WHEN A SHIRE IS NOT A SHIRE

Many of you will know that I am a great fan of MasterChef Italia, which has recently made a welcome return for its sixth season on Italian TV.  I am also an admirer of Joe Bastianich, whose biography I reviewed here and I did laugh at the pronunciation lesson that Joe gave an unfortunate contestant last night. You can see the video clip here.

However, it has to be said that Joe is not teaching British English! For those of you who are confused, the term shire means county and is usually used as a suffix, as in Gloucestershire or Yorkshire. In this case, the i is pronounced like the er in her in British English. It is pronounced in the "Joe" way in the term the shires, meaning counties. Having to deal with the eccentricities of Modican Englishitis every day, I do empathise with both Joe and the poor contestant!

Worcestershire Sauce, by the way, is a British ingredient which is readily available in Italy and I was glad to see an Italian being adventurous enough to use it.

SICILY SCENE'S REVIEW OF 2015

The year that has just ended began, for me, in the worst possible way, with the loss of my darling Simi on January 8th. In the days and weeks that followed, there were several points when I thought I was going to go as well and of course, these days coming up to the anniversary of her death are also difficult.

But in February my Bertie-Pierrine, whom I love not as a substitute but in her own right, bounded into my life and we saved each other:

Other highlights of the year were visiting my new-found sister in Norwich, seeing Charles Aznavour live in concert in London and revisiting Cardiff, all of which I've written about here .

Elm Hill, Norwich, UK

It was also the year which marked the tenth anniversary of my move to Sicily and you can read about that here.

I was surprised, checking my blog stats tonight, to find that my most read blog post of 2015 was this Sabato Musicale  - I must have a lot of readers who are Annalisa fans and very welcome they are! The second most read post was the one I have linked to above about Simi's death.

My recipe of the year. among those I've created myself, is my Brit-Indian-Sicilian Shepherd's Pie:

I don't have a gadget of the year but I do have new [to me] uses for two old ones!  Both Mary Berry and Nigella suggest peeling ginger with a teaspoon in their latest books and I would like to thank them. It seems so obvious but I had never thought of it. Nigella recommends a microplane grater for grating citrus zest into dishes. I've had one for years but never realised how easy that would be!

My book of the year in English is The Dust That Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernières and my book of the year in Italian is Giuseppino by Joe Bastianich.

Instead of the Italian logic prize this time, I am awarding an Italian scandal of scandals prize and it goes to the TV advert that horrified the nation in January because - are you ready? - it showed a MasterChef winner adding a stock cube to her caponata!  I am pleased to be able to report that this ability to be more scandalised by the use of stock cubes than by all the worst excesses of Italian politicians is alive and well, as a hapless would-be MasterChef Italia 5 contestant found out a week or so ago.  "Ci hai messo del dado?"- "You put a stock cube in?!" exclaimed a horrified Joe Bastianich and the ice-cold eyes of Chef Carlo Cracco turned icier than ever.

It was yet another sad year for migrants and tragedies have continued to happen, not only in the Mediterranean but on the land routes too. Italy's European partners continue to fail her and, consequently, all who are in need of a safe haven. You can find links to all my migration posts here.

My hopes for 2016 are a safe corridor for migrants and an end to migration tragedies. As always, I hope for peace and health for those I love and for all of you, wherever you are.

Happy New Year and thank you for reading Sicily Scene!

Buon anno e grazie di aver letto la Sicily Scene!

BOOK REVIEW - GIUSEPPINO

Finding myself with time on my hands in Siracusa a few weeks ago, I naturally entered a bookshop but, unusually, nothing cried "Read me!" that day - until I found, almost hidden behind larger volumes in the cookery section, Giuseppino, a memoir by restaurateur, winemaker and MasterChef judge Joe Bastianich.

To be honest - and sorry, Joe - I thought it would just about do to help me wile away the time until my bus was due to leave. However, it turned out to be one of the most interesting books I have ever read.

Dedicated to Joe's grandmother, the book tells the story of his grandparents and parents in Istria and, from 1958, in the United States, to which they had emigrated [Istria having become part of Yugoslavia after the Second World War].  I found this fascinating as I had first read of Joe's mother, Lidia Bastianich, in Bob Spitz's biography of Julia Child, who thought highly of her. Recognising the surname Bastianich, I had looked her up and discovered that she was indeed Joe's mother and a chef and restaurateur herself. In Joe's book we learn just how hard she worked. Lidia Bastianich is now well known in Italy as a judge on Junior MasterChef Italia.

The book begins with the stunning statement from Joe that he used to hate Italy and you have to read on! Like all children, Joe just wanted to fit in and be like everyone else but the cooking smells in his house were different, as were the contents of his lunchbox, his grandmother leaned out of the window and shouted "Giuseppino!" as she saw him coming home and she didn't shave under her armpits. He always knew how much this well-educated, strong and determined woman loved him, though.

Joe rises to become a successful Wall Street bond trader but realises that he envies the art of the barman in his mother's restaurant and finally decides that it is the world of food and wine that is calling him.  

Travelling to Italy to learn everything he could about wine, he felt he was making his grandparents' and mother's journey in reverse and we follow him as he comes to terms with the country and his place within it. He makes thought-provoking observations on the differences between the restaurant and winemaking businesses in the two countries and his love for Italy is sealed when he opens his beloved Orsone restaurant and vineyard.

Joe Bastianich has the same issues with Italy as most expats do - bureaucracy, the fact that all Italians do the same thing at the same time [with repercussions for business] and breakfast - or the lack of it. Having convinced the staff in several Milanese bars to make him toast in the morning, he says his next ambition is to get them to serve him a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich in New York deli style. Good luck with that, Joe!

The MasterChef story is here too, with some intriguing detail from behind the scenes, so anyone who is a fan of the Italian version will enjoy this book.  And, with refreshing honesty, Joe tells us that he actually likes being famous. 

The book also has some witty drawings and a glossary of Joe-style Italian. It's an interesting and relaxing read and I now can't wait for the next MasterChef Italia series to start.  Keep hurling the bad dishes across the studio, Joe!