IAP 187: Italian Food: Separating Memory from Myth with Special Guest Karima Moyer-Nocchi

When Italian Americans are gathered, it's usually a safe bet that the conversation will turn to the topic we seem to love most… the culinary delights that are Italian food! In fact, many of us like to recall enjoying delectable homemade meals with the famiglia… while discussing what we plan to eat at the next sitting! Who can blame us for this obvious obsession?  Italian cuisine has captivated the world's palates for generations… but have you ever stopped to consider the history behind what's on your plate, or asked yourself how much we really know about the generations-old recipes we treasure? Culinary historian Karima Moyer-Nocchi has dedicated her career to this very question and, this week, she is sharing some of her discoveries with our team! Karima is the author of the critically-acclaimed Chewing the Fat - An Oral History of Italian Foodways from Fascism to Dolce Vita, and The Eternal Table: A Cultural History of Food in Rome. In her books, she reconstructs history through the lens of food, sharing how Italy's various historic interactions with other civilizations profoundly influenced its foodways, and how today's Italian cuisine is a product of a long and often overlooked evolution. We'll ask the question, "Is there such a thing as authentic Italian food?" and discuss how the food our ancestors ate is quite different from the plates we know today. We also discuss the surprising history of some of our favorite foods, where and how Italian and Italian American cuisine intersect and how different they can be,  and whether or not the passion that has evolved around Italian food might just be its undoing! So why not prepare a plate of your favorite maccheroni, and join us as we dive into the history of Italian food… from memories to myths! This episode is sponsored by Mediaset Italia.