Mark Leslie, author of Beyond the Pasta: Recipes Language and Life with an Italian Family was recently in Seattle promoting his book. Here's the first part in a 2 part interview discussing his experience living in Viterbo Italy for a month.
Q: Your book details your experiences learning the Italian language and living with a family in a small Italian town for a month, how did what started out as a travel diary work its way into a book?
A: I sent emails home daily and a friend of mine, an 80 year old woman who is a real Southern character kept encouraging me to turn it into a book. Finally she sent me a postcard with a message “Write your book or die!” complete with skull and crossbones .Her pirate message provided me with the motivation to sit down and write, but I struggled with how much of myself do I put in the book – I wanted it to be about a person’s journey and what that reveals. The most important thing was food and the relationships formed around the table when sharing a meal. By book’s end, you’ll feel like you were right next to me the entire time – discovering your own journey, too.
Q: For many people your experience is one they would love to emulate – what advice do you have for someone wanting to experience the food, language, and culture more like a local?
A: There are a number of different options available when traveling; Agriturismos where you can work on a farm harvesting olives or grapes for wine, programs where you live with a family and attend cooking classes or work in a restaurant. I wanted to cook homemade Italian food made by a mother and grandmother and sit around the table talking about the day with a real family. I’d tell people it’s an investment and the best thing is to go withan open heart and no expectations.
Q: What Italian Food do you miss the most when you leave Italy?
A: Gelato!!! I’m not sure if it’s just the environment, walking through the streets of Italy that makes it taste so good, but I just can’t duplicate that taste here at home. Also not being able to get Pecorino cheese – there you can visit a cheese shop and get 27 different varieties of Pecorino (sheep’s milk cheese) and it has so many subtle flavor variations depending on how long it was aged.
Q: Here in the US we are experiencing an epidemic of obesity. How does that contrast with Italy? What are some of the differences you noticed in how people eat and drink, their portions?
A: There’s no mass production, not as much processed food. If you arrive at the store after 3 PM eggs may be sold out, so everything is at its freshest and best. People eat in season, you won’t find fresh tomatoes in November, people use canned or dried. There are smaller portions of food and multiple courses. There is no “All you can eat!” The Mediterranean diet is eat fresh, seasonal foods. I never saw a microwave meal in Italy, even at the local marts (gas stations) on the interstate there isn’t convenience food, they have homemade paninis, gourmet cheeses and wine. An Italian gas station is like a gourmet shop from Napa. Food is something to be valued. People also walk every place. Unfortunately Italian children are jumping on Western fast food. There was already a McDonalds in Viterbo where I was staying.
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