L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 6 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS her, too, or is there something different behind it? "The short answer is my parents were both k e e n c o o k s a n d m y m o t h e r , aged 87, still is," Vicky tells us, but alas, her love for food has a much more exotic story to tell, one incredibly close to Italy and to our way to con- ceive food and cooking. Vicky was born in Kenya where her parents worked, her father as a researcher and a trai- n e r f o r l o c a l f a r m e r s , h e r mother as an English teacher for the Indian community there. Her childhood had the scents and colors of Africa but the f l a v o r s o f I n d i a , o f " t h e Gujarati and Goan dishes the parents of my mother's pupils t a u g h t h e r t o c o o k . " I n B o t s w a n a , d u r i n g h e r t e e n s , growing and eating food beca- me a matter of conviviality, as it is typical for the people of Africa and, of course, of the Mediterranean, as she recalls o n H e a t e d M a g a z i n e : " G r o w i n g u p , f o o d f o r m e wasn't merely nutrition or fuel, it was family, community, and everyday adventure." W i t h o u t a d o u b t , m a n y Italians will find themselves in these words. As an adult, her job brought her around the world a lot, so she came into contact with the food of many a country, yet, her ties with Italian food remained somehow deeper, because they came from childhood, as she tells us: "I first tasted spaghetti with tomato sauce in Venice, aged 5 - my parents were going home on leave from Kenya to the UK by boat, as flying was too expensive… with the Lloyd Triestino lines." And maybe that's why she e n d e d u p w i t h a h o m e i n l e M a r c h e , w h e r e s h e n o t i c e d how "it was only older women who made pasta by hand on a daily basis. Those over 80 years old are the last generation who would do it to put food on the table. For younger generations, making food by hand became a choice." That's when she had "two thoughts: first, I wanted to m a k e a r e c o r d o f t h e s e women's skills. Second, doing that would also mean celebrate older women, who are often invisible in the food media." It is evident, from Vicky's w o r d s , t h a t t h e w h o l e i d e a behind The Pasta Grannies is not only that of showing how to make food, but also that of entrusting a true wealth of culinary tradition to the next generation. We ask Vicky how i m p o r t a n t t h i s a s p e c t o f t h e project is: "It's very important to inspire people to cook from scratch. It's the details which get lost if you reply on a book or a memory. Traditions survive because you create new memo- r i e s a n d p a s t a w o r k s w e l l because it's a team or a family activity." And of course, the nonne, these valiant, strong octogena- rians who have memories of t h e w a r a n d o f t i m e s w h e n making pasta from scratch was the norm, are the gold and the diamonds of Bennison's work. W e h a d t o a s k h e r h o w working with them is and if she has some interesting stories to share about them with us: "The nonne, especially those over 90 — a n d w e h a v e a f e w ! — remember times when the world was a very different place. We have the story of 97 years old nonna Giuseppa, which is fasci- n a t i n g a n d c o u l d a p p e a l t o those among the younger gene- ration who are into recycling and reducing waste. She is from Sardinia and she worked all her life as a tailor speciali- zed in traditional costumes. She adored her work so much, she never really thought about get- ting married. When she even- tually did she was in her 30s, which was very unusual. She made her own wedding dress and a coat to go with it. The coat, she refashioned twice and s h e s t i l l w e a r s i t t o d a y a s a jacket, over 60 years later." Indeed, there is so much we could learn from our nonne. A s m e n t i o n e d , T h e P a s t a Grannies project now works on t h r e e d i f f e r e n t p l a t f o r m s : a website (www.pastagrannies. com), a YouTube channel, and a recipe book, which came out i n t h e U S o n t h e 2 9 t h o f October. The book is a beauti- ful volume, enriched by photos of the dishes and, of course, of the nonne who made them, but putting it together wasn't a simple task, especially when it came to selecting the recipes to include: "We wanted variety from all over Italy, and a range of difficulty, but we tried to include more easy than diffi- cult ones!" Before concluding our lovely chat, we must ask Vicky about h e r r e l a t i o n s h i p w i t h I t a l y . She's been dividing her life between le Marche and the UK for years now an she works with Italians: did she pick up any peculiar Italian habit? "My husband would say parking the car boldly! Aside from that, going direct to the producer for cheese, wine and all the pro- ducts. Provenance is important for Italians and for me, too." Continued from page 4 Grannies at work, while making fresh pasta for one of The Pasta Grannies'videos (Copyright: Emma Lee) Anna's bean pasta: don't you just feel like to tuck in? (Copyright: Emma Lee)

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