Nizza, Food Allergy Aware, Video

Fungi Socca

*UPDATE January 2013: Chef Mike is no longer at Nizza.*

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know Nizza has been my food BFF for some time now. I had my birthday there a few years back and we shot some of this Cooking Channel segment there two years ago. Recently, they brought on a new Chef de Cuisine, Michael Schimelpfenig or Chef Mike. It seemed like a perfect time to revisit Nizza and their allergen awareness policies and just general niceness, really. They kindly invited us to come in and make their home, ours for a few hours and film it on video.

Numodo shot and produced this fourth video in the Dining OutWith Food Allergies series at Nizza. You can watch it via a link here or embedded below:

Scrumptious, right?

Here’s a behind the scenes tidbit. Initially, that gorgeous fungi socca with truffle oil worried me. Chef Mike went over every ingredient and all was safe, I love mushrooms, but the truffle oil...who made it and was it possible tree nut contaminated? Very often truffle oil is made in France by companies that produce walnut oil, a French cuisine staple. Or like this oil made in California with a French process and partnership. If you have a look at La Tourangelle's nut oil lists, and you are a nut-allergic girl like me, you will see why when Chef Mike said fungi socca with truffle oil, I paused.  

I gently explained that very often truffle oil is made by a nut oil producer. He immediately went and retrieved the oil bottle to show me the label. It's from a company called Sogno Toscano. The label didn’t mention that it contained tree nuts or was made in a facility with tree nuts nor did the website that I checked from my smart phone say anything about tree nuts. But it was imported from Italy, so I was unsure if they were, or were mandated to be, FALCPA compliant.

Chef Mike said, “I can call the distributor right now, they can call the company directly and we can find out the answer.” See why we love him! His cell phone was at the ready and in less than two minutes, we had the answer. Sogno Toscano does not make nor process any nut oils in their facility. I able to tuck in with confidence and boy, was it yummy.

Does this mean that Nizza is 100% safe for everyone, all of the time, about every allergen? No, that’s not possible. But with communication about your needs and concerns with regards to your allergen(s), the staff at Nizza will do what they can to allay those concerns and make you a dish that is safe for you.

Thank you again Nizza, can’t wait to see you again soon!

(212) 956-1800

630 9TH AVE

NIZZARESTAURANT@GMAIL.COM