Amarcord

by Marcella Hazan

  Life is a collection of stories, and every piece we owned had one to narrate. Those storytellers were sent away and silenced. Of the tales they once told, only the echoes continue to reach us, but growing fainter, across ever-lengthening stretches of memory. We sold six nineteenth-century solid walnut dining chairs, the best things my father had ever owned, that had survived the dispersions and the pillaging of the war. There were some early-seventeenth-century chairs and a small table that Victor had astutely collected during his bachelor stay in Tuscany, the first important purchases of his life. There was a chest and a small armoire that we had bought for the apartment in Milan where we lived during Victor’s brief, brilliant, and improbable career in advertising. There was a majestic Renaissance credenza that we had bought in New York at Sotheby’s, in exultant anticipation of our move to Venice. There was a prie-dieu, a kneeling bench for prayer, which had been converted into a small bedroom chest with very convenient drawers for my small articles. We had bought it during one of Victor’s tours of the Chianti wine country, when we attended an auction of the contents of a house where it was claimed the model for the Mona Lisa once lived. She might even have said her devotions kneeling on that prie-dieu. I had written Marcella Cucina on the dented but handsome old walnut-and-wrought-iron desk that came out of my study. The most precious of the objects was a life-size seated Madonna in wood, carved more or less at the time that Columbus was landing on Hispaniola. Victor had bought her very soon after we had moved into our Venice apartment; we had set her on a pedestal by the large dining table where we ate with students and guests, and she presided benevolently over every meal we took there. She was precious not for her value, although it was not indifferent, but for her beauty. She had the fresh, pure, sweet expression and the lovely oval face of the young farm girls that one can see when traveling in the Veneto countryside. It was as though we had always known her. She transcended the material of which she was made to become a bearer of patience and love. I am unequal to the task of describing how it felt to abandon our home to others and leave Venice, but it may be inferred from reading these pages.

  At home in Venice with our Madonna

  The movers had come and gone; our apartment was empty except for our suitcases and a folding chair. We had booked seats on the afternoon express to Milan, we had reservations at a hotel, and an appointment the following morning for the closing at the office of the purchasers’ notaio. A notaio in Italy is a special kind of lawyer who examines, certifies, and personally guarantees the validity of legal documents, such as those for the purchase of real estate. It is an exceptionally lucrative profession, because the notaio receives a handsome percentage of the value of all transactions that he handles. In every Italian municipality, there are only a few openings for a notaio, which are filled through rigorous oral and written examinations, preferably reinforced by influential recommendations.

  We had just finished packing our bags and were preparing to go to lunch when our telephone, which had not yet been disconnected, rang. It was the purchaser of our apartment.

  “There is a discrepancy in the documents establishing your title to the property,” she said. “Your identity papers show that you were born on April fifteenth, 1924, but in the certificate of title, your date of birth is given as April twenty-fourth, 1924. Our notaio says this raises a doubt that you are the same person who purchased the apartment from Mrs. Kaley, and unless you can conclusively dissipate that doubt, he cannot execute the sale.”

  “But there are so many proofs that I am that person, the books I have written, the people who know me!”

  “According to our notaio, there is no absolute proof that there aren’t two persons, one born on the fifteenth, the other, the one to whom Mrs. Kaley sold her apartment, on the twenty-fourth.”

  “So how can I prove I am the owner of the apartment that used to be Mrs. Kaley’s?”

  “He would be satisfied if you can get a sworn statement from Mrs. Kaley that you are that person.”

  “That is impossible. No one has had any contact with Flora Kaley in years. Very likely, she is not even alive, but if she is, she could be anywhere in the world.”

  “Our notaio is an excellent man, but he can be impossibly legalistic. Let me work on it. Where can I find you?”

  “I don’t know, because there is nothing left in this apartment. As soon as I know where we shall be staying I’ll call you.”

  We went to the Fiaschetteria Toscana, where they were expecting us for lunch, but we were no longer hungry. Mariuccia, the restaurant’s owner, whom we brought abreast of developments, urgently called the legal people she knew, the most prominent in Venice, all of whom said the notaio in Milan was letting a technicality sway him, but that he was within his rights to do so. I couldn’t believe the situation we were in: We had an empty apartment that was no longer clearly ours yet was not anybody else’s, and no place to lie down. When all the customers had left, out of desperation, I stretched out on one of the Fiaschetteria’s banquettes, where I promptly fell asleep.

  Victor called Natale to inform him of our predicament and to ask if he could put us up. The Cipriani was closed for the winter, but one of the buildings in the complex was open. It was the Palazzo Vendramin, a fifteenth-century palazzo that had been transformed into luxury suites. One of them was available, and Natale sent the launch over to collect us and our luggage. We had dinner there, with enough wine for Victor and enough Jack Daniel’s for me to desensitize us. We went up to our room, hoping for at least one night’s oblivion. We were in bed, on the point of attaining that oblivion, when the telephone rang. It was our purchaser. She had found another notaio who assured her he could overlook the discrepancy in birth dates and would be available in the morning to execute the closing. To get to Milan in time, we would have to catch a very early train from Venice the following morning. Our papers had gone back into the apartment’s safe. Victor slid out of bed, got dressed, and went to retrieve them, returning to our apartment for his last time.

  After the closing, we went to say good-bye to my hometown, to Cesenatico. My mother had died at 101 three years earlier, and I had sold our adjoining flats. Cesenatico no longer had anything of mine, except for my oldest and dearest memories. We boarded our plane in Milan, decanting our lives once more, pouring them one final time out of Italy and into America.

  In Appreciation

  TO PUT MY LIFE ON PAPER is the kind of exposure that I didn’t think I would ever agree to. Had anyone else asked me but Bill Shinker, Gotham’s publisher, I would not have accepted. I came to know Bill thirteen or fourteen years ago. He was then the publisher of HarperCollins and I had just ended my seventeen-year relationship with Knopf. The teaching and traveling that my husband and I were doing left us only a little bit of private time, and I was reluctant to use it for the writing of another cookbook. Then Bill wrote me a marvelous letter. He had been using my cookbooks with pleasure and profit, he said, and assured me that if I agreed to write a book for HarperCollins, I would have full control over it. It was the first time I’d received such a letter, or a letter of any kind, from a publisher, and it moved me. Although Bill left HarperCollins before Marcella Cucina was published, that book is witness to the birth of a friendship. Sometime later, he enrolled in one of my courses in Venice. When I taught at the French Culinary Institute in New York, he signed up for those classes as well. He was both the first and the last person from any of the book publishers and magazines I wrote for to have had sufficient interest in my work to take my courses.

  It is said sometimes that it is difficult to form a genuine, tarnish-proof friendship late in life. My feelings, and those of my husband, for Bill contradict that. I regret that I had only one life to lay down on paper for him.

  I didn’t know Erin Moore before I accepted Bill’s invitation to write my memoirs. That she became my editor has been one of the most fortunate events of my publishing career. Her editing arm is all muscle, but her touch is gossamer. She has nudged, squeezed, sliced, a
nd pressed, with firmness equal to her gentleness, and if the shape of this book is agreeable, considerable credit goes to her sculpting.

  It’s not a saint, exactly. It’s Marcella Hazan.

  Index

  Note: Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations

  A

  abbacchio

  Albina (aunt)

  Alexandria, Egypt

  Allen, Darina

  Amarcord (film)

  Arance Marinate

  arm injury

  artichokes

  Asso, Margherita

  Atlanta, Georgia

  Australia

  Avirom, Joel

  B

  Bajòn

  baking

  Bali, Indonesia

  Ballymaloe Cookery School

  balsamella

  balsamic vinegar

  Banti, Jenny

  baseball

  basil

  BBD&O

  bean-and-black-cabbage soup

  Beard, James

  and baking

  and Burt Wolf

  and Cipriani cooking vacations

  in cooking course

  and People magazine story

  regard for

  and Stanford Court hotel

  Beck, Simone

  “Behind the Scenes with Marcella Hazan,”

  Behrendt, Olive

  Belgian endive

  bicycles and bicycling

  Binkrant, Ruth

  Bloomingdales

  Bologna, Italy

  and arm injury of Marcella

  iconic dish of

  personality of

  search for residence in

  Bologna cooking courses

  development of

  entertainment for

  expeditions

  and food markets

  and food taboos

  kitchen for

  L’Accademia

  and Maria

  participants of

  on regional cuisines

  Bolognese pan-roast of pork and milk

  Boni, Ada

  Book-of-the-Month’s Homestyle Club

  book publishing ventures

  and agent

  Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

  Marcella Cucina

  Marcella’s Italian Kitchen

  More Classic Italian Cooking

  See also The Classic Italian Cook Book

  Borgia, Lucrezia

  Brothers, Joyce

  Browne, Coral

  Buford, Bill

  business ventures

  commercially-made sauces

  Marcella Hazan’s Italian Kitchen in Bloomingdale’s

  restaurant consulting

  Veni Vici restaurant

  butter

  C

  calamari

  California

  Campo dei Fiori market

  Cape Town, South Africa

  cappellacci

  cappelletti

  Capucci, Robert

  carciofi alla giudia

  carciofi alla romana

  carosello advertising format

  car wreck

  Cesenatico, Italy

  beach, time spent on

  and cooking courses

  final departure from

  of Marcella’s youth

  residence in

  return to

  Victor, in

  Charlottesville, North Carolina

  Chernobyl, Russia

  chicken

  chicory

  Child, Julia

  advice of

  and Judith Jones

  and People magazine story

  in Venice

  and Veni Vedi restaurant

  Child, Paul

  childhood and youth

  arm injury

  comitiva

  with grandfather

  chili pepper

  Chinese cuisine.

  Christmas

  in Cesenatico

  in Manhattan

  with Victor

  Chu, Grace

  ciambella

  cicheti

  Cipriani, Giuseppe

  Cipriani cooking courses

  atmosphere of

  and “Behind the Scenes with Marcella Hazan,”

  development of

  expeditions

  kitchen at

  and Nobu Matsuhisa

  participants of

  and Rialto market

  Claiborne, Craig

  and balsamic vinegar

  cookbook model of

  interview with

  lunch with

  Clarke, Sir Ashley

  The Classic Italian Cook Book

  British rights to

  and Harper’s Magazine Press

  and Judith Jones

  and Knopf

  marketing of

  production of

  proposed revision of

  publication of

  writing of

  coffee

  Colgin, Janet

  comitiva of author

  commercially-made sauces

  The Complete Kitchen

  cooking and cooking skills

  development of

  enthusiasm for

  first efforts

  il pranzo (noontime meal)

  and parents

  cooking courses

  and assistants

  “Behind the Scenes with Marcella Hazan,”

  in Bologna

  in California

  and Claiborne’s Times story

  diplomas and graduation ceremonies

  and health of Marcella

  in-house courses-

  Master Classes

  participants of (see also specific individuals)

  for professionals

  in Venice

  The Cooks’ Catalogue

  cotechino

  crab

  Cross, Billy

  Cunningham, Marion

  Curtis, Daniel

  Curtis, Patricia

  D

  Da Fiore restaurant

  dairy

  Davidson, Alan

  Dean & DeLuca

  De Groot, Roy Andries

  Del Conte, Anna

  DeLuca, Giorgio

  denture incident

  Desenzano, Italy

  diving platform

  domestic help

  Lucia

  Maria

  Nadia

  tradition of

  Dove, John Arthur

  Durban, South Africa

  durian

  E

  eating club

  education

  Egypt

  Ekus, Lisa

  Elena

  Emilia-Romagna, Italy

  employment

  at Guggenheim Institute for Dental Research

  search for

  as teacher

  endive

  Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (Hazan)

  F

  “Fagotto” (uncle)

  Fellini, Federico

  Ferrara, Italy

  Fiaschetteria Toscana restaurant

  Fiera

  financial aspects of business

  Fine, Sylvia

  Fini, Giorgio

  Fini food company

  Fiori, Pamela

  fish and seafood

  in Australia

  in Cesenatico

  reactions of students to

  in South Africa

  in Venice

  Florence, Italy

  flower arrangement, art of (ikebana)

  food

  in Cesenatico

  in Emilia-Romagna

  and Giuliano

  il pranzo (noontime meal)

  in Ireland

  and Italian customs

  in Kyoto

  in Milan

  in New York

  origins of

  in Rome

  in Singapore

  in South Africa

  taboos in


  at Thanksgiving

  in Venice

  Victor’s enthusiasm for

  during wartime

  See also cooking and cooking skills; food markets; specific foods

  Food & Wine magazine

  food markets

  in Bologna

  in Milan

  in New York

  in Rome

  in Venice

  Forum of the Twelve Caesars restaurant

  Foster, Lord Norman

  France and French quality

  Freundlich, Larry

  Friedland, Susan

  Friedman, Jane

  frying and fried foods

  G

  Gallieri (Signor)

  Gassman, Vittorio

  Gibson, Charlie

  Ginori, Richard

  gnocchetti alle alghe

  gobbi (cardoons)

  gramigna con la salsiccia

  grandmothers

  Grand Union supermarket

  Grassi, Primo

  Greene, Gael

  Grey, Joe

  Gribetz, Lester

  Guarnaschelli, Maria

  Guazzaloca, Giorgio

  Guérard, Michel

  Guggenheim Institute for Dental research

  H

  ham

  Hare Island, Ireland

  Harlem

  Harper & Row

  Harper Collins

  Harper’s Magazine Press

  Harris, Alison

  Harzan, Giuliano

  in Atlantic Beach

  birth of

  and Bologna cooking school

  in Cesenatico

  and cooking courses

  education of

  and food

  with grandparents

  infancy

  and language skills

  and Lucia

  marriage of

  in Milan

  and olive oil incident

  and Veni Vici restaurant

  and wedding ceremony of parents

  Hazan, Victor

  in advertising business

  and book on Italian wines

  and business ventures

  car wreck

  in Cesenatico

  and cookbook publishing

  and cooking courses

  driving style

  and durian

  early relationship

  Hazan, Victor (cont.)

  in Florence

  and food

  in fur business