My First Blog

I've been pondering for a long time about writing a blog and finally decided to put pen to paper (actually fingers to keyboard) and let it flow, I kind of know where to begin, I just don't know where I'll end up with this...just like life!!!!

I will use this space to post my thoughts, experiences, achievements, and mistakes (which are just as important), and I'll do my best to focus on food because I can easily get lost on tangents. To be more detailed: I will share recipes, favorite meals, old kitchen tales, cooking tips, Italian vernacular, food wisdom and anything that’s running wild in the Main Square of my brain. I’m a firm believer in sharing knowledge; the theory that says “keeping people in the dark corresponds to power” is as outdated as spaghetti and meatballs, the “Dark Ages” bearing witness of that premise.

I was brought up in Italian kitchens where certain ingredients and cooking techniques were heavily guarded, where the chef would wait through the wee hours for the crew to leave to concoct his “famous” marinade or he would keep spices loosely in his pants pocket (yuk!) to give his last cryptic touch to a dish. I never understood that, I always felt that if you are comfortable and confident in what you are doing you don’t need secrets. At the end, a dish is as good as the talent of who prepares it…isn’t it?

Throughout my many years working in kitchens on three different continents, I “bagged” as much experience as I could and learned that food goes beyond basic nourish and just plain gratification. Food can start an argument or squelch a fight, it affects mood, and it’s colorful, fun, and entertaining. It can also be dull and boring; food can be abundant and distasteful or scarce and delicious, it evolves and mutates, changes shapes and states. It can make you long for more or can make you vomit. It’s addictive and dangerous, necessary and helpful; it can be alive and can be dead. Food can heal you or it can kill you.

In my next blog, I will post one of my most popular recipes, to which I am personally much attached: spaghetti with braised lentils, roasted tomatoes and spinach. I will also elaborate on how it came to be, so you can truly understand that what you eat has a story to tell.

Ciao,

Massimo