MARBELLA CLUB

An Italian businessman and his wife were arrested Thursday, accused by Naples prosecutors of extorting money and favors from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in return for what prosecutors described as “cooperation” in an investigation into a high-end prostitution ring in the southern city of Bari.

While the prosecutors consider Mr. Berlusconi a victim in the case, the arrests further weaken, and distract, him at a time when he is struggling to rally his fractious center-right coalition around a package of austerity measures expected to go before Parliament next week.

Few details about the extortion case were officially released. But the Naples prosecutor Francesco Greco called “credible” an account that appeared in last week’s edition of the newsweekly Panorama, which is owned by Mr. Berlusconi. Panorama said that the prime minister had paid the businessman, Gianpaolo Tarantini, about $715,000, as well as sizable monthly payments, to encourage him to strike a plea bargain if necessary to keep the case in Bari from going to trial.

In that case, Mr. Tarantini admitted that he had paid a prostitute and other women to attend parties at Mr. Berlusconi’s residences, saying he aimed to curry favor with the prime minister, a billionaire businessman himself.

A trial would have the potential of uncovering yet more unsavory details of Mr. Berlusconi’s dalliances. He is already on trial in Milan, accused of paying for sex with an under-age Moroccan woman. He denies wrongdoing.

Mr. Berlusconi told Panorama that he did not deny the payments, but that he had simply wanted to help Mr. Tarantini, “who found himself and still finds himself in very serious economic difficulty.”

“I have nothing to repent,” Mr. Berlusconi told Panorama. “On the contrary. I did nothing illicit. I limited myself to helping a desperate man without asking for anything in exchange.”

The Naples prosecutors say that Mr. Tarantini and his wife, Angela Devenuto, forced Mr. Berlusconi to pay their legal bills and housing costs, among other favors.

They have long been maligned as fattening and shunned by those  following the Dukan and other low-carb diets.

But potatoes could be the latest superfood. For eating a portion twice a day can lower blood pressure, researchers say. What is more, it seems there is no weight gain involved.

However, before you get out the roasting tin or rush to the chip shop, read on.

Microwaved spuds, free of butter, oil or ketchup, are best for health, scientists say. Baked potatoes and boiled spuds, including mash, are also acceptable.

In the study, 18 men and women were asked to eat six to eight golf ball-sized potatoes with their lunch and dinner, as part of their normal diet.

Most of those taking part were overweight or obese and on pills to lower blood pressure.

After a month of the ‘tattie treatment’, their blood pressure readings dropped significantly – suggesting the potatoes were powerful enough to take over when the tablets could not do any more.

Yet almost daily, defendants in court plead guilty to crimes and agree to serve time, some begrudgingly, others acquiescently and a select few happily.

Mbarek Lafrem, a native of Morocco who had been arrested in Manhattan, was the picture of ambivalence when it came to accepting punishment.

Mr. Lafrem, 32, pleaded guilty in July to attacking a woman in the restroom of a Midtown bar, and the judge, Justice Ronald A. Zweibel of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, said he would be sentenced to 16 years in prison. But on Thursday, Mr. Lafrem, mumbling and visibly agitated, asked Justice Zweibel if he could withdraw his guilty plea.

In court, Mr. Lafrem’s lawyer, Yana A. Roy, said she did not quite understand her client’s reasoning and did not support his request to renege on his plea. Outside court, Ms. Roy said she believed he was having a difficult time dealing with the length of the sentence. This arrest was Mr. Lafrem’s first time behind bars, Ms. Roy said.

Mr. Lafrem gave the judge a lengthy letter explaining why he wanted to withdraw his guilty plea.

Justice Zweibel took a few moments to read it. He quickly flipped through some of the pages. At times while reading, he inhaled deeply and breathed out heavily.

Then he said, “I find no merit to the papers whatsoever.” Referring to what Mr. Lafrem had conceded to about the crime, the judge continued, “The defendant was fully allocuted by this court when the plea was taken.”

Justice Zweibel said he would not revoke the plea deal.

Before the judge formally imposed the 16-year sentence for first-degree assault and attempted sexual abuse — after the completion of which Mr. Lafrem is to be deported to Morocco — Shanda Strain, an assistant district attorney, provided her interpretation of the defendant’s change of heart.

“It does appear to be a boilerplate motion filed by many defendants who are often having buyer’s remorse, so to speak, after having time to contemplate their plea,” Ms. Strain said. “It appears to be a last-ditch effort.”

When Justice Zweibel asked if he had anything to say, Mr. Lafrem spoke a few words that could not be heard in the courtroom gallery. Later, Ms. Roy quoted him as saying, “Whatever the judge decides, that’s the way it’s going to be.”

According to prosecutors, Mr. Lafrem punched a 29-year-old woman several times in March 2010, leaving her unconscious and with her slacks partly removed in a restroom at Social, a bar on Eighth Avenue between 48th and 49th Streets.

Thursday was not the first time that Mr. Lafrem had reconsidered a decision to plead guilty.

At an earlier hearing, he had gone to court ready to accept a plea deal, his lawyer said, only to decide against it. The difficulty then, Ms. Roy said, was that Mr. Lafrem did not want to admit to attempting to sexually abuse the woman because he was a Muslim and his faith considers that crime to be one of the ultimate acts of wrongdoing.

The lawyers had in fact arranged a plea in which Mr. Lafrem would have had to concede only that he could have been found guilty of trying to sexually abuse the woman if the prosecutors had been able to prove certain things, Ms. Roy said. But at that hearing, there was no interpreter to properly explain that to Mr. Lafrem.

On Thursday, an interpreter was by his side.

But as he left the courtroom, he wore a scowl on his face and grumbled to himself, his hands cuffed behind his back.

If you are passionate about food and wine, there is no such thing as a holiday from the subject. It is impossible for me to visit any new destination without first inquiring about the most interesting chefs or restaurants in the region, regardless of why I am going there.

Enough of my friends had mentioned Marbella's Calima (www.restaurantecalima.es), a two-star Michelin restaurant run by the young Andalusian chef Dani García, for me to know it was worth the journey down Costa del Sol's tourist-polluted coastline during a recent holiday to Spain. Quests like this always have a certain risk. There are too many Michelin-starred establishments in the world that create cuisine of technical excellence but without any clear identity—if you were blindfolded, you wouldn't know if you were in Helsinki, Munich or Lyon. This is not an affliction I suffered at Calima, which offered the most pleasurable and original meal I have had for some time.


Andalusian chef Dani García promotes regional flavors using Molecular Cuisine techniques.

Mr. García is a native of Andalusia, and is firmly rooted in the traditions and food of Spain's southern heartland. The jovial 35-year-old chef first worked with Martín Berasategui, the acclaimed Basque chef from San Sebastian, then spent time in and around neighboring Malaga before coming to Marbella in 2005 to open Calima on the raised terrace of Gran Melia Don Pepe, a luxury hotel with uninterrupted views over the Mediterranean.

Spanish cuisine has been at the forefront of the international food world for the past decade, thanks in large part to Ferran Adrià's El Bulli and the Molecular Gastronomy movement with which it was associated. But that Modernist style isn't one that would immediately come to mind if you were contemplating a chef in southern Spain who takes special pride in promoting regional flavors.

This would be an error. Mr. García is actually a devotee of many of Mr. Adrià's techniques, and even if the young chef's end result isn't overwhelmed by "molecular food," he uses the methods to put on a brilliant exposition of the culinary heritage of Andalucía in a set meal of 20 or so courses.

"Ferran is extremely important in my evolution—both personally and professionally," says Mr. García. "He is not just a major chef, but he helps people who come to him with culinary problems. I have never actually cooked with him in El Bulli, but we travel a lot together." (In fact, the chef was about to head off on a tour of China with Mr. Adrià.)

"Also, Ferran spoke to the hotel group who own this place and actually helped me buy the restaurant," he adds. "He is my 'godfather'—he created new formulas, new philosophy and new techniques. My kitchen has many influences from chefs all around the world, but the most important one is Ferran."

Although it wasn't apparent in the dishes coming out of that kitchen, Mr. García frequently uses liquid nitrogen to create certain effects, which are in no way Modernist or Molecular. The culinary disappointment of virtually tasteless and completely hollow squid croquettes is rectified when the diner removes the ceramic saucer holding them to find a richly textured soup and squid in the bowl below. Another dish appears to be a glazed tomato but is in fact solidified tomato juice, enveloping a brandada de bacalao of cod.



Ferran Adria on the True Nature of Food
"I use nitrogen quite a lot in my kitchen, but I am quite pleased that people do not notice it or other Modernist techniques, as it is merely a means to an end and not important," he says. "Too many chefs think they are artists rather than cooks. For me, it is critical to always remember that you are a chef and that you only have one objective and that is to provide pleasure for your guests. It is perfectly acceptable to have a concept and philosophy behind your cooking, but first and foremost the diners have to enjoy themselves—that is more important than the concept." He sums up his beliefs with the phrase La técnica debe estar siempre al servicio del gusto ("It is fine to use technique, but only if it enhances the flavors").

That philosophy is nowhere more evident than in a tiny bowl of clear soup with what appears to be three chickpeas in the middle. The "chickpeas" have a delicious, unctuous texture and a depth of flavor I have never experienced before. When I mention this to Mr. García, he laughs because the dish is, again, a molecular creation—using a silicon mold, he shapes sesame butter into the form of a chickpea. "This dish is one that demonstrates perfectly that technique can be successfully used in the service of taste and flavor."

There is one other fundamental difference between the cuisine of El Bulli and Calima: Virtually no fine wine matched or complemented the multiplated cuisine of Mr. Adrià, but at Calima, sommelier Jose Godoy manages to enhance the experience with his selection of Spanish white wines and aged sherry.

While Mr. García is determined to remain in Marbella, running his flagship restaurant from Easter until the end of October, he has also created a number of more casual restaurants called La Moraga (www.lamoraga.com), which he hopes to export around the world in the coming year. "Because of the economic crisis in Spain at present, I would prefer to expand abroad," he says. The chef is planning to open these simple tapas bars in Beirut, Morocco, Dubai, Germany and New York.

There are no plans, however, to try to emulate Calima at any other destination, either in Spain or abroad. "Sometimes, people come to me saying they would like to back a Calima in New York City or Paris, but it is impossible to do that," Mr. García says. "This is my flagship and it requires all of my time and effort to make it work. I only desire to have one Calima, here in Marbella and no more. It is my baby."