The Trials and Tribulations of Long Distance Cooking
This week I have been having the most wonderful yet stressful time of liasing with Italian sons and their mothers trying to get to the bottom of their most treasured family recipes. I admire their ability to cook ‘a occhio’ or ‘by eye’ and their insistance that they do not need recipes - why would they when they have been cooking these dishes for years. However the problem that I have is that I need to produce full length recipes, accurate measurements and all, for our kitchen staff for the Italian Mama’s Week that we are hosting at all our restaurants and cookery school from October 6th - 10th (check out www.caldesi.com to find out more).
I had a great couple of days at the beginning of the week recipe testing with Matteo (manager of Caffe Caldesi) and Monseratto (head chef at Caffe Caldesi), and many many hours were spent on the phone to their mothers asking many many questions so as to get exact replicas of their recipes down on paper. It was very special to watch the boys stirring and tasting, tutting and actually weeping as the dishes evoked memories of their precious mamas.
Monseratto told me this wonderful anecdote about his childhood when I asked about his mother’s influence on his cooking:
“Monseratto was 10 years old and living at his home in Sardignia. His mother would get up early in the morning and make her speciality desserts on this beautiful wooden chest that is very traditional to Sardignia, called a ‘casadine’. Once the desserts were made she would keep them inside the chest which would then be placed under the bed for safe-keeping (also partly traditional). One day Monseratto, led by his keen nose, found the chest of desserts, crept inside and hid in there whilst polishing off all of the precious home-made puddings. His mother meanwhile was terrified he had been abducted and rang the police to help search for him. Of course, once he was found, chocolate smeared mouth and all, he received a hefty smack from his mother!”
After hearing all these fantastic stories I cannot wait to meet the mothers behind them, although I will admit I am slightly terrified to see their reaction to what I have done with their family recipes that have been handed down through the generations. Let’s hope there won’t be any fireworks!