Intervie With
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rk o w t o e c N c d o o o F f o avir,dWriter and Host Dolce Vita
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By John Rizo
robably for most people, two of the greatest pleasures in life are enjoying great food and traveling. For Italian-Americans that means finding and feasting on the best Italian food available and traveling to Italy. An extremely engaging young man who can help you in both departments is David Rocco, the author of several books and producer of David Rocco’s Dolce Vita, a TV show that is as much a travelogue as a culinary adventure. “Italy is a wonderfully dysfunctional country,” says David. What a great way of describing it! With all the “chiusos” and the restorations and the weird hours of business, there is probably no country on earth that is more fun or satisfying to visit. From the unforgettable experience of admiring countless expressions of the highest culture there is, to the most
simple indulgence of sitting in a piazza on a hot day and sipping a glass of locally produced wine or a cold drink, it’s tough to beat Italy as a place to spend those precious vacation dollars. Nevertheless, we do better on an Italian vacation, especially a visit to a town or Region for the first time, if we have a feeling for, or a picture of the lay of the land. And it’s a sure-fire way of getting those juices running high to anticipate what kind of culinary delights are to be found at one’s destination. “I’ve been lucky,” beams Rocco. “I’ve been to every Region in the country.” His experience, as chronicled in his Dolce Vita show, is a tremendous help to anyone in the planning stages (a real fun part) of an Italian vacation. For example, a recent episode was titled Palermo! Palermo! and it showed many typical examples of the appearance and people of that city (which is accessible from virtually any part of the island). Most useful was his focus on that city’s large open markets. For those planning to rent a villa or apartment, now they know that once or twice a week they can go into Palermo and buy the very freshest produce, fish or meats at the very best prices. At the same time they can check out some of the venerable churches that surround the markets and marvel at the outstanding Romanesque architecture, Renaissance paintings and fabulous sculpture inside them. This show, of course, also featured a number of tantalizing local recipes from the area that can easily be prepared at home or enjoyed on location. “My favorite cuisine is from the South,” claims David. “I love the dishes of Campagna and Sicily.” One dish that was featured in this program was called “Pasta Norma.” It’s a tomato-sauce dish conspicuous for a lot of eggplant chunks with the skin still on, browned in hot oil. Boy did that look good! And so simple to make. Perhaps this is the key to the dominance of Italian cuisine over that of all other ethnic cooking. “It’s simple and very cost effective,” David points out. Referring to the preparation of most Italian dishes David says, “If I can do it, you can do it.” After all, “Most of the top chefs in Italy don’t have Culinary Arts degrees!” David Rocco is a living example of what he believes about Italian food. Unlike many of the chefs and restaurateurs that have been profiled in