Marcella Remembers

November 12, 2009|Joe Gray (Chicago Tribune)

Amarcord - Marcella Remembers (Gotham Books, $27.50, 2009) by Marcella Hazan.

What it is: Italian cookbook author and culinary instructor Marcella Hazan retired with her sixth book, the chatty Marcella Says published in 2004, leaving fans somewhat saddened and wanting more. Her memoir, Amarcord - Marcella Remembers, delivers, filling in the back story and illuminating the origins of her exacting command of Italian cooking technique.

Praise (and quibbles): Amarcord, a dialect word from Hazan's native region of Romagna, means, "I remember." And Hazan does (as translated into English by her husband and lifelong collaborator, Victor), from her idyllic childhood in the Adriatic fishing village of Cesenatico through the years running cooking schools in New York, Bologna and Venice.

The most vivid moments are "taste memories" that explain the development of her appreciation for and devotion to Italian food. The freshness of saraghine, a fish best eaten by pulling the freshly caught and just-grilled fillets from the skeleton with one's teeth. The relative bounty of cappelletti (tiny stuffed pasta) in capon broth, boiled capon and chicken cacciatore for the family's first post-war Christmas dinner. And the humble but warming leek and potato soup she and Victor shared on their one-night honeymoon.

The only complaint is that the final chapters move too quickly.

Why we think you'll like it: Since the publication in 1973 of her groundbreaking The Classic Italian Cookbook, Hazan has nourished fans with recipes, advice and, above all, a confident (and often stern) guiding hand.

Although no recipes are offered here, she instead feeds our hunger for more with remarkable tales of her sometimes tumultuous life with Victor, evoking the joy, and pain, of a lifetime sharing her gift.

- Joe Gray (Chicago Tribune)

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