The Fame Issue
"Shaken, not stirred", which is like saying "shaken, not stirred". The unmistakable phrase has been uttered by seven actors and always by the same character: Bond, James Bond. That's how the secret agent ordered his dry Martini - or was it vesper Martini? Opinions are divided. This is just one of many examples of recipes that have become well-known thanks to the famous people who made them popular. Many celebrities have shared their favorite potions with the world in fiction or in real life, from Sophia Loren to Hemingway.
The reduced importance of this honorable country can also be seen here... In O Pai Tirano (The Tyrant Father), a sexagenarian who inspires tenderness (Teresa Gomes) asks for two shrimp cakes at the bar of the concert hall where Mestre José Santana (Vasco Santana) is performing. The barman tells him they're out. "Then you can have two glasses of white wine." The same thing happens with veal croquettes and pastelinhos de Belém, and the solicitous waiter immediately serves the said penalties without bothering to say that there aren't any. Nor codfish cakes, are usually associated with this iconic scene in Portuguese cinema. This would be enough to get a chorus of loud laughter in theaters. And it did, for many years. But only in Portugal. It was the size of Brazil, with its 214 million inhabitants, that spread the word not about our oval pastries, but about their round "bolinhos de bacalhau" (codfish cakes). Just as on almost all websites the Brazilian flag represents the Portuguese language option, so too are these great little of Brazil, these small examples of our good gastronomic taste are also spread around the world spherically and with much less cod. And without any character from a movie, TV series, or MPB singer having ever advertised them in a brilliant product placement action, like the lavish breakfasts (sorry) from the soap operas of our childhood, which personally instilled in me the orange juice when I woke up and the insatiable desire for sesame cake. So let's imagine that you are an Italian who sees the meatballs with spaghetti that lead to the Lady and the Tramp kissing at the table of a restaurant prepared for the couple by chef Tony (or do you know another name given by American cinema to a descendant of the Italian immigrant community?) as a genuinely Italian dish. Because in no restaurant in Italy will you be served minced meatballs with tomato sauce over spaghetti and, more importantly, in no Italian house will it even be considered. Meatballs, made from the most ordinary cuts, accompanied by canned marinara sauce (an affordable product widely available in grocery stores), were the solution found by the Italians who emigrated en masse to the USA between 1880 and 1920 to remember their homeland, even if only remotely. And let's not even talk about mac and cheese, let alone American pizza chains, which embarrass any transalpine. On top of that, they are ultra-precious of their gastronomic heritage.
Some things are worse than traveling, I know. Maybe that's why I never complained about this austere life, which forced me to take long absences from home, long journeys, sometimes with three or more flights (including two-seater Cessnas - mine and the pilot's), long car journeys that we commonly call road trips, long evenings by the campfire listening to the lions far away and the hyenas strutting close by in the middle of the Kalahari desert, long dinners in restaurants with long tasting menus, in short, everything long except sleep, which eventually took its toll. The good life has no drawbacks. Unless one day it ends. Nevertheless, it exists and no one can take that away from us. As a result of this "little life", we are left with those places to which we return whenever possible. They have such a strong appeal that, given the chance to discover new places, we choose to "recognize" them. For a deeper dive into the culture, the interaction with the people, and the warm waters of the gulf from the lido of Marechiaro, we crossed Posillipo (by Vespa, of course), Vesuvius on our backs. Yes, my love for Naples is anything but veiled. As a tourist, I have aromas that won't leave my nostrils, flavors that I can't replicate no matter how much I apply myself here, and images tattooed on my spinal bulb (although I don't know if it's in the spinal bulb that we store memories). More important than that, I have friends who are in daily contact and love each other, who are also in love with Lisbon and, like me, believe that we are brother and sister nations, far beyond the clothes on the drying rack, the scent of sea air that we wake up to, the damp winter of going to the bone or our mother as "the saint greater than all the others". And they are the ones who always welcome me to immerse myself in what can be considered Italy's most authentic culture, which reverberates through the courtyards where the kids play ball, the alleys where the grocers put the zucchini and melanzane in a basket that the nannies lower through the windows of centuries-old buildings where it is impossible to install an elevator, the dozens of cathedrals, staircases, tunnels, underground galleries, from Quartieri Spagnoli to Vomero, from Arenella to Materdei. It was in a bookshop on Via Port'Alba that I found a must-have item for anyone who likes to eat. In 1971, precisely at the height of her stardom, Signorina Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone, better known as Sophia Loren, released her book In Cucina Com Amore. In other words, the most beautiful woman in the world, the pride of Italy, the myth but also the expert cook, has compiled the most typical Italian recipes, with an emphasis on Naples (where she moved with her family during World War II), with precious tips and ancient secrets (including a lengthy explanation of how each type of pasta is used in each dish). What's more, the photographs were all taken in his home, which meant that all Italians could have access to the icon's home, from his dining room to his kitchen (you could even see his gas stove, which was, therefore, a sales success). Needless to say, the first edition sold out in no time at all, and even today, as a must-have in any Italian home, it's difficult to find. And it is they who always welcome me to immerse myself in what may be one of the most vast and prolix recipes in the world. One dish stood out for its ease of execution and its tasty result and, in the hands of the great Sophia, it has never left the world's lips... Penne alla Puttanesca (tomatoes, olives, capers, garlic, chilies and anchovies) is now a must-have on the palate of any lover of Italian cuisine and is usually a hit. Even Anthony Bourdain couldn't do the same with Spaghetti all'amatriciana, which he loved so much because of the guanciale (a kind of bacon made from pork cheek), and which he often mentioned, cooked and tasted on his shows. Nor did Giacinto, the decrepit inhabitant of the slum overlooking Rome, revealing that Coda alla Vacinara (Oxtail) and celery are like a man and a woman, "they're only good when they're together", in Ugly Pigs and Bad People (1976), manage to do the same for this typically Roman delicacy. Perhaps Julia Roberts came a little closer in Eat, Pray, Love (2010), when she feasts on a typical Neapolitan pizza and her friend refuses because she "can't." "What do you mean, you can't? You're eating a Pizza Margherita in Naples, it's a moral imperative to eat it," she replies. Her friend objects, saying that she has put on a lot of weight. Elizabeth Gilbert then says of her sentence: "Have you ever undressed in front of a man and he ran away? No. Because he doesn't care. He’s in front of a naked woman, he’s just won the lottery.
It so happens that back in 2006 I also cycled the route between Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, and Vienna. On a cycle path that runs through the densely forested Donau Auen National Park, which translates as Danube Flood Plains. The beauty is indescribable. But although the route is flat, 80km is 80km. And being in Austria, I thought it deserved the "Three Aes." They are Schnitzel as the main course (the name is exotic, but it's nothing more than a breaded dish accompanied by a kind of migas, only more tasteless), Schnapps (a fruit brandy - pear, peach, strawberry, hazelnut, etc., which would be great if there were strawberry trees in Central Europe) and, for dessert, the sinful Strudel, more precisely Apfelstrudel, or Apple Pie. Which can now be found in any department store in its deep-frozen form, just baked in the oven. Why? In Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009), it plays the same role as Marcelus Wallace's briefcase (the one that Vincent Vega, played by John Travolta, opens in Brett's house and which lights up the whole room) in Pulp Fiction (1994). The film begins with hedonistic, almost pornographic shots of a strudel that a family of Jewish peasants serve to Colonel Hans Landa before all the members are murdered, except for Shosanna, who manages to escape. And the final scene is preceded by the same kind of shots of another strudel, this time eating at the table of a Parisian café where, many years later, the same Hans Landa and the same Shosanna sit, now the owner of a movie theater where, that same evening, the entire Nazi elite will be at the premiere of a "patriotic" film. Christoph Waltz is an excellent actor, but he can thank this role for that. Just as Strudel can thank Christoph Waltz for its worldwide acclaim. Likewise, who hasn't tried the Clementine Cake that Walter Mitty's mother (Shirley MacLaine) gave to Life Magazine photographer Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn) and which allowed Walter Mitty himself (Ben Stiller, the film's lead actor and director) to pass through the lands of the Afghan warlords? The closest recipe is by Nigella Lawson and, since the movie's release (2013), it has been the most popular on the British cook's website. Even a simple omelet has never been the same since Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren), the owner of a restaurant in the South of France in search of her third Michelin star, tastes the one made by Hassan Haji, the chef of the Tandoori restaurant that the Kadam family opened across the road, in the movie The Hundred Steps Journey (2014). Before Elvis Presley became famous, no one would have made, or at least dared to make, a banana and peanut butter sandwich. It wasn't until long after it was revealed, through a "leak", that the Banana Peanut Butter Sandwich was the King of Rock n' Roll's undoing, which he practically ate during his tours, that he was granted a place of stardom (for the sandwich). Another "legend" says that the Margarita cocktail was named after Rita Hayworth, the Mexican actress whose real name was Margarita Carmen Cansino. Gin and tonic also only left its African stronghold, where it was used by the colonists of the British Empire to repel mosquitoes (tonic water contains quinine), and was "normalized" by Ernest Hemingway, an avid consumer of alcohol in all its forms, when he spent some time on safaris that resulted in the book The Snows of Kilimanjaro. For the opposite reason, the Bloody Mary cocktail, that miraculous hangover cure (containing vodka, it wouldn't be advised by the most serious doctors nowadays), has been mentioned so often in the Hollywood industry that it's impossible to know who made it famous. It's a bit like Bacalhau à Brás in more Portuguese terms. Who was Brás? A Lisboner who became famous because he invented a recipe using the "little" he had at home? Cod, potatoes for frying, onions, bay leaves, olive oil, eggs, olives and parsley? That's the whole pantry!
*Originally translated from The Fame Issue, published October 2023. Full credits and stories in the print issue.
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