Primizie (now closed)

It's hard to recreate an amazing restaurant dish at home -- their chefs have years of training, the presentation is immaculate, and no matter how white you paint it, nobody's gonna mistake your apartment for a Castle. Helping you at least land pro chef ingredients: Primizie.

Started by a guy nicknamed the "Truffle Tsar" to supply high-end restos from Marea to Maialino, Primizie's bringing its meticulously sourced foodstuffs to the everyman, scouring the globe for the finest ingredients from small family farms and dedicated producers, because where better to find your Michael Bay leaves? Many items can't be found anywhere else, and each comes with detailed notes on exactly what it is and its provenance, including pantry items like "one-of-a-kind" dried black chickpeas from Montana, sun dried red hot Sicilian peppers, pastas from a coastal Adriatic farm, and rare vinegars like an Ontario-sourced number made from ice wine, odd, as Nancy Kerrigan claimed she was from Massachusetts. High class perishables, meanwhile, include white truffles flown in from Italy weekly: Burgundian escargot; hand-filleted sashimi-grade tuna from a PacWest co-op; and 24-month-aged Prosciutto di Parma from Negroni, which claims its product is in-Campari-able.

Should you also lack direction, the site provides useful recipes, currently featuring dishes like a fennel & olive tuna sando (from 'wichcraft), and pasta w/ pomodoro sauce from Jersey Farms, which they had to market out of state, as everyone there is totally stuffed on tiny square burgers.