One of my cherished college memories is the expressions on the face of an Italian exchange student when, on a dare, she attempted to choke down some Chef Boyardee canned spaghetti and meatballs. After she half finished I heard her describe American cuisine with some Italian swear words I was unaware of.
:steals the header image to send to her in-laws:
When I was in college, while in Orlando for a co-op job, I met a beautiful French student. One night she stopped over while I was making dinner. It was Hamburger Helper Beef Stroganoff. She was intrigued. I offered her some. As she tasted it she started to sputter, “Oh, oh, oh!” And spit it out into the sink. Very funny. She was right of course, but it was very funny. BTW, I also learned we Americans have “sticky” bread.
I can now make a very good beef bourguignon (using Julia Child’s recipe).
Italian foods are regional. I don’t know if any Italians look down too much on the cuisine of other regions of Italy, but that “real food” circle may be limited to a hometown or even mamma’s kitchen. And the southern Italians probably go easier on the Spaniards and Greeks.
After she half finished I heard her describe American cuisine with some Italian swear words I was unaware of.
Only if by ‘American cuisine’ you mean ‘canned goods and institutional food ca. 1970’.
1975 Art, and the range of her curses was not so restricted, but seemed to encompass everything she had eaten since she had foot on our culinarily deprived shores.
My wife is Thai. I have not even dared trying to bring the frozen food version home from the grocery.
1975 Art, and the range of her curses was not so restricted, but seemed to encompass everything she had eaten since she had foot on our culinarily deprived shores.
Julia Child one recounted how she had grown up on pot roast and Melba toast; that’s what affluent families in the 1920s ate in California. My mother’s description of the fare her father had grown up with a half-generation earlier in East Tennessee was ‘ham and chicken, chicken and ham’, homegrown vegetables (turnip greens modal), vegetables cooked with a rasher of salt pork. (My great-grandmother’s fried chicken recipe was second to none; the ham was an intense country ham that’s not for everyone). My maternal grandmother was a cook, but her efforts were oriented toward cookies and pie; that’s what was in her mother’s recipe file. The 1950s et seq. was an era of culinary experimentation for women like my mother, who had a recipe scrapbook, her 1952 edition of “Mrs. Rombauer” (a wedding present), her Time-Life recipe file &c. Not all experiments work out, and unappetizing casseroles and frozen vegetables were common fare in our circle. (My mother retained into the 1970s a scruple about fresh vegetables out of season). My mother was a more than satisfactory cook, but she had her disappointments as well.
A co worker remarked once on how much he loved the restaurant chain Olive Garden. I laughed and said it’s ok but really not that good. And then explained my wife is 101% Italian.
He said “you’re sooo lucky”.
And I said “yes, I am.” 🙂
Best spaghetti and meatballs I have ever had was at a small Italian place in Milwaukee back in the eighties. The sauce they made in house was a revelation and the bread sticks were like nothing I had eaten before.
I like Olive Garden, although it is a bit pricey, but it does not hold a candle to home made Italian-American cuisine.
It’s easy to make great sauce. A large batch for the freezer.
Buy canned crushed Pastene tomatoes, or whole and crush. Large cans if you can get them. Heat in a crockpot. Sauté garlic in olive oil. Add to the sauce. Add basil and oregano to taste. A bit of hot pepper, few bay leaves. Add a few boneless pork sirloin cutlets, which may be either shredded into the sauce or held aside at the end. Alternatively slightly broiled meatballs may be added in lieu of the pork. Cook long and slow for 8 hours.
We never buy sauce. And even I (non Italian) can make it.
Kids I think like Franco American Spaghetti and Chef Boyardee because of the sugar content. I had a cousin who with his buddies on the weekends ate unheated cans of Spaghetti Os chased down with cheap beer.
My brother was 8 when we climbed the Eiffel Tower in Paris. At top he asked where the Chef was.. We all laughed but the TV ads did have Chef Boyardee with the Eiffel Tower in the background. The real Chef Boyardee was Hector Boiardi. Three brothers from Italy founded the company in Milton PA.
Betty Crocker was not a real.
https://case.edu/ech/articles/b/boiardi-hector