But first flavour
AN ITALIAN JOB.
Ah, Italians. They’re always late, always loud and always move their hands when they talk. Apparently, they’re also obsessed with food and you cannot dare to challenge any of their culinary ‘rules’.
Being Italian I can confirm that there is some truth to these stereotypes. I grew up with this culture, where everyone is brought up eating home-cooked meals prepared from scratch, usually with only a few ingredients, and where food is joy, passion, life, family, friends and mostly, exceptional flavour and taste. Food is an event, all of it accompanied by laughing out loud, waving hands and leaving early but always being late.
Italians are proud of real flavours and real food, and they want you to love it too. They spend hours cooking and baking for you. They want you to tell them that it was fantastic. Once you’ve said that, they’re going to tell you how they cooked or baked it. And you’d better be interested. That usually takes time as people have their local vendors and shops, and everyone thinks their products are the best. The battle of the flavours.
Italian food is also the upholder of nonna’s (grandma) traditional recipes (and nonna always knew and knows best) and although Italian regional cuisine is so varied and different, with everyone fiercely defending their local food and recipes as the best ones, there are two things that will always bring all Italians together: 1) real(ly) good flavour, 2) pineapples are fruit, not a pizza topping.
