre...

50% of Americans believe that the supernatural is involved in determining the outcome of sporting events. That includes Americans who pray for God to help their team (26%), think their team has been cursed (25%) or more generally believe God is involved in determining who wins on the field or on the ice (19%). Overall, half of Americans fall into o...

Beatrice Ughi’s Italian connection. Plus, obsessing over chicken rice, how to use extra pumpkin filling, where chefs eat on their night off and how food waste affects climate change. I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week’s Tasting Notes. Many people are spending Black Friday weekend on the websites of big-box retailer...

The first time I went to the Los Angeles Italian American icon Dan Tana’s was before I even moved to LA. I got to the West Hollywood restaurant late-ish and scored a bar seat next to a fellow New Jersey native, a screenwriter whose name I unfortunately can’t remember. We chatted while I dug into a giant platter of chicken Parm smothered in melted...

Once again this year the Italian Cuisine Week took place here in Los Angeles, from November 18 to 22, intended primarily to promote our agri-food products and our extraordinary culinary culture in the world. The event is promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that also involves other ministries as well as the Italian Academy of Cuisine founded...

Tara Punzone’s culinary journey is a testament to passion and innovation. From her roots in New York City to her bombastic presence in Los Angeles, the Brooklyn native has carved a unique path as the chef-owner of Pura Vita—the first entirely vegan Italian restaurant and wine bar in the country. Her dedication to a plant-based lifestyle, which bega...

We’re days away from the Los Angeles Auto Show and Fiat has quietly confirmed plans to introduce the 500e Giorgio Armani special edition. A debut is scheduled for tomorrow and the model will arrive early next year in limited numbers.While the automaker only released a handful of details, their latest ‘product drop’ isn’t much of a surprise as the E...

They made their names with A Fistful of Dollars, the first in a series of spaghetti westerns that became classics of 20th-century cinema. But the Italian director Sergio Leone had such a poor grasp of English that, between takes, he would repeatedly rely on the words “watch me” before miming whatever he wanted from his leading man, Clint Eastwood,...

Al Ferrara, an outfielder who won World Series championships in 1963 and 1965 with the Dodgers, died Friday. He was 84. Ferrara, nicknamed "The Bull," made his major league debut for the Dodgers on July 30, 1963, and remained in the organization through 1968. He batted .256 with 23 home runs in 249 games over five seasons with Los Angeles. During t...

With a dinner hosted by the Ambassador of Italy to the US, Mariangela Zappia, the series of over fifty events organized by Italy’s diplomatic-consular network, the Italian Cultural Institutes, and Italian Trade Agency offices in the United States began to celebrate the ninth annual Week of Italian Cuisine in the World, themed “Mediterranean Diet an...