Before ‘Local’ Was a Trend, It Was an Italian American Way of Life
My Neapolitan-born grandma did not believe in eating out at restaurants. The only time she went out to eat was on the occasion she craved Chinese food. And once a year on Mother’s Day, we would treat her and my mother to a fancy dinner at a steakhouse. I won’t use the words here that my grandma used to describe restaurant food, but let’s just say,...
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Italian-American Food Is an Ancient, Time-honored Cuisine
In recent years, a number of food writers, chefs and those in the food media have been claiming that Italian-American food is something different from Italian food. They say it was created here in the United States. You probably heard the oft repeated line that there was a lot of beef in the United States when the Italian immigrants arrived over 10...
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Dina Di Maio (Author of the book “Authentic Italian. The real story of Italy’s Food and its People”)
Over the years, I have sometimes published interviews in which I do not completely agree with some of the answers. These interviews are among the ones I like most, because feeding the debate, helping to reflect and listening to different opinions is one of the most beautiful things that can be done by those who inform and communicate, in full respe...
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Review: Authentic Italian
With her book Authentic Italian (2018), author Dina M. Di Maio aims to disseminate The Real Story of Italy’s Food and Its People, as the subtitle explains, among American readers (and, presumably, also diners). She wants to dispel the prejudices and biases about Italian immigrants and their food by demonstrating and reclaiming the authentic Italia...
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