Italiano
Voorstelling van het boek La bambina che contava le formiche – meditazioni in cucina
Reading in Italian, translation of text into English and French
Presentation: Prof. Federiga Bindi, Director, Italian Cultural Institute, Brussels
(fonte: Farnesina )
This memoir is a journey of perfumes, flavours, sentiments and colours. It is the story of a lonely girl who intently observes the details surrounding her, who grows into a woman who cannot seem to find herself in commonplace ideas and values. It is the fulfilment of a dream, a wondrous story of a girl whose determination and passion face difficulty, compromises, success and defeat in a male-dominated world defined by classic stereotypes and models. The intimate and hard-earned tale unfolds through the memories of childhood flavours, family recipes, enthusiasm for a new life and the search for solitude. The volume includes recipes organized according to the author’s emotions and life phases; they are born, they mature, they evolve. They are recipes whose stories come to life through the author’s voice.
(fonte: EESC)
“Gabriella Ganugi was a solitary child who spent her time counting ants in her grandmother’s sage-perfumed garden. The unmistakable aroma of sage, the family stories, and the perfume of her grandmother’s kitchen have accompanied the author throughout her life and given her a deep passion for flavours, aromas, and recipes. The colours and smells of ribollita, of chicken dressed with bell peppers and baby onions, eggplant parmigiana, and caramelized apple cake blend together with childhood memories of the 1966 flood in Florence, of the author’s marriage and separation, of rebirth. The recipes bring out the uniqueness of each moment and phase of the author’s life, lived with intensity and conviction. The journey described in this memoir wafts through both the strong and delicate perfumes of the kitchen as well as the bitter and unpleasant ones of failure and difficulty, all the way to fulfilling the dream of a lifetime thanks to the combination of both. This volume is a diary of recipes and meditations on organizing the pantry, measuring ingredients well and choosing all of those uncountable flavours that make life delicious.” (From the website of Mursia Editore)
