In the series of A Week of Italian Cuisine in the World at the Italian Culture Institute was held a theater show … Art of Cooking … with Maria Teresa Ruta – Guenda Goria – Silvia Siravo entitled Food and Literature.
Food from ancient times has a long history especially when it comes to Italy flavors.
A culinary evening with sayings from famous people’s, movie worlds, traditional Italian dishes, wines, composers, desserts was on showcase. Began the show by going back in time to biblical age – Eve and forbidden fruit (apple) with several stops in historical lanes to the foodstuffs and their role in history.
The meals damped not only our hunger, but also creating an opportunity to – based on the Convivio Latin phrase meaning = be in community, share with each other our joys, our sorrows.
Literary works refer to moments of sharing meals, recipes and dishes, because all that is about food, is also a question an important question of life for the Italians. Probably, not on my own, many know, that taking a pan of food over to the neighbor, friends is a kind act, but if the pan, pot is not given back it can become a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility between each other. The Italian of housewives cooking tools are the most important thing in life.
This evening we sat by the imaginary “tables” … how decisive the food is for our lives. Of course, the words were spiced up with entertaining musical inserts.
For example, Rossini “set of table” , in his words: Q.: “What is Love for the heart, is the stomach appetite. The stomach is the conductor that conducts the orchestra of emotions, empty stomach sounds like a bassoon or resentful longing flute, while a full rumble beating rhythm of pleasure, joy drumbeat. Love is nothing but hustle and bustle on stage primadonna whose passionate voice intoxicating our ears and our hearts to kidnap. Eat and Love, Sing and Digest are the four acts of the comonic opera that we call LIFE, which is quickly fleeting moment like drunkenness caused by champagne. A fool to let it go without enjoying it”
They talked about the Italian movies having such an effect culinary moments, such as: “The Sweet Life” – Ravioli with spelled spinach, „An American in Rome” – Tomato Spaghetti, ”For a Bunch of Dollars” – Sausage Beans, „Panther” – Flavored Macaroni … „Swept away” – Seafood with spaghetti …just mentioning a few.
Almost certain by the end, after the imaginary “table” everybody became terribly hungry and in company asked one-an-other … Are you hungry? … Where shall we to head to eat?
Update and snaps by Aggie Reiter
Rolling in Budapest 