Part of any great blog is the 2 way conversation that comes with it. To inspire more conversation Knickerbocker Glory will host a blog series called “Food Moments and Other Take Out”. This series will include stories from our readers and other contributors.
The following post was written by Chef William Mattiello. Chef William is the Chef/Owner or Via Emilia, a restaurant in New York City specialising in foods from the Emilia Romagna region of Italy.
An Early Awakening to Food
My earliest “awakening” to food happened to me when I was just ten years old. I was in Naples visiting my large family. Some of my cousins worked in the family tomatoes field. For one very long day I joined them to work as a farmer.
What I remember very clearly was the “poor” lunch we had on the grass, in the shadow of a big tree. We were very tired (at least I was) by lunch time. My cousin put a blanket on the grass, and placed a big piece of bread, the one you cook with the mother yeast and lasts for one week, a nice piece of cheese, I think it was pecorino, and proceeded to wash and cut a bunch of tomatoes we were picking that day.
The tomatoes were tossed in extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice. I can’t recall if there was basil in it, but the flavor those tomatoes had remained in my memory.
I guess if you eat tomatoes you just picked off the plant, you are bound to have a fantastic food experience. If you pick a tomato in Naples and around then you are in luck. I have never tasted something so incredible since then, and I definitely never ate a tomato as good as that. I do have a theory for the epiphany one might have over a particular kind of food.
I always get the compliment “that was the best meal I ever had”. And most of the time it was a simple pasta with tomato sauce. I think that the mood, the atmosphere, the company, and some other factor I can’t quantify, help the food experience. I strongly believe that food is secondary to the mood of your surroundings. If you are in the company of a good friend whom you haven’t seen in a long time, then the food will be great. If you are having a sophisticated French dinner cooked at your table by a great chef, and your wife has been on your case all day, that dinner will not be memorable.
Now I do give credit to the food, but I must say that if I didn’t work hard that day, if I wasn’t in the company of my trusted family, then the tomatoes might not have made such a memorable impression.
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