All About Italian food interview
Deborah Mele
Deborah Mele discovered a love of Italian food, by marrying into an Italian family. She was able to enjoy the goodness of this cuisine and make it her own.
While living in Italy she learned how to bake various breads, how to decide on a dinner menu, depending on what she could find in local markets, and even learned how to make pork sausage, on her own!
Now she lives in North America, but continues to plan her dinner menus, based on fresh ingredients available at local markets. We asked her to reveal the secrets of being an Italian food chef, without being a native Italian.
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1) Hi Deborah, thanks for sharing your time with us. You have told us that your affair with Italian food began when you married into an Italian family. Were you already fond of Italian food, or did this Italian cuisine experience awaken your passion?
I married very young, and my culinary exposure growing up really did not include many exceptional food experiences. I honestly never developed a strong appreciation of good food until I married into a family that seemed to revolve around one amazing meal after another.
2) During the eight years you lived in Italy, you learned a lot from local women. How did you feel toward them? Did they trust your cooking abilities? Were they helpful or were they envious?
I have never met an Italian woman yet who wasn’t willing to share her culinary experiences, recipes, or cooking tips and I have appreciated every bit of advice I have ever received. I think many Italian women who learn of my Italian recipe website, and it’s popularity, wonder how someone like me (a non-Italian) can ever understand Italian cuisine.
Once they taste my food however, they always seem to appreciate my efforts and the fact I am interested in learning everything I can about Italian cuisine.
3) Were you able to reproduce those recipes easily or was it difficult? The recipes comprise relatively few ingredients, but often the “how to” is the most testing part… even if you seem to have a personal talent for including new ingredients (the idea of toasting pine nuts and adding zucchini to a pesto sauce is great!)
If you have a good affinity for food and ingredients in general, it is usual fairly easy to recreate a dish and make something quite similar if not an exact replica no matter where you are in the world. There are times when I may have to “play” with a recipe two or three times before I decide it is worth sharing, but I always enjoy the process.
4) When you cook for friends, do you prepare Italian food? What do you usually cook?
I rarely cook anything apart from Italian cuisine in my kitchen anymore, and feel most comfortable doing so. In fact, all of my guests expect good Italian meals at my home and would be quite disappointed if I prepared anything else. My favorite dishes to prepare for friends are usually stuffed pasta dishes, fresh bread, and homemade desserts.
5) You mention a great truth about Italian food:"The essence of Italian cooking today is simplicity". One uses the freshest seasonal ingredients possible, and then use basic cooking techniques to simply enhance the natural flavor of the food. How difficult is it to “practice” it, living outside Italy?
I do not think it is as easy to follow this principle living outside of Italy, but it certainly isn’t impossible. It may often involve visiting a farmer’s markets for fruit and vegetables, as well as a few other specialty food stores to find the best and freshest ingredients, but if you love cooking that isn’t too much of a chore. 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?
I believe that Italian cuisine is one of, if not the most popular cuisine worldwide. I often receive emails from chefs around the globe requesting assistance in creating an Italian menu for their establishments and I love to learn that my recipes are being shared and enjoyed in exotic places.
7) What impressed you the most while living in Italy? ( Not only with regard to food)
I think what I appreciate most about Italians is their passion for life in general, as well as their love of family, their culture, and of course food. Italians live to eat rather than eat to live, and even today’s hectic world, time is taken to prepare a meal and sit down to enjoy it with family and friends. 8) In Italy, there’s a proverb that says “tutto il mondo è 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?
I’m Canadian by birth, with a background of French Canadian and English/Irish, and although family was always important to us, we never looked at food the same way Italians do. I think in North America, folks tend to have a blend of different cultures in their backgrounds and have learned to meld bits and pieces of each one into their lives.
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?
I always recommend to folks I meet who are traveling to Italy for the first time to avoid the common “tourist” traps and wander off the beaten path to see where the locals dine. We have had our best food experiences stopping into tiny, family run places that often didn’t even have a sign hanging outside, especially in the larger tourist cities such as Venice or Florence.
10) On your website www.italianfoodforever.com you share so many great recipes that seem to come from an Italian chef! After learning so much and cooking practically everything, from breads to home-made sausage, do you have a favorite recipe?
I really do not have a single favorite recipe, although there are many I seem to return to more often than others such as any of my artichoke recipes, or a few of my baked and stuffed pasta recipes.
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We want to thank Deborah Mele again for taking the time out to speak with us at All About Italian Food. We hope she has showed you some new aspects of Italian food and culture.
Be sure to check out Deborah's website Italian food forever
