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Hey! Hi kids! What are y'all doing outside? Come inside, come inside.
Help me make bread for my puccie.
It's gonna be good!
My relationship with Italian food is more profound
that I can explain with words.
In my shop, every puccia is cooked to order.
Not because it's more productive or less expensive.
The reason that we do this is because
we firmly believe in our traditions.
I could buy the pre-made bread,
put it in the storage for a month and then sell it to you.
But no. I would be a traitor.
This relationship that I have with food
is one of those that I remember and
it is the only way to cook my puccie, by hand.
By now, Italian cuisine has been popular for a long time all over the world.
The Italian cuisine truly has something special that attracts everyone.
But its popularity and, by consequence, the large amount of request
for Italian food in the United States has altered the pure essence of our cuisine.
The large companies are concentrated on profit,
forgetting that in Italy the true cook has a real
relationship with that which s/he is preparing.
When you forget about this relationship,
you forget the diverse characteristics
of that which makes Italian food truly Italian.
I know what y'all are thinking.
“Okay Lucky.
So what is it that makes Italian food truly Italian?”
Imagine being a painter and your ingredients are your color palette,
Each color, that is every ingredient that you choose,
has a reason for being there.
If you think about ingredients in this way,
choosing an olive oil for example,
everything becomes a completely different experience.
You will appreciate the freshness; you will appreciate the hands
and the hard work that has been done to produce this oil.
You know that it's okay to pay more.
What is important is that you choose the right
ingredients for the picture that you want to paint.
Y'all think about the world that we could live in if everyone gave
the same importance in choosing the ingredients.
For some restaurants cooking has become a quick fast process.
I understand... we are all busy, we want everything quickly.
Okay, it's exactly for this reason that the big companies
concentrate their attention on quick production.
What one eats in Italy is totally
different from that which is presented here in America.
Italian food is very simple, it isn’t complicated and it is based
on what one finds in season.
For a true Italian cook, cooking is like a ballet
that performs with your ingredients and culminates with a grand finale that would
be the meal that you are about to eat.
If you think about cooking in this way,
you also understand that all good things in life need time.
For us, to chop, to slice, to peel,
the order in which you add ingredients are all things
that makes the process of cooking
a meal as special as when you eat it.
Our food is full of colors, consistency, aromas and flavors.
At times I could look at the food forever, without even eating it.
That's how attractive Italian food should be.
Likewise as for every good meal,
also the order in which the courses are served is unique.
Restaurants like Paris in Trastevere,
where the “Rome Study Program” of the University of Texas at Austin
meets for the concluding dinner of the program,
they serve the students an Italian meal of three courses.
We say that in Italy we have always had
a differentiation of courses.
One began with the appetizer.
Then, one used to eat the first course, or pasta or a soup.
Then one used to eat the second course and sides and dessert or fruit.
You didn’t used to eat like this every day, naturally,
but we say that the courses in Italy are structured this way.
And seeing that Anthony Bourdain considers
Paris one of his favorite restaurants in Rome,
we can be sure that Gianni knows how to do his job well.
And, naturally, you can never forget to share.
A true Italian meal exists only
when people want to get together,
forget their differences, enjoy themselves, and
enjoy this marvelous food that
required a lot of time to prepare.
And when I say share, I also refer to the work.
In the end it is this that creates the bond between people and
that which truly makes our food Italian.
Here ya go Romi. Thanks.