The food publishing event of the season: Beloved teacher andbestselling cookbook author Marcella Hazan tells how a young girlraised in Emilia- Romagna became America's godmother of Italian cooking.
Widely credited with introducing proper Italian food to theEnglish-speaking world, Marcella Hazan is as authentic as they come.Raised in Cesenatico, a quiet fishing town on the northern AdriaticSea, she'd eventually have her own cooking schools in New York,Bologna, and Venice. There she would teach students from around theworld to appreciate—and produce—the food that native Italians eat.She'd write bestselling and award-winning cookbooks, collectinvitations to cook at top restaurants, and have thousands of loyalstudents and readers—some so devoted they'd name their daughtersMarcella. Her fans will be as surprised and delighted by how this allcame to be as Marcella herself has been.
Marcella begins with her early childhood in Alexandria, Egypt, whereshe broke her arm. After nearly losing the arm to poor medicaltreatment, she was taken back to her father's native Italy for surgery.There the family would remain. Her teenage years coincided with WorldWar II, and the family relocated temporarily to Lake Garda— notanticipating that it would be one of the war's greatest targets. Afteryears of privation and bombings, Marcella was fulfilling her ambitionto become a doctor and professor of science when she met Victor, thelove of her life. They married and moved to New York City. Marcellaknew 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. Shetooka Chinese cooking class in the early '60s with women who asked her toteach them Italian cooking, and she began to give them lessons. Soonafter, Craig Claiborne invited himself to lunch, and the rest ishistory.
Amarcord means "I remember" in Marcella'snative Romagnolo dialect. In these pages Marcella, now eighty-four,looks back on the adventures of a life lived for pleasure and a love ofteaching. Throughout, she entertains the reader with stories of thehumorous, sometimes bizarre twists and turns that brought her love,fame, and a chance to change the way we eat forever.
