By Haonan Mu
In 2011 BBC documentary series ‘Two Greedy Italians’, Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo , two renowned Italian master chefs based in UK, travelling across Italy on the wheels of their classical Alfa Romeo coupe, gave us a comprehensive introduction to Italian cuisine. But the documentary series itself is not only about food but also about the culture, the memories bonded with delicious foods. Even though these two Italian cuisine masters have been separated from their motherland as both of them left Italy at a young age, their memories of Italy remain intact. This includes memories of good foods, and memories of religious belief, love affairs and more.
Part 1. Family and Mother: The essential concepts in Italian cooking
Homemade Food is the carrier of love and with ‘family’ and ‘mother’ being the representation of love, the time spent with our family and the image of mother in our minds are perhaps the most beautiful parts in our memories. For Italy, it seems that family, mother and Italian cooking are inalienable. First of all, Mother is an essential concept. Based on his adequate knowledge on Italian cuisine, A popular Weibo blogger, food commentator ‘Italian Gourmet bot ’ ( Chinese user name: 意大利吃货bot) once wrote in his article that ‘Genovese （a kind of Italian meat paste）remains the most featured dish in Naples Sunday lunch and it is the very definition of a true sweet life, which is about family members sitting around the table and enjoying Genovese made by granny or mummy after Sunday worship ‘ when he mentioned the connection between Italian homemade foods and those humble Italian housewifes. Besides, according to this foodie blogger, The worship of Virgin Mary and ubiquitous presence of her image in Italian community is more than religious and from these phenomenon, which can be predicted is that Italian’s love towards mother is firm, something that is deeply rooted in their culture. Maybe not all Italians like their mothers, but at least these two chefs are obsessed with the food made by their mothers.
‘ I always believe that Italy has at least two to three millions of Michelin star chefs…the Mamma, the mothers…then grannies, all those people that really teach you, me and everybody else what real Italian food is about’- Antonio Carluccio.
‘ Every time I do dish which my mother used to make, I don’t understand why the way my mother used to make I can never get near’- Gennaro Contaldo
If there is a time when these two Italian cuisine masters become someone else’s sous-chef, that must be Italian mamma. In an Italian family’s kitchen, the mother is the real master chef who can properly make delicious food in a simple way. Technically mother’s cuisine is an important part of the amazing Italian cuisine considering the amount of dishes created by Italian mothers. More importantly, the food is beyond food itself. The time of cooking maybe short but mother’s love and memories of sweet life at home are long-lasting. That is perhaps why other foods cannot be as ‘perfect’ as mother’s foods, or as Carluccio said when he was invited to a local pasta factory and gave his comment on pasta made by machine, ‘The pasta (referring to those which are not hand-made) is remarkably good and I really don’t know what could be the difference between these and the hand-made, probably is a touch of love that is missing’.
The first scene of the whole documentary series starts with Antonio and Gennaro being invited to their friend’s family banquet. The sunset, the hearty Italian supper, together with girls/mothers’ cooking, families and their sound of laughing, forms an ideal image, a typical Italian family image under the influence of traditions being remembered concretely by two overseas Italians, Antonio and Gennaro, who both left their sweet home, being forced to separate with family members, mother at a young age. For them, that is why Italy is a source of memories. However, it seems that the traditional image is fading. As another purpose of filming this documentary is to investigate the changes of Italy in the past three decades since the two famous chefs had left Italy. Italy has changed dramatically, with young generation having the freedom to pursue what they want and be who they want to be so many of them are moving away from traditions. In an interview with Italian youngsters, Antonio and Gennaro were astonished that many young Italian girls, who ought to be chef for the family, are more devoted to their career instead of spending time on cooking. This is totally different from their time when ‘every woman knows how to cook’. Besides, the marriage rate is getting lower. It seems that ‘being a mother in a big family has lost its appeal’, as Antonio addressed. Mother’s cuisine is at risk than ever before for these two old Italians. Gennaro was pessimistic about the future of Italian cuisine after he heard that many girls refused to cook. After all, for them mother inspired and created good Italian foods and the love mixed with pasta, tomato and cheese make Italian foods so charming.
At the end of episode 1, Antonio and Gennaro met one of the girls they had interviewed who cannot cook at cooking school. They are pleased to see girl feeling happy with cooking so that old Italy can be preserved. It could be interpreted as a compromise to tradition. I would rather call it a salute to tradition. As a man who likes cooking and value family and mother’s cooking so much, I respect young people’s choice to be independent, to enjoy freedom but missing the beautiful parts of tradition which seemingly not worth pursuing could be a pity. Hope the image of family gathering and mother’s cooking can last forever.
Part 2. ‘South & North’ and strange food
Both Gennaro and Antonio were born in Amalfi Coast but Antonio moved to the North with his family before having any memory of his birthplace in the south part of Italy. So we can say Gennaro is from the South while Antonio is a real Northerner. In Eposide 2 of Season 1, Gennaro went back to his hometown in the South, where the mountain surrounds the town and the town faces the sea, where lemon tree and quality seafood are everywhere. The image there is consistent with our view of a Southern place, which is defined by light food, warm sunshine and richness in natural resources. While in the North, there is a totally different image. Antonio’s northern homeland is characterized by excessive amount of heavily seasoned meats, with crazy ppl rushing into the local area for a collective dinner before an intense annual horse racing event. The wildness of the North is in a sharp contrast with the elegant South, seems to verify our stereotypes on the difference between the North and the South, telling us that the difference could be an universial truth.
But what really surprised me was not the fact that the geographic difference between the North and South could also exist in Italy. From this documentary, for the first time I really see a group of foreigners cooking and having ‘strange foods’ when I saw Antonio and his local mates eating a fried frog. For many, there is a stereotype in their minds that the habit of having strange food such as animal’s organs, bugs, pets such as dogs is exclusively for Chinese. In fact, this kind of strange food was on the dining table of the western world for many years when the meat remained a scarce resource. Still you can find videos of old Michelin chefs like Macro Pierre White cooking braised trotter stuffed with sweetbread and even now the foie gras remains the most famous French dishes, let alone the tradition of having dog’s meat in some Switzerland places. The disappearance of those strange foods should be attributed to two reasons. The first is the development of modern animal husbandry, which guarantees a sustainable and sufficient supply of the meats and the second is the emergerence of the fashion to eat in a healthy, humane way especially in recent years. Not until these changes has the ‘strange foods’ started to quit the dining table. I call such habit of our food history ‘Greedy with food and greedy for life’. When the majority don’t have the access to the meat due to poverty, undeveloped economical stage and the limited meat supply, people find ‘strange foods’ in order to survive, but it also shows human’s talent in creating good foods to treat themselves even when the resources are rare, inspired by a passion for good life.
Part 3. Fräulein Ingrid and her Apfelstrudel
The world is getting more connected than ever before. In Antonio’s Northern hometown, Piemonte even if the dinner table for local Italian is still dominated by Mama’s cuisine like risotto. Exotic elements have already been introduced to Italy. For example, Chinese vegetables are available in local market and Halal foods are served. Antonio admitted that his recipes are influenced by Germany, Piemonte’s neighbor country. He introduced a classical German dessert-‘Apfelstrudel’, also known as apple pie. This authentic, sugary German dessert, despite of its doubtless delicious taste, is bonded with Antonio’s memories of first love, that is his intercourse with a girl from Vienna. Sadly, this lovely couple made sweet pie did not get a sweet life, as Antonio described:
‘We left each other because it was too premature to get married’
Only a recipe of Apple strudel representing their love was left. Unlike ‘Gancio’ (‘hook’ who seduces girls in Southern Italy dialect) Gennaro who had many love affairs with many girls now has a big family, Antonio is lonely.
‘I would love with all my heart for him to meet somebody really enjoy that bits which I enjoy with my family’- Gennaro
Antonio Carrulcio OBE passed away in 2017, leaving this world peacefully with the memories inside the Apfelstrudel.
Part 4. Foods for pilgrims, religion and materialism
It seems that religion is becoming a fading concept. In the episode 4 of ‘Two Greedy Italians’ Season 1, Antonio and Gennaro tried to explore whether their home country Italy, where God, Christ, and Mary are worshiped, where Christianity got legitimated and where its biggest branch- Roman Catholic was nourished, is still religious or not. In Italy, food also has sort kind of connection with religion, as Antonio described:
“They (the monasteries) are famous in Italy for producing delicious home-grown meats and vegetables”
They visited Santuario di San Matteo as pious Gennaro has been dreaming of staying in the monastery for one night for about 45 years. This place has been feeding the starving pilgrims with fruit, chicken, honey, pasta, olive oil made of the ingredients grown by Franciscan friars. Food hence in the discourse of religion stands as a witness of friendship among brotherhoods. It shares the love and spread the good will of Christianity, bonding the community together and influencing the world with such a good will. Today, the shop in the monastery still offer foods but not home-grown ones any more as there are only a few friars there, who are too busy to fulfill this task as they are occupied with the mission to host the visitors every day. One of the friars recalls that when he was young there were about 40 men in the monastery and few of them now in this group as an earthly fortune is more attractive than humble life in the church. The idea that the insistence to the religion is fading away seems to be further verified by Antonio’s experience in Padre Pio’s hometown. Padre Pio is a respectable priest, a true Saint who had physically or psychologically cured many Jesus’s followers and inspired them to live a life favored by God. As a great figure in his religion, still he is respected by many believers and many come to his place, despite of the distance, for an answer that can work them out from the current dilemma or stay in the hall where his coffin is placed for a meditation. I don’t know how many of them are finally rich spiritually after visiting Padre Pio’s place but it is true that Padre Pio help boost the local economy. Local tourism got developed thanks to Padre Pio and restaurants, souvenir shops emerge in order to satisfy tourists’ needs. Pilgrims’ pains are unknown but it is well known that the owner of a nearby restaurant wears a Cartier just by providing normal foods. Padre Pio’s place is becoming a famous site instead of a place for religion. However, from the scenes of a Spanish pilgrim who walks from his hometown to here and from the local farm funded by Padre Pio where workers are still making and dispatching foods for pilgrim, we can see that still there are people who are adherent to their beliefs, being not shaken by materials and from which we can see the positive part of humanity and religion glaze.
From Antonio and Gennaro’s tour in their home country, perhaps we can understand a bit why Italy has such important place in their hearts. There are not only foods to miss, but also memories of mother and family, memories of love, religious ideas that shapes their minds. That could explain why food matters. Sharing foods with lovers, friends or families has always been an amazing experience; the cultural elements behind the foods are also worthy of exploring. That’s why foods mean so much.
OWLS 