Chefs are anything but nonchalant about sourcing ingredients. Missy Robbins, who cooks at Lilia in Brooklyn, has been using La Valle tomatoes for the past ten years; when it was time to choose a cooking olive oil for their restaurant, she tasted fifteen types before landing on Monini; and they bring in Tutto Calabria jarred chiles from Italy.
Even the salt, an ingredient often taken for granted, is carefully chosen: At Lilia, they use only Diamond Crystal kosher salt — and if Morton's kosher salt comes in, Chef Robbins says, it throws everything off. (When Food52's Test Kitchen Manager worked in the kitchen at Franny's, he remembers using "the red box" — that's also Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt too).
