All About Italian food interview
Frank Fariello
Frank Fariello has an interesting phrase, introducing himself on his blog Memorie di Angelina: Lawyer by day, cook by night. It clearly shows how cooking is a real pleasure for him, even though he is an international lawyer.
He puts together delicious recipes from his grandmother Angelina, in such an easy and detailed way that it is quite impossible not to able to prepare them. He takes special care regarding the photos – the dishes appear to come from a traditional family table!
He has had experience of other foreign cities, but remembers ten years in Rome with a special feeling. We want to ask him how he manages to find time to prepare and cook such great recipes.
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1) Hi Frank, thanks for sharing your time with us. When did you begin to feel so tied to your Italian heritage?
I grew up very conscious of my heritage. Our extended family was very close and we had dinners at Angelina’s almost every Sunday. So it was always an important part of my life.
2) During your ten years living in Rome, you probably learned a great deal from the local cuisine. Did you practice, or just eat in local restaurants? You know little details such as the differences between broth and stock…
Yes, it was a wonderful learning experience! Of course, I ate out all the time, usually in local trattorie rather than fancy restaurants. I made it a point to eat local fare. But I also cooked every day, and loved to make local Roman dishes. And, of course, I loved to talk about food–recipes, the best places to eat or to find a particular ingredient–with Italian friends. It’s the one subject that everyone likes to discuss!
But my early childhood experience of Angelina’s cooking was crucial. It taught me what Italian food was supposed to taste and look like, to understand the very particular aesthetic that underlies the cuisine. Although essential, recipes alone are not enough–it’s a bit like learning to ride a bike by only reading about it!
I also learned (and am learning) a lot from studying recipes and technique – I am a voracious collector of cookbooks, and I bought as many cookbooks as I could while I was in Italy, classics like Il Talismano and Artusi, of course, as well as the modern standards like Il cucchiaio d’argento. I also very much like the Newton & Compton “Quest’Italia” series, in particular the C.J. Francesconi’s La cucina napoletana and Jannattoni’s Cucina Romana e del Lazio.
And whenever I ventured to other regions, I would do research on the local cuisine and the best places to eat (the Slow Food guides were excellent for that) and try the local specialties. And, instead of the usual souvenirs, I would look for cookbooks on the local cooking, like the wonderful Tuscia a tavola, which I picked up during one of my trips to Viterbo. I have close to 200 cookbooks, the majority of them Italian.
Besides recipes, I love to read about the history and the nexus between cuisine and culture. At the moment, I am reading a fascinating book called Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History by Alberto Capatti and Massimo Montanari. And I also collect historical cookbooks by Apicius, Scappi, Maestro di Martino…I don’t usually cook from these books, but I find it fascinating to learn how Italian cuisine has changed over time, and all the disparate influences that have contributed to its exquisite variety.
3) When did you begin to prepare your grandmother’s recipes? It seems as if you have always done it, or was there a specific moment when you began to “practice” it?
I have loved to cook ever since I was a boy. I can remember being hardly tall enough to see the stovetop and being fascinated by the whole process of cooking. I suppose it was a reflection of how much I loved to eat!
But I really began to cook in earnest when I started to live away from home. It seemed only natural then to start reproducing the dishes I loved best when I was growing up.
4) When you cook for friends, how often do you prepare Italian food? What do you usually cook?
Actually, I almost always prepare Italian food, since it’s what I know and like best, and everyone seems to like it. I will occasionally venture out and make a paella or a French dish, but 9 times out of 10, I am making the same dishes you see on my blog. What is there is what I’ve made for lunch or dinner. That’s what’s a bit funny about food blogging: your diet is on public display! In fact, when I first started to publish recipes (on Facebook) I called it my “food diary”.
5) Using your experience in Rome and with regard to a local dish (bucatini all’amatriciana), what do you use in this recipe, bacon or the original guanciale? What would be your advice to an Italian food lover who wants to cook Italian, but doesn’t live in Italy–which ingredients are preferable, living abroad?
It’s a hard question. The most difficult part of reproducing Italian food abroad is finding the right ingredients. The quality of the produce and other products in Italy is really unsurpassed anywhere in the world. Here in the US, we are lucky in that many imported Italian products are available (but pricey)!
The main challenge is finding fresh fruits and vegetables–there are some premium supermarkets and farmers markets are your best bet, but even there the quality is not at the same level as in Italy. I find you need to use special “tricks” to coax more flavor from the food here, and I try to include those tips in the recipes on my blog.
As far as guanciale in particular, there are some people who are making a version of it here in the States and, you can find guanciale in big food cities like New York and San Francisco. Otherwise, you can order it online.
Fortunately, domestic pancetta is now fairly widely available and it is not bad. I would not recommend substituting American bacon, however, as it gives dishes a very un-Italian smoky flavor, except in carbonara and, of course, dishes from Alto Adige and thereabouts that actually call for pancetta affumicata. For people who can’’t find pancetta, there is a product called “salt pork” which is not too different, and gives a similar effect, especially if you are using it as part of a soffritto.
6) You became an Italian food expert by learning from your Italian experience, which allowed you a wide vision of this reality, maybe less evident for an insider. How would you summarize the success of Italian food around the world? Do you believe that it is because it encompasses only simple dishes, or because it has flavors that really please different cultures?
You’re right, everyone seems to love Italian food! But why this is so is hard to define. Of course, the simple answer is, it’s delicious. Although the concept is only recently being understood in the West, Italian food is full of “umami”–parmesan cheese, tomato, anchovy and so on–that makes food taste good, no matter where you are from or what kind of food you grew up with.
At the same time, it is simple, so it is accessible to everyone. You don’t need to be a ’gourmet’ to appreciate it and for those who like to cook, it isn’t so intimidating to try to reproduce. And, of course, the enormous variety of Italian food means that there is literally something for everyone to enjoy.
I should mention, though, that Italian food is sometimes the victim of its own popularity. Its simplicity does not mean that it is necessary easy to make it well. Accessibility does not mean that you don’t need to learn to appreciate the finer points of the cuisine–to understand its underlying aesthetic. If you’ve ever had Italian food abroad, you know that it can be very, very bad, because many people make these basic mistakes. One of the things I am trying to do with my blog is to correct these misconceptions.
7) What impressed you most while living in Italy? (I mean not only regarding food)
I would say the general and deeply felt appreciation for beauty. In the food, of course, but not just–in everything: in the wonderful art and architecture, in the old cities, in the gardens and country villas, in the way that people dress. Even in the way they walk down the street in the early evening to see and be seen. This appreciation infuses all of life. And while some people may see this as ’superficial’, I don’t agree. True beauty and its appreciation is profound.
I was also impressed by the people. Rome is a big city, and one where people can be gruff to strangers, but people will engage you, especially after you’ve gotten to know them. This can be a hard thing for a tourist to appreciate. But when you live there, and go to the same shops and cafes and restaurants for a while, you become part of the local scene. People will start to greet you with a smile, engage in small talk, make you feel like they’re sincerely happy to see you. Soon you will learn little ’secrets’ about things on the menu of a local trattoria, for example, and find, miraculously, that your check somehow comes out less than it used to! Or the fruttivendolo will give you a free piece of this or that, or share a favorite way to prepare a certain vegetable. Where I live now, service is efficient and can even be friendly, but it is never really personal, and I miss that an awful lot!
The same thing goes for friends and neighbors. It can be surprisingly hard to get to know Italians, but once you are ’in’, then it’s like having a second family. Here in the US, social life is very rigid. No one just shows up, you have to make plans ahead, often weeks ahead, so people can fit you into their busy schedules. In Italy, we never planned anything, it just happened. Neighbors would stop by, or vice versa, and soon you’d be having a nice impromptu dinner together…And if you had a problem, you always had people who would be ready to help.
8) In Italy, there’s a proverb that says “tutto il mondo รจ paese” (the whole world is a small village), meaning that beliefs and customs exist everywhere, as though there is a common world tradition. Do you agree with this? Can you identify common elements between Italian culture and your native culture?
Yes, I agree. As an international lawyer, I’ve lived on three continents (North and South America, Europe) and visited Asia and Africa. It sounds like a cliché, but people really are basically the same wherever you go. We all want to love and be loved, to live in dignity and to have our basic needs met. The human condition does not change across cultures. But the ways we approach our condition can change from culture to culture, and we can learn a lot from one another, if our minds are open to it.
In terms of Italian and American culture, there are some basic common elements. Both peoples tend to be open and unpretentious. I think that’s why, by and large, our two peoples get along very well. I don’t know anyone in America who doesn’t love Italy and its culture. America is a bit more controversial in Italy, perhaps, but I sense that most Italians also like Americans, if not the American government. Of course, the massive immigration from Italy to America in the early 20th century means that there are strong historical and cultural links between the two countries.
9) What do you believe is a “must do, see and taste” in Italy? What would you suggest to an American who goes to Italy?
There are so many things…where to begin? But perhaps one thing I would recommend is to see some of the smaller cities, a bit less known but just as wonderful in their own way as Rome, Florence, Venice and the rest. Places like Viterbo or Todi or Ferrara or Bolzano, which are both beautiful and somehow more ’real’ than the tourist centers. And while some people don’t think of Milan as an attractive tourist destination, for a ’foodie’ or a fashionista it’s heavenly.
One key thing–it may be obvious but I’ve seen so many tourists who don’t do this–is to make sure to eat local. If you want to eat pizza, have it in Naples–or Rome, which has its own thin crust version that I actually like better. But don’t bother ordering pizza in Florence–have a ribollita or a bistecca alla fiorentina instead!
And I heartily recommend the Slow Food restaurant guides to find places off the tourist circuit where you can try authentic local dishes. (They used to be only in Italian, but I think that has changed now.) This all requires a little bit of research, but it will pay off royally.
Of course, many people come to Italy for the art. And there, the choices are endless. In Rome, the city I know best, I particularly loved the Scuderie del Quirinale and the Villa Borghese galleries, the Palazzo Spada. But, of course, the whole city is an open museum, and folks should just slow down and enjoy the city itself, especially during those quiet times. In this respect, even though it’s very hot, I rather like Rome in August. You can really see the city in a way that can be hard to do at other times.
Strolling down the streets of the centro storico was my favorite pastime when I lived there. And don’t just hit the main events like the Piazza Navona, as lovely as it is, but get off into the side streets. Just a few blocks off the piazza Navona, for example, is the incredible Santa Maria della Pace. And just off campo de’ Fiori is the elegant via Giulia and the charming via dei Cappellari.
10) On your blog http://memoriediangelina.blogspot.com you have so many wonderful recipes. Do you have a favorite recipe?
Not really–I love them all! But I guess if I had to choose some sentimental favorite, it would be one the recipes that I have tagged “Nana”, the old-fashioned dishes that Angelina used to make, like pasta e lenticchie (my favorite pasta when I was a kid) or parmigiana di melanzane or lasagna di carnevale, her specialty, or her fried vegetables. These are the dishes that I grew up on, the ones that really taught me how good simple food can be.
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We want to thank Frank Fariello again for taking the time out to speak with us at All About Italian Food. We hope he has showed you some new aspects of Italian food and culture.
Be sure to check out Frank's blog Memorie di Angelina
