Amarcord or Giadas Family Dinners

Amarcord

Author: Marcella Hazan

The food publishing event of the season: Beloved teacher and bestselling cookbook author Marcella Hazan tells how a young girl raised in Emilia- Romagna became America's godmother of Italian cooking.

Widely credited with introducing proper Italian food to the English-speaking world, Marcella Hazan is as authentic as they come. Raised in Cesenatico, a quiet fishing town on the northern Adriatic Sea, she'd eventually have her own cooking schools in New York, Bologna, and Venice. There she would teach students from around the world to appreciate—and produce—the food that native Italians eat. She'd write bestselling and award-winning cookbooks, collect invitations to cook at top restaurants, and have thousands of loyal students and readers—some so devoted they'd name their daughters Marcella. Her fans will be as surprised and delighted by how this all came to be as Marcella herself has been.

Marcella begins with her early childhood in Alexandria, Egypt, where she broke her arm. After nearly losing the arm to poor medical treatment, she was taken back to her father's native Italy for surgery. There the family would remain. Her teenage years coincided with World War II, and the family relocated temporarily to Lake Garda— not anticipating that it would be one of the war's greatest targets. After years of privation and bombings, Marcella was fulfilling her ambition to become a doctor and professor of science when she met Victor, the love of her life. They married and moved to New York City. Marcella knew not a word of English or—what's more surprising—a single recipe. She began to attempt to re-create the flavors of her homeland. Shetook a Chinese cooking class in the early '60s with women who asked her to teach them Italian cooking, and she began to give them lessons. Soon after, Craig Claiborne invited himself to lunch, and the rest is history.

Amarcord means "I remember" in Marcella's native Romagnolo dialect. In these pages Marcella, now eighty-four, looks back on the adventures of a life lived for pleasure and a love of teaching. Throughout, she entertains the reader with stories of the humorous, sometimes bizarre twists and turns that brought her love, fame, and a chance to change the way we eat forever.

Publishers Weekly

In 1969 Hazan gave the private cooking class that launched her career as the Italian Julia Child. In an evocative memoir, she recounts her life from childhood to Florida Gulf Coast retirement. Hazan spent her earliest years on another coast, in Cesenatico, a village on the Adriatic; during WWII the family moved to a lake in the mountains between Venice and Milan. Fresh out of the university, she taught college math and science and met a young man who had returned to his Italian homeland after more than a decade in America. He loved food, and his worldliness and sophistication made a good match for the comparatively earthbound author. After they married, the couple moved several times between various places in Italy and America. During a long stay in New York, Hazan began to offer the Italian cooking lessons that later caught the attention of such chefs as New York Times food writer Craig Claiborne. This led to the writing and publication in 1973 of The Classic Italian Cookbook. Hazan's memoir is a terrific history of the expansive, postwar period when Americans were still learning the difference between linguine and Lambrusco, and an engaging chronicle of professional perseverance, chance and culinary destiny. Photos. (Oct.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Town & Country - Pamela Fiori

Reading this evocative memoir will perceptibly elevate one's senses and make one appreciate Marcella Hazan's fascinating journey—from girlhood in Italy to womanhood in America, from relative obscurity to her certain fame in the food world.

What People Are Saying

Patricia Wells
Marcella Hazan is an icon in the American food world, and her one-of-a-kind experience makes her own story not only compelling but truly marvelous. (Patricia Wells, author of The Paris Cookbook and The Provence Cookbook)

Frances Mayes
Marcella Hazan's memoir is as delicious as her food. Full of affection, friendships and deep connections to her roots, she ladles a grand minestrone into our bowls. (Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun)

Burt Wolf
Marcella Hazan has done for Italian cooking in the United States what Julia Child did for French cuisine and James Beard for traditional American cooking. I think of her as the Johnny Appleseed of real Italian cooking. (Burt Wolf, Television Journalist)

Paul Levy
Marcella Hazan's memoir is a gripping, elegantly written tale of a life full of surprises, exotic backgrounds, captivating people and generous helpings of good things to eat and drink -- plus the touching, authentically 20th century romance of the marriage of a small-town Italian Catholic to a Sephardic Jew. (Paul Levy, award-winning journalist and author of The Official Foodie Handbook)

Dorothy Kalins
This succulent memoir makes you realize just how much the making of Marcella has to do with the making of dinner every night in America. (Dorothy Kalins, Founding Editor of Saveur)

Fergus Henderson
A fantastic book, by a splendid lady whose classic Italian cooking shaped, more than any other person, this British Chef cooking British food. (Fergus Henderson, Director & Chef, St. John Bar and Restaurant, London)

Table of Contents:

Alexandria and Cesenatico, 1931-1937 1

Cesenatico, La Comitivu, 1940 9

The War, 1940-1945 19

Home Again, 1945 39

Out of the University, into Love and Marriage, 1949-1955 47

On to the New World, 1955-1962 67

Back to the Old World, 1962-1967 91

Back to the New World, 1967-1970 115

A Book Born Twice and Twice Reborn, 1971-1980 135

A Funny Thing Happened, 1973-1975 147

Bologna, 1975-1987 161

Other Worlds, 1984-1992 189

How Not to Get Rich, 1972-1993 209

Venice, 1978-1995 223

My Three Graces, 1963-1999 261

Parting with Knopf, 1975-1993 271

Leaving Venice, 1993-1999 281

Index 297

Giada's Family Dinners

Author: Giada de Laurentiis

In her New York Times bestseller Everyday Italian, Giada De Laurentiis introduced us to the simple, fresh flavors of her native Italian cuisine. Now, America’s favorite Italian cook is back with a new batch of simple, delicious recipes geared toward family meals—Italian style.

These unpretentious and delicious meals are at the center of some of Giada’s warmest memories of sitting around the table with her family, passing bowls of wonderful food, and laughing over old times. Recipes for soups like Escarole and Bean and hearty sandwiches such as the classic Italian Muffuletta make casual, easy suppers, while one-pot dinners like Giada’s Chicken Vesuvio and Veal Stew with Cipollini Onions are just as simple but elegant enough for company. You’ll also find recipes for holiday favorites you’ll be tempted to make all year round, including Easter Pie, Turkey and Ciabatta Stuffing with Chestnuts and Pancetta, and Panettone Bread Pudding with Amaretto Sauce.

Giada’s Family Dinners celebrates the fun of family meals with photographs of Giada’s real-life family and friends as well as the wonderful dishes she shares with them in her kitchen. Suggested menus help you put together a family-style meal for any occasion, from informal to festive.

The heart of Italian cooking is the home, and Giada’s Family Dinners—full of fantastic recipes that require a minimum of fuss to prepare—invites you to treat everyone like a member of the family.

Nothing is more important than family. Bring yours to the table with Giada’s unpretentious, authentic, down-home Italiancooking!


• SOUPS AND SANDWICHES
• ITALIAN SALADS AND SIDES
• EVERYDAY FAMILY ENTREES
• THE ITALIAN GRILL
• FAMILY-STYLE PASTA
• FAMILY-STYLE GET-TOGETHERS
• ITALIAN FAMILY FEASTS
• FAMILY-STYLE DESSERTS

Publishers Weekly

With her second cookbook, Food TV star De Laurentiis proves she's more than just a pretty face. Although the host of Everyday Italian is not hard to look at, and photos of her and her family cooking are scattered throughout, there are many more reasons to pick up this book. If classics like Escarole and Bean Soup, Chicken Marsala, and Basic Polenta aren't strong enough incentives, then perhaps modern interpretations such as Chicken Carbonara, Roasted Red Snapper with Parsley Vinaigrette, Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Swiss Chard and Pecorino Cheese, or Espresso Brownies will be. Like De Laurentiis's first, bestselling book (named after her show), this volume presents doable dishes, though there's an emphasis here on feeding a crowd (which doesn't mean small households can't make Italian Wedding Soup and freeze some for an easy weeknight supper). There are twists on Thanksgiving classics, including Turkey with Herbes de Provence and Citrus, Ciabatta Stuffing with Chestnuts and Pancetta, and Butternut Squash Lasagna as well as recipes for traditional Italian holiday foods like Easter Pie, Pizza Rustica, and Panettone Bread Pudding with Amaretto Sauce. Broader and more developed than Everyday Italian, De Laurentiis's second book nicely showcases her range and depth. (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

De Laurentiis is one of the Food Network's hottest new stars, with two series to her credit, and her first cookbook, Everyday Italian, was a best seller. Here are more easy recipes for simple meals, some designed to feed a crowd, others for more intimate gatherings-along with lots of photographs showing off De Laurentiis's glamorous look. Expect demand. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.