Small tribute to some little-known figures in Italy but who have done so much to make Italian cuisine and our wines known in the United States. If Italian wine and food play an important role in the American world today, it is due in large part to their contributions. Daniele Cernilli tells us about them.
Having traveled around the world a bit, and knowing countries like the U.S. quite well, I have always wondered why people who have done so much for Italian wine and food awareness in America are almost completely unknown here.
Marcella Hazan and Italian cuisine explained to Americans
I don’t know how many of you have heard of, for example. Marcella and Victor Hazan. She, especially, with her cookbooks, has made an immense contribution to the knowledge of the italian recipes in the usa. In our country, not only do few people know her, but no one, when she was alive, ever awarded her any recognition for some very impressive work she did for decades.
Darrell Corti “The living wine encyclopedia.”
Turning to the world of wine, how many have heard the name of Darrell Corti? Owner of the large Corti Brothers supermarket in Sacramento, he was a pioneer of Italian wine in California. He has worked with the University of Davis, where they call him ” the living wine encyclopedia” for the boundless and deep knowledge he has on the subject of oenology. And not only about Italian wines.
Italian wine ambassadors
Then, many restaurateurs, such as Piero Selvaggio, Lidia Bastianich, who are still there, Tony May, Sirio Maccioni, which have left us instead. Importers and distributors, such as Leonardo Lo Cascio, who founded Winebow, Dominic Nocerino, Fabrizio Pedrolli, of Vinifera Imports and Vias, respectively.
If Italian wine and food play an important role in the American world today, much is due to the work of these people, and I take this opportunity to remember them and to make their names a little better known.
