1. Food and Nostalgia - Of the Past, Present and Future
Italy is a country rooted firmly in tradition. Nostalgia pervades the modern times
for what was timeless and romantic in the authentic Italian identity. In the gastronomical
field, Italy’s culinary culture can be found to be changing and evolving in the cuisines and
recipes of various time periods. Through their personalized memories and experiences, the
chefs lead the path of change, not only utilizing tradition as the foundation of innovation
but also creating new cuisines upon traditional methods and recipes.
Tradition is foundation, developed by the common denominator found between
personalized and unique experiences and practices. Rather than objective, it is subjective to
the human factor that is laced through every feature that is preserved through situations of
change. As modern life becomes more subject to change and “corruption”, tradition
becomes a source of security to draw upon a defined identity; the human mind often takes
comfort in what is consistent. It is the physical manifestation of identity. Often seenin
opposition to innovation, it is to my opinion that tradition is instead the foundation of
innovation. As modern means and methods evolve through time, tradition becomes the
basis to build and evolve.
As a country that takes significant pride in its food culture, traditions in the culinary
culture include both the recipes and methods of what was done right through tries and
fails. What remains consistent in such culture are not necessarily the recipes but the
methods of cooking. Each time period comes with its own focus on health, taste, expense,
and convenience, each factor affecting the consumers’ decisions on food and cooking. Take
for example the 21st Century’s focus on organic ingredients and convenience. For the

2. former, it sacrifices expense for health, with the fancier and more authentic restaurants
promoting their choice of organics. For the latter, cookbooks have shown increasing focus
on time; the required time is measured in minutes and the required work is evaluated in
details by the author. This emphasis came to play with the increasingly busy lifestyles of
the modern generation. Thus, recipes conform to these factors. From traditional recipes
stem healthier means of achieving the same results, quicker processes, and more convenient
means. However, what are preserved through time are the methods and steps that make up
the basis of a recipe. While taste is unique to each individual, recipes find a common factor
behind what tastes “good”.
The evolution of Italian cookbooks is strongly correlated with the changes of
modern life, methods, advances and ideals. At its beginnings in the 1950’s, the target
audience was directed toward educated women. From the 1970’s as cookbooks and tastings
became more of a commodity, traditional cuisines are popularly described as “authentic”.
Authenticity came to describe things that are uncorrupted by modern ideals of
convenience, fragmentation, and health. While the target audience remain to be women,
cookbooks emphasize on the familial setting for women as housewives. Even while that
concept became outdated in the 21st century, cookbooks continue to revere tradition in its
adherence to pictures of the family dinner table, crowded markets, and traditionally
dressed people. However, throughout these periods, cookbooks have continued to act as a
romantic escape from the present back to what is often revered as a “simpler” and “better”
past. In a way, this sense of nostalgia strips away the negative elements of memory and
tradition to remember only its romantic aspects of family, simplicity, and enjoyment. What
became different in its evolution is its growing focus on the subjective experiences of the

3. author. From simple, descriptive paragraphs, modern cookbooks are far more personality-
driven to be distinguished amidst a library of cookbooks and online recipes. “They've
become more aspirational, incorporating lifestyle, not just recipes. Eat like this, live like
this, throw dinner parties like this,” says owner of Omnivore Books on Food, Celia Sack.
Cooking becomes more subjective to experience and memories, especially with those famed
chefs people often adore on the television.
In food, nostalgia is the ribbon that connects the past with the present in associating
unique combinations of the five senses with strong memories. Of the past, food is memories.
In the present, food is of the five senses. Each unique combination in the moment brings
forth a complexity of emotions. The strongest of which ties to the past: nostalgia. As
indicated earlier, cookbooks provide a means to connect with nostalgia. In viewing it as an
“escape” from the present, nostalgia is often toward an idealized version of the past.
Through the interviews I have conducted from the various chefs in Rome, I am often given
a tour back to their childhood upon reminiscence. They would speak of family and
simplicity, painting a picture of a peaceful farmland with a perfect family. Recognizing the
existence of memories in these chefs’ creations, the Petronilla Project has an aim in
bringing together communities to join in on the cultural exchanges with food as their
vehicle. One of their projects include harmonizing antagonistic communities through the
exchange of cookings and traditions - of which include organizing a meal cooked by Roman
Jewish and Palestinian women to serve as a vehicle of peace.
“Italians are very stubborn,” claims Ornella de Felice, “They will always say that
the dessert their grandparents made are better than that of the best chefs.” If it came down
to a comparison of taste, chefs who were trained and experienced in Italian cuisine would

4. no doubt take the prize. However, it is the memories associatedwith the meals prepared by
“their grandparents” that play into the stubbornness of a culture that takes special pride in
food. Traditional recipes passeddown through time are often recreated during family
gatherings on holiday seasons. From the Voice of New York, Barbara Raccagni takes down
a “recipe of memory” of a “Grandma Maria”, whose relationship with food revolves
around the history of Italy from the hardships of war to the economic boom. Long passed
away, Grandma Maria’s recipe as well as the memories associated with it is recreated
through a contest where both aunts and nephews come together to determine who could
best reproduce the recipe true to its original. While the modern generation could no longer
find such roller coaster-like bonds with certain tastes and smells, it finds nostalgia in the
unfamiliar but exciting memories of those that came before them. With it, it too creates the
generation’s own special bond with the romanticized version of the past.
In my research, cooking has often been compared in metaphor to dance; in the
latter, ballet serves as foundation for various forms of dance while in cooking, traditional
methods serve as the base for creativity to build upon. Ornella de Felice, notable chef at
Coromandel, compared ballet to pop dancing - if one learns the former, one would have
established the base to practice the latter. She sets ballet as the foothold of dance, just as I
will set the foothold of Italy’s culinary food culture on its traditional recipes. The kitchen
becomes a laboratory, and the traditions and recipes become its chemicals. From practice
and knowledge, people stem from that foundation in creating modern recipes with modern
ingredients and technologies.
Between chefs and customers, a mutual communication and exchange is established
with the customers’ orders and the chef’s choices in the cooking process. The customers’

5. choices and decisions often reflect past experiences and memories. For example, Loredana
Santarelli, a chef at Velavevodetto Al Quiriti, compares people who order oxtails as
opposed to people who order steak. As a restaurant that presents traditional Roman
cuisines, those that pay visits to it order oxtail to experience the traditional Roman dish.
From these choices, Santerelli communicates back with the dishes she present to her
customers. A chef does not become a chef by reading, but instead becomes one in the
kitchen. However, while the media glorifies chefs as V.I.P.s, the career choice requires a
person to be down-to-earth and reminiscent. Each chef cooks based on their individualized
memories and experiences, following the unfathomable experiences of the five senses.
Each cuisine promote and preserve a particular version of the Italian culinary
heritage and each chef along with the restaurant have a responsibility in being true to that
heritage. While passion is a strong element behind cooking, there is also the burden of
responsibility in being true to the ethics of the process. From selecting the ingredients to
creating the cuisine, a chef is responsible in communicating the role of ethics in their
culture. Ethics can often be traded for convenience and expense. On that topic, Santarelli
explains the complex process of ensuring the best quality ingredients to communicate her
take on the Italian culture to her customers using high-quality ingredients.
From the memories of the past and the sensations of the present, people recreate,
improve and forge upon the basis of tradition. Memories pave a path for people to follow
down but the path becomes endless as individualized experiences and memories extend that
path. Cookbooks are a way to pass down the story beyond the recipe. The way a recipe
changes follows the way a chef adheres to cultural changes; from a recipe, its methods, and

6. its choice of ingredients, one can find the transition of lifestyles through time.