It is almost certain that this book was written and published because Gennaro Contaldo is a mentor and close friend to the very celebrated chef Jamie Oliver. While the connection with Oliver and with Gennaro’s own UK / Italian mentor, Antonio Carluccio adds interest to the book and while it is unlikely that I would have bought the book without these connections, I can with complete honesty say that this book stands on its own two feet as a good Italian cookbook and a superior evocation of life growing up in an Italian family where raising, growing, fishing, and hunting animals and plants for food was the whole family’s primary avocation.
The stories of Gennaro’s childhood, especially those directly related to hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry succeed in painting a picture of life along the Amalfi coast which succeeds much better than several culinary memoirs of Italy which I have recently read and reviewed. Mr. Contaldo is not a strong writer and I suspect he received a considerable amount of literary help in transcribing his oral memories of life in Southern Italy to paper. But, the stories are so vivid and so heart-felt that I can almost smell the blood and the sea and the mushrooms that are the subject of so many stories.
From the vantage point of an American who has read many stories of the romance northern Europeans feel for Italy, it is truly surprising to see a reverse of this scenario. Gennaro had a great desire to live and work in England as he was growing up in Italy. Once in the UK, he worked with several restaurants, including a stint in one of Antonio Carluccio’s restaurants. When he was head chef at one London restaurant, he trained the young Jamie Oliver, who treats him as his London dad. Continue reading ‘Passione: Gennaro Contaldo’s Italian Cookbook’
