February 4th is just around the corner: D-day for me: “Departure Day”. My U.S. cooking lessons/lectures tour starts in Los Angeles again this year – and then I’ll be cooking in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Phoenix. Houston follows…..and then on to the Midwest (Chicago). I’ll lecture at MIT in Boston – and also cook in the area. I’ll have a Connecticutu stop – and my 2011 our winds up in Washington, D.C…
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What are the common denominators of Italians?
For me, there are five: certainly their sense of family along with a flair of interpersonal relationships – and who would argue about their lack of faith in institutions, both Church and State? Another Italian attribute: optimism, ability to resist trauma, resiliency.L’arte di arrangiarsi (best translated as “creative inventiveness”) is simply inborn in all Italians. Last, but certainly not least of all, is their innate aesthetic sense, evident in all aspects of Italian lifestyles…
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The hilltowns of central Italy – Tuscany, Umbria – slumber in winter hibernation: no tourists at all and not many “locals” affront icy winds blowing through the twisting medieval backstreets. In the tinier towns – like Chiusdino (population 2000) in the province of Siena – the Tourist Office is tightly sealed up, the trattoria is closed for the season – and in the main piazza, you might – or might not – meet “solo quattro gatti“, as the Italians say. In Chiusdino yesterday, we didn’t even see “four cats” in the piazza, just a couple hardy souls, heads down, affronting the chill and one brave woman washing her mop at the local fountain. The local elderly men were of course in the one open café, playing cards. Hanging wash fluttered in the wind and gave touches of color to the gray stone and weathered brick buildings. Outside some doors, small piles of logs lay ready for woodstoves…
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I know where I will be at 9 pm on January 27th: in the city hall of Assisi where young local musicians and actors will perform readings of Primo Levi (his If This be a Man is one of the most compelling books I have ever read.) Brilliant scientist, Primo Levi was one of the few Italians who made it back from Auschwitz (liberated on January 27, 1945). Il Giorno della Memoria as a day of tribute to Shoah victims – “and to diffuse reciprocal respect for the diversities of cultures and religions, denying every type of racism and antisemitism” – became law in Italy in 2000…
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“St. Anthony’s fire” – tormenting (and yes, fiery!) skin flare (ie, shingles, herpes zoster) – is named after him. His image in Italian stalls protects the sheep, the oxen and all the farm animals. Pane benedetto (“blessed bread”) is distributed on his feast day, January 17th, day of the blessing of the animals here in Italy – and he was Egyptian, not Italian!
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Breaking of bread together denotes communion, sharing, in Judaic and Christian traditions. In Italian tradition, the most communal food is certainly polenta, when spread out on a wooden board (lo spianatoio, literally “the spreader”) down the center of a long table, diners on both sides scooping up the polenta with big spoons. A meal of just polenta, la polentata – best savored with a robust red wine…
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Plans have just been finalized for me to lecture at Boston’s MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Needless to say I am very honored to be asked and excited at the idea of lecturing at such a prestigious venue. My lecture will be “The Italians – HANDS ON!”.
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Departure date (February 4, 2011) is near! Time to finalize my itinerary.
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La Befana viene di notte con le scarpe tutte rotte,Con le toppe alla sottana, viva, viva la Befana!” (“La Befana comes at night, her shoes all torn, her slip all patched…long live the Befana!”). Clutching her broom handle in front of her, an ugly old beneficent witch, La Befana, rides through the starry night sky on January 5th, sliding down chimneys to fill the shoes or the stockings of good Italian children with sweets, leaving coal (nowadays, made of sugar!) for naughty ones…
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n the mid-thirteenth century, Franciscans shared meagre fare in contemplative silence here in the refectory, attached to their 13th-century San Francesco church. In this once-sacred space – now called the “Ristorante San Francesco” – the jubilant Italians Italians rock out to blues, soul and jazz rhythms as Umbria Jazz Winter blasts in the New Year in Orvieto. I thought about those Franciscans as we joined in the Ristorante San Francesco Jazz Dinner a couple of nights ago, singing along with Italian guests (mostly) to “Respect” sung by Chicago blues singer Chick Rodgers, (who dedicated this song to Aretha Frankln)…
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