A A.L. Bazzini Nuts, 718-842-8644 "Almond Brazil cashew chestnut filbert macadamia pecan pepita pistachio " ...
At his warehouse, millions of pounds of nuts?ground, granulated, sliced, dry roasted, oil roasted, honey roasted, toffee coated, chocolate coated?plus a comprehensive variety of dried fruits, are processed and sold each year. Wearing a shower cap of sorts over his shiny bald head and graying beard, Damato leads me into the factory, a busy place rich with the whir of machinery and the oily, toasty smell of roasted nuts.
Our first stop is at an enormous vat holding 600 pounds of freshly roasted pistachios. As Damato points out machines that can roast 12,000 to 15,000 pounds of nuts at a time, he fastidiously picks empty shells out of the batch and throws them into the trash.
The relationship between Bazzini and his nuts has followed the food through many a cultural moment. The company has been supplying Yankee Stadium with peanuts since its inaugural game against the Red Sox in 1923. When I suggested that New York City and the nut have also enjoyed a unique historical association, Damato tests this theory by breaking out into a rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." Mumbling his way through the song while conducting with his pointer finger, he is satisfied at "Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks."
"You're right!" says Damato, in genuine amazement. "When I go to Yankees games I spend $4 on the damn peanuts myself!"
During the Willy Wonka section of the tour, Clayton, a burly Jamaican fellow covered in a fine chocolate mist, directs a spray of milk chocolate onto roiling almonds in a rotating drum, beside three others where undreamt-of quantities of chocolate-covered espresso beans, cranberries and more almonds are going through the "glossing" process, whereupon chocolate-covered sweets take on their inviting sheen. Damato invites me to stick my hand into the sea of jumping espresso beans, which run through my fingers like water until I close my hand and grasp two or three.
The cachet that Bazzini's offers has benefited greatly from the culinary and diet revolutions of the recent past, spanning from the gourmet movement of the 80s and beyond. The latest rebirth of the nut as a "hot" item is in its role in the desirable Mediterranean diet, characterized by the consumption of, among other things, nuts and seeds. Less recently, the nut has snuck its way into our lives as a key component in pesto (pine nuts), and in the nut-encrusted meat and fish filets found on swank restaurant menus.
Such changes have elevated the nut to much more than the dusty snack on your grandma's coffee table. Damato notes, quite correctly, "They're getting a broader use than the old days of cracking nuts at the Thanksgiving Day table or getting half-pound bags of cashews for gifts from J.C. Penny."