A judge on the Food Network’s “Iron Chef America” is launching his nationwide tour of restaurants in Iowa to educate Americans about “real” Italian cooking. Chef Mario Rizzotti came to the U-S from Rome more than 20 years ago and went to work in a restaurant as a dishwasher. He saw meals being served that claimed to be Italian but that he’d never heard of before. Rizzotti is calling this year-long trip across America his “4 the Love of Italian Food Tour.”

“What we’re trying to accomplish is to promote the healthy benefits of authentic Italian food and authentic Italian ingredients,” Rizzotti says. “There are so many things out there that we consider ‘Italian’ that in Italy, we don’t even have.” He vows that he won’t be flying from city to city on this journey. Rizzotti says, “I’m going to actually drive from Chicago with one of my chefs and we’ll load up the car with prosciutto di San Daniele, with parmigiano di Giano, with many other ingredients that are very hard to find in those cities.”

Rizzotti’s first stop is Sunday in Sioux City at Trattoria Fresco, for a special charity dinner to benefit the Sioux City Farmers Market. The road to healthier eating, he says, begins with portion control. “We sometimes have the perception that a plate of pasta has to be overflowing your dish. We have a perception that we have tons of sauce in our dish, that’s part of the dish,” Rizzotti says. “Well, it’s the opposite. In Italy, our portions are much smaller and the quantity of the sauce that we use is just enough to give a color and taste to the pasta.”

The restaurant tour is designed to teach Americans about authentic Italian food products, helping them distinguish real from fake, and how those real ingredients can help reduce many health issues related to poor eating. Rizzotti says, “It’s all about one main ingredient that should be on every single dish that we cook, Italian or not, and it is the passion for the food.”

He says he lives by one simple motto: “An authentic Italian meal is not the consumption of food, but a celebration of Dolce Vita.” In addition to the Sunday stop in Sioux City, Rizzotti will return to Sioux City next Wednesday. To kick off the tour, he’ll also be visiting restaurants in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska.

http://www.mariorizzotti.com/

(Radio Iowa)

An observant Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Deputy, Thursday, arrested a man he knew to have been driving without a valid license. Deputy Brandon Ramsey saw a pickup driven by 50-year old Kenneth Peavy, Jr., of Council Bluffs. He pulled the vehicle over at around 10:20-p.m., and determined the man was still barred from driving.

When asked if he had any weapons on him or in the vehicle, Peavy stated that he did have brass knuckles. Upon further investigation, though, Peavy was arrested for carrying weapons, including a concealed gun. He was also cited for driving while suspended.

A traffic strop Wednesday evening in Pottawattamie County resulted in the arrest of an Avoca man. The Pott. County Sheriff’s Office says 23-year old Brandon Bradley Pospisal was taken into custody at around 9-p.m. for Probation Violation, after the vehicle he was a passenger in, was pulled over for having an improper rear license plate light.

A records check on Pospisal indicated he had an active warrant for probation violation. He was placed under arrest and brought to the Pott. County Jail.

Police in Creston, Thursday morning, arrested 30-year old James Jack Clark, of Pleasant Hill, for Failure to Comply with the State’s Sex Offender Registry/1st offense. Clark was transported to the Union County Jail, and later released on $2,000 bond. Also arrested Thursday morning in Creston, was 42-year old James Raymond Mcfail, of Creston. He was taken into custody at the Adult Probation Office in Creston, on a Page County warrant for Possession of meth and of a firearm by a domestic assaulter.  McFail was transported to Page County Jail.

Authorities in Creston said also, a resident of the 300 block of Maple Street, reported that sometime between Aug. 10th and Aug. 25th, a toolbox was stolen from his shed.  The loss was estimated at $100.