Yesterday, Starbucks launched a new "breakfast sandwich" called the "piadini," inspired by the Italian flatbread-like "piandina" usually filled with meat and/or cheese and eaten at lunch or snack time. Starbucks' piadina introduction was basically screaming for a comparison, and once we got real Italians involved, the taste test results weren't pretty. Initial reaction from Giancarlo Quadalti and Maurizio DeRosa: skepticism. A call up to chef Giancarlo Quadalti of New York's Teodora, Celeste, Bianca, and Fiore—he is from Ravenna, Italy, the home of the piadina—inspired a serious chuckle on the other line. He was equal parts intrigued and frightened. Starbucks is really attempting what sweet, hunched-over Italian women make at streetside kiosks? When we brought him and his good friend,...
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