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Farewell to Sister Germana, "the cook of God" – Italian Cuisine

She died at 81 in the Varese area. She has written dozens of successful cookbooks and has been a well-known face on TV since the 1980s

They called it "the cook of God": Sister Germana, author of dozens of successful cookbooks and a well-known face on TV since the 1980s, died at 81 in Varesotto, where she had lived for some time. Her name was Martina Consolaro, she was born in Crespadoro, in the province of Padua and, when she was very young, she had discovered her passion for cooking.

Home economics courses

He was 16 years old, when he entered the Sisters of the Christian Famulato in Turin as a postulant: it was an institute for the pastoral care of the "domestic workers". In 1958, when the nuns organized a home economics course for girlfriends, they asked her to take a cooking class. "I started to cry, I didn't even know where to start," Sister Germana had told "Famiglia Cristiana". “Then I realized that I could put my experience to good use: the city girls did not even know how to break an egg while I, the daughter of farmers, had learned to prepare food with what was available . His motto, ever since, was: "Where the wallet doesn't go, the brain comes."

The first book When angels cook

Then, with Dominicans Angelico Ferrua and Giordano Muraro, Sister Germana founded the Punto Familia in Turin, with courses for boyfriends, but also the assistance of psychologists and doctors for couples. It is there that the publisher Piemme arrives to ask for an article from Father Muraro, who was however absent. Sister Germana comes forward, who, in 1983, made her debut with her first book, When angels cook: three thousand recipes, two million copies sold, 32 reprints. Many other successful volumes of the series follow In the kitchen with Sister Germana, a column on "Famiglia Cristiana" starts and the invitations begin on television. The critic Edoardo Raspelli takes her to Rai, where he participates in What are you doing, eating?, with Enza Sampò, Your facts with Magalli and Giletti and also the Sanremo festival, in 1999.

In recent years, Sister Germana has lived in one retirement home in the Varese area, continuing to work forAgenda, out each year with De Agostini. His life is told in an autobiography, The life and recipes of Sister Germana (Editorial Program). And his latest book is Sister Germana's cookbook: 30 years of home cooking, released four years ago. His funeral, as required by the containment rules of Covid-19, will be in strictly private form, in Durlo of Crespadoro.

"The Irishman": the cuisine in Martin Scorsese's films – Italian Cuisine

The role of food in defining the characters of Martin Scorsese's films. From his first film of 1967 to "The Irishman", in theaters from November 27th

Constants are important. Especially when they seem a trivial thing that, in the end, turns out to be the key to understanding a work that is over fifty years long. This is the case of the use of food in Martin Scorsese's filmography, one of the most prolific and appreciated by the critics that returns to talk about thanks to The Irishman, the film that brings together Robert De Niro and Al Pacino who, after a brief passage in the theater, will be available on Netflix starting November 27th. A gangster story, inspired by the novel by Charles Brandt and dedicated to the death of Jimmy Hoffa, who was defined by his rival Robert Kennedy: "The most powerful man in the United States after the president". A strong, powerful film, which brings Scorsese back to the dark and cold atmospheres of the first masterpieces and which reopens a chapter never completely concluded in his works: the kitchen that remains in the background and is the glue of everything. Beyond the scene where the Jordan Belfort played by Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street launches a couple of huge lobsters against some FBI agents, it is interesting to note that many of the director's films are full of extravagant restaurants, smoky rooms and diners lit only by the faint light of a neon.

The kitchen in Martin Scorsese's films. — November 15, Hollywood, California, Martin Scorsese (photo by Michael Kovac / Getty Images for Netflix).

The food and the characters of Martin Scorsese

On Scorsese's table there seem to be no nuances: the characters either eat like kings or eat like tramps. A double soul that is often found in the same work. In Who is knocking on my door of 1967, his first film, we can glimpse, for example, immediately one of the scenes so dear to the imagination of the director: the bar as the setting of three "bad boys" who rack their brains to find the solution to a problem. And if in Mean Streets – Sunday in church, Monday to hell (1973) Harvey Keitel boasted of a "sandwich of desires", the thought immediately runs to Taxi Driver (1976), probably his most popular film. The protagonist, Travis, immediately reveals a relationship with particular food, idiosyncratic: "May 26th. At 4 o'clock I took Betsy to the Charles Coffee Shop on Columbus Circle. I ordered black coffee and an apple pie with a slice of melted yellow cheese. I think it was a good choice. Betsy had ordered coffee and a plate of fruit salad. He could have had everything he wanted, "explains Travis at one point, played by that Robert De Niro who four years later in wild bull he would teach his wife the trick to cook the perfect steak. Attention to detail, however, focuses on Those good guys (1990) and garlic which must be treated thinly, with no margin of error.
All to pass, then, from the refined oysters swallowed whole The age of innocence (1993), eponymous adaptation of the novel by Edith Wharton, a Gangs of New York (2002), when the bars were full of sloppy people drinking draft beer and surrounding themselves with the company of beautiful women in the middle of the night. The maximum of opulence is reached, however, in The Aviator (2004), when the Howard Hughes starring Leonardo DiCaprio tries to impress Hepburn by using bread as a means of explaining the mechanics of the Air Corps, passing, however, for a simpleton and nothing more. The laid table, which sees food more as a challenge to be won than as a trophy to be exhibited, is also the basis of The Wolf of Wall Street. In this sense, the scene in which Jonah Hill puts a goldfish in his mouth is memorable only to be able to prove that he is all-powerful, to be able to do whatever he wants because he is allowed. In this sense, the dishes and the table are considered as indispensable means for the construction of a character, a mirror of the integrity or undoing of the human condition that Scorsese continues to tell us through his films.

Restaurants at home: "the proven for you" – Italian Cuisine

A test of who cooks to deliver at home: often without even having a physical restaurant. From star-rated sushi to dark kitchens that make healthy meals, a state of the art of the business of the future

Food delivery is often talked about, but little is said about the quality of the food that ends up on the plate, the service and the customer experience. But the riders finally get a revenge: if food at home is disappointing it's not their fault. Ordering at home is a science, but it has little to do with that of the IT platform or the chassis. After the cathode-chefs and catering marketers, a new competence arrives: food logistics.

Apps don't cook

The apps and delivery services make it possible for me to be able to dine with a burrito, sushi or pizza from the sofa at home and with the smartphone in hand: they offer restaurateurs a platform to be found, a payment system and even in many cases the rider who picks up and delivers the order to the customer. They can promote a restaurant with discounts and promotions, provide packaging and other logistics services. But on food, as efficient as Deliveroo or Just Eat is, there is no quality control. The most willing customers leave a review, and the market in theory should regulate itself.

Tempus fugit

In a restaurant, a dish waits on the passe a few seconds before being served, but to make us get home it takes minutes, endless minutes, that our dinner spends in thermal bags and on the backs of cyclists who drift traffic. It is easy to imagine that no spaghetti can reach al dente, wave risotto or fried still crunchy. Cooking dishes to eat at home is an art and has little to do with the skill of the cook.

The restaurant of the future has no waiters

From a report by UBS entitled Is The Kitchen Dead? (Is the kitchen dead?), after interviewing over 13 thousand consumers worldwide, it emerged that global food delivery will reach 365 billion dollars by 2030, with a growth of 20% every year compared to the market of 35 billion today. By 2030, according to the report, most of the meals currently cooked at home will be ordered online and delivered to your home. And the specialists will have the better of course. Already today the restaurants that collaborate with Deliveroo increase sales on average by up to 30%. Ignoring the phenomenon is impossible, and restaurateurs should be ready.

Limit freedom of choice?

NASA brought the prawn cocktail into space, so everything is possible. And yet there are dishes that should not be served at home, such as soufflés, pasta, Neapolitan pizza. Even the best version, 10 minutes after being boxed and transported cannot be remotely the same as the original. But pizza is just one of the most ordered dishes at home, although it is much worse than the one eaten in a pizzeria. Customers should know how to choose, but if men always make the best choices for themselves we would live in a much better world. They are restaurateurs having to choose for us.

Knowing how to cook for transport

Traditional restaurants, enticed by the delivery market, should make a selection of their most "transportable" dishes, if not inventing new ones, for use and consumption by home customers. "Eating overcooked pasta" is not a winning strategy, given that a restaurant is a restaurant and would tend to acquire new customers rather than disappoint them; wherever they are. The task of the delivery platforms should be to help them in this choice, because the name is that of the restaurant, but a bad opinion of the service received has a 360 ° impact.

The specialized dark kitchen

The delivery market is in continuous expansion and in recent years many dark kitchens have been created, that is dark kitchens, which work only for customers who order at home. No room, no shop window, only bellhops instead of waiters. And (in theory) dishes designed to be transported. Logistics becomes one of the parameters and one of the competitive grounds in the catering sector. The one who is better at cooking does not win, but the one who is better at making me eat well, after half an hour, at my house. After the catering specialists, delivery specialists are born.

In the gallery, the tested for you by a group of journalists from different newspapers who ordered, ate, paid and commented

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