Died: 2013, Longboat Key, Florida, United
States
Marcella Hazan, who died on September 29,
2013, did for Italian cooking what Julia Child had done for French cooking a
decade earlier: made it accessible to North American home cooks. Also like
Julia Child, she did not cook before she was married and moved to a different
continent, although in opposite directions. While Julia Child famously went to
Paris, Marcella Hazan moved with her American husband, to New York.
My introduction to Marcella Hazan, came via
the magazine, Mademoiselle, circa 1973. Also published by Conde
Nast, the magazine was sort of a Vogue, junior, not a publication
you would think of immediately if you were looking for a place to read about
food. However, the managing editor, Mary Cantwell, wrote a food column called
Eat. She had been married to the
literary agent Robert Lescher whose stable of writers included Robert Frost and
Isaac Bashevis Singer. He also worked with Alice B. Toklas, M.F.K. Fisher…and
Marcella Hazan whose Classic Italian Cooking was newly released
By the time I finally bought and used Classic
Italian Cooking, I had cooked my way through both volumes of Mastering
the Art of French Cooking. While
Julia Child made me a more serious cook, I think Marcella Hazan made me a
better cook. With her science
background—her education was in natural science and biology—she could not only
tell you what to do but what would happen if you did it a different way. She
was a first rate teacher, giving classes both in the United States and at the
Hazan’s second home in Venice.
The recipes themselves often looked very
simple with few ingredients yet the flavours were always intense and
satisfying. Seasonality was Marcella’s creed, long before the word was on
everyone’s lips. She advocated the use of both fresh and dried pastas;
Signature dishes included pork braise in milk and chicken roasted with lemon
halves in the cavity. After eating a
meal I cooked from her book, two friends decided they had to have Classic
Italian Cooking for themselves.
One of the books has now been used on three different continents.
When I started working at the Cookbook
Store, Classic Italian Cooking was the first book I recommended
to a customer. However, it was still several years until I actually met its
author. By this time she had published
several books featuring author photos which made her look like a warm Italian
grandmother. In person, Marcella Hazan
was rather crusty. On her first visit, I baked a cake with ground
hazelnuts. Fearing I’d end up with
hazelnut butter, I did not grind the nuts too finely. Of course, Marcella’s first comment was, “If I
were making this cake, I’d grind the nuts more finely. I take some comfort in
the fact that she did eat the whole wedge.
There were other visits to the Cookbook
Store. Her husband Victor, a highly
regarded wine writer, was charm itself, smoothing the way for his wife and
anyone with whom she came in contact.
Indeed, her icy demeanor thawed over time, and her final visit was
positively cosy. Amongst both friends
and culinary friends, Marcella was famous for her twin passions—cigarettes and
whisky. After that visit, one of her friends when asking how the visit had
gone, upon hearing of Marcella’s good mood said, “Well, you must have given her
lots of whisky and allowed her to smoke!”
In later years, Victor and Marcella moved
to Longboat Key, Florida to be close to
their son, Giuliano, who is also a cookbook author. Recently the New York Times
food writer, Mark Bittman wrote about a final trip to cook with Marcella in
Florida shortly before she died. Marcella had planned to bake something for
dessert. In the end, she did not have the energy so served ice cream scattered
with coffee grounds and drizzled with whisky.
I laughed and cried, knowing that she was true to herself to the end.
Written by Jennifer Grange, Cookbook Store staff member since 1983.
