Segmento Issue X

Issue X

September/November 2016

Recipe Arancino Classico Messinese

Perth

The Renaissance of Little Italy

Sydney

The wog with the grog

PLUS Annalisa Lippis Shoes

Maurizio Spallina Spreads the culture of Sicilian Rosticceria

Female beauty

and its role in Italian politics

Natale & Natalina

a royal couple without a sceptre or crown

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Italian Magazine for the next-generation www.segmento.com.au

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WHO ARE WE

“There is nothing more temporary than a permanent immigrant!�

An immigrant is always looking for a home, the further away they are, the stronger is their quest for a home.

Italians always have had their roots deeply planted in their millenarian culture but they become completely oblivious to the fact that they have packed their historic and rich inheritance into their luggage when migrating to Australia.

We like to hear their stories, we provide them with a forum to articulate their views, whether they are multinational enterprises, successful business people or young disoriented talents.

Segmento aims to be the megaphone of the Italian Australian community. Its objective is to become the vital link between their Italian roots and the new culture of multi ethnicity that prevails in Australia.

Daniele Curto Founder and Managing Director

endorsement

g the flavours of Proudly representin

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N Ieraci and Sons Pty Ltd Campoli Foods

45/47 Lakeside Avenue, Reservoir Vic 3073 Phone 03 9460 6766 ​www.campoli.com.au Campoli Foods

WE RAISE REAL NEAPOLITAN PIZZA

Pizza Napoletana Le 5 Stagioni: flour just as they want it in Naples.

Pizza Napoletana flour was created in partnership with Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the authentic Neapolitan pizza association, in accordance with suitability specifications set out by these masters of pizza making. Its superior quality and special elasticity has made it the most sought after and best loved flour both in Italy and abroad. www.le5stagioni.it

+39 049 9624611 curtarolo@agugiarofigna.com

dien ts

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g the flavours of Proudly representin

Italy to Australia

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45/47 Lakeside Avenue, Reservoir Vic 3073 Phone 03 9460 6766 ​www.campoli.com.au Campoli Foods

I buoni sapori italiani

Conserve Bonetto - Via dell'Artigianato, 22 - 36050 Bressanvido (VI) - Tel 0444 660 805 - Fax 0444 660 886 - info@conservebonetto.com

OUR

Contributors 1.Omar D’Incecco omardincecco@gmail.com

2.Ivano Ercole

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editor@segmento.com.au

3.Hayley J. Egan hayley.j.egan@gmail.com www.hayleyeganart.com

4.Laura D’Angelo lauramartina.dangelo@yahoo.it www.thealrightplace.wordpress.com

5.Ilaria Gianfagna ilaria@justaustralia.it www.justaustralia.it

6.Archimede Fusillo

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www.archimedefusillo.com

7.Marco Maria Cerbo (Consul General of Italy)

8.Bronte Dee Jackson bronte@brontedeejackson.com

9.Marisa Ferraro www.oncebittentwiceshy.com.au

10.Deirdre MacKenna projects@dmackenna.com www.culturaldocuments.net

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11.Daniele Foti-Cuzzola

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danielefoti92@hotmail.com dinewithdaniele@gmail.com @dinewithdaniele

12.Salvatore Rossano santataranta@gmail.com www.salvatorerossano.com

13.Elizabeth Wisser & Enrico Massei enquiry@amalsa.com.au www.amalsa.com.au

­14.Gerardo Papalia

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gerardo.papalia@monash.edu

15.Mariantonietta Rasulo rasulo.mariantonietta@gmail.com

16.Agata Grimaldi agata.grimaldi@googlemail.com

­17.Fabrizio Battisti battisti.fabrizio@gmail.com

18.­Johnny Di Francesco ­ johnnydifrancesco@segmento.com.au

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19.Josie Gagliano josiegags@optusnet.com.au

Founder and Managing Director Daniele Curto

DANIELE CURTO

EDITORIAL

daniele.curto@segmento.com.au 041 8891 285

My window to home:

Associate Editor Ivano Ercole

The peepholes of a child

editor@segmento.com.au

Co-Editor Hayley J. Egan

Graphic Artist Aurora Delfino Creative Consultant Imbarani Poonasamy Photographers Paco Matteo Li Calzi, Daniele Curto, Ksenia Belova

For features, articles and editorial submissions: segmento@segmento.com.au 041 8891 285

For advertising please contact:

equires

marketing@segmento.com.au 041 8891 285

Cover photo credits Photographer Ksenia Belova

www.kseniabelova.com

Translation Support Jenna Lo Bianco

Contributors

Agata Grimaldi Hayley J. Egan Laura D’Angelo Ilaria Gianfagna Archimede Fusillo Salvatore Rossano Marco Maria Cerbo (Consul General of Italy) Ivano Ercole Elizabeth Wisser Enrico Massei Gerardo Papalia Nelli Altson Deirdre MacKenna ­Marisa Ferraro ­Johnny Di Francesco ­ Bronte Dee Jackson Matteo Preabianca Fabrizio Battisti I. Elenoire Laudieri Di Biase Omar D’Incecco Daniele Foti-Cuzzola Josie Gagliano Mariantonietta Rasulo DISCLAIMER The Editorial-Staff ensures that every details are correct at the time of printing, however the publisher accepts no responsibility for errors and inaccuracies.

Segmento media partner

Global Association of International Artists

Global Association of International Artists

24

A

s a child, when I met with boredom I would often look out from my bedroom window, or, that of my parents. Sometimes, I would head onto the balcony to observe the world that lay on the other side of the bars and grates of the windowsill.

From the sixth floor of our apartment building, I would hang my feet in the nothingness that lay between the pavement below and terrace underneath me. I would let them dangle there in the emptiness. I trusted, somewhat unconsciously, in gravity; completely ignoring the constant warnings dished out to me by my parents from the dimly lit living room. “Don’t hang out over the balcony or you’ll fall”. My father used to express his anxiety with this phrase, “I don’t want to have to remember today”.

33

The windows and balconies of my childhood home, much like the intimate private boxes of a theatre, were peepholes into the world that agitated and pulsed oblivious of my presence. The life of the entire city gurgled away uninterrupted, day and night. I was the quiet, naïve voyeur.

From my shutters I observed much of the city centre, from the square to the sea, to the neighbouring countryside. When the breeze was right and the sky was clear I was even able to make out the white imposing outline of the central divide of the Apennine mountain range.

Well, of course that was before buildings started sprouting, obscuring this stage-like view.

Every now and then I relive these moments and I see the ‘actors’ that had earlier paraded around before my eyes; there were the neighbours that used to lament the inadequate maintenance of the gardens and on the streets, there were the mums in a life feed from the beach, able to negotiate beach bags, chairs, umbrellas and boisterous children.

In the apartment block courtyard there was an entire family methodically buzzing around a small pressing machine, using it to transform freshly picked grapes into slush, ready for fermenting.

On occasion, those balconies and windows ceased to function as ‘luminous passages into domestic monotony’ and became my personal playing field. One particularly sunny day, deafened by cicadas, my mother placed hundreds of San Marzano tomatoes on the floor of the terrace to dry, to later be transformed into sauce. Sadly, my brother and I had other plans. We positioned ourselves behind the railings and began hurling mum’s tomatoes as if they were grenades. That afternoon, the entire apartment block transformed into a medieval tower in which we barricaded and needed to fight to the death against the barbarians (in our imagination at least!). The street, the cars, and pretty much any other moving target copped a red San Marzano. My father’s inevitable rage, having arrived annoyingly on time to find his shiny Citroen Ds coved in tomato flesh, made for a glorious summer afternoon for my brother and I. It makes me think about how children today are constantly stimulated and entertained, meanwhile in my case, the lack of stimulation ignited my imagination and creativity.

As I grew older, the windows became a doorway to my own internal temple. If life took a negative turn I would look up from the glowing bustle of the city, ponder and then breathe the sea air nearby. I watched the sun set. During winter it disappears weak amongst the waves of the sea around five in the afternoon. Meanwhile, in summer the race lasts until eight thirty, as the sun dissolves in golden rays between two edifices in the front of my balcony.

Back home it was not uncommon that my father appeared at the window, whistling to attract my attention. The whistle was composed of two long reassuring notes, repeated until I responded with an acknowledging nod. For me, that sound was the siren of the lighthouse that warned and comforted sailors to remain vigilant and not to stop a few meters from home.

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CONtents

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Cover Story Natale & Natalina A royal couple without a sceptre or crown

26

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by Ivano Ercole

13

Regulars An Italian examination

16

Hands on Fire

36

by Gerardo Papalia

The pros and cons of expanding a business

by Johnny Di Francesco

Connecting the present with the forgotten past

The concealed histories of our vegetable patch and the fascination of migrant seeds

by Deirdre Mackenna

Amalsa

The debate around the genuineness of the 457 Visa applicant

by Enrico Massei and Elizabeth Wisser

The compass of our rights

What students or temporary residents should know before leasing a dwelling

by Mara Rasulo

A Future in their Past

Fond memories of a toilsome, yet rewarding experience of an Italian migrant

by Archimede Fusillo

Culture Bites

Discovering the beauty of winter sipping a cup of cioccolata calda

by Bronte Dee Jackson

Stockist list

10

Features

A unique cafè­-restaurant called Sartoria

by Laura D’Angelo

28

12

Turmeric: the yellow spice that ticks all the boxes

by Agata Grimaldi

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by Arancini Art

36

The rise of young and beautiful women in Italian politics by our correspondent in Italy I. Elenoire Laudieri Di Biase

14

Annalisa Lippis Shoes for the empowered woman

by Inar Miba

23 35

Recipe: Arancino Classico Messinese

Is the next Del Piero among our kids?

by Fabrizio Battisti

24

Maurizio Spallina’s Street Food

26

Perth: the Renaissance of Little Italy

by Laura D’Angelo

by Daniele Foti­-Cuzzola

29

14

Sydney: the wog with the good grog

by Josie Gagliano

Segmento Magazine September/November 2016

words LAURA D’ANGELO PHOTOS DANIELE CURTO

The story behind the name and success of a unique café-restaurant called

Sartoria

L

ife can be drenched of delightful surprises if you only have the will and tenacity to look for them. Moments of pleasure in fact lie around the corner so just be open-minded and explore!

Which lately is exactly what I have been doing in order to uncover the best story to tell you and make you happy.

My narration this time will focus on Sartoria, a trendy but down to earth café in Preston that only a few months after its opening has established itself as one of the most popular Melbourne’s eatery.

It’s big in terms of space and believe me if I tell you that I found it almost packed on a Monday morning!

What attracts inveterate urban explorers and fanatic foodies is its innovative and exciting selection of dishes and drinks, and the tale behind its particular atmosphere which reveals itself as soon as you step in.

Creator, owner, and managing director is Adriana Agricola who after treating me with a selection of delicious bites and tantalizing beverage, unravels the thread of a story that starts with the migration of her parents, Giuseppe and Carmela, from Sicily.

They both boarded a ship to Australia, each with a cardboard suitcase filled with dreams and expectations. Once in Melbourne, the Agricola spouses gradually built up and ran from the 70's through to the 90's a successful sartoria, the J & C Agricola (tailor) factory, specialised in dressmaking, bridal and evening wear. Adriana's mother played a key role in the development of the business, being a professional tailor and dressmaking teacher who handed down her art to dozens of European migrants looking for a job ‘Down Under’.

In an attempt to collect more info and anecdotes about the family history, I skype-called Giuseppe, or Joseph if you like, now retired in his Sicilian hometown. We chatted a bit recalling all those beautiful memories and factory-related episodes and burst out laughing about the fact that none of his four kids knows how to sew, despite their mother being a former sewing teacher! Which doesn't surprise me as I grew up with my grandma and mum always bent over the sewing machine especially mending my jeans, but no skills gained by me!

Adriana spent most of her childish post-school afternoons in

10 FOOD&WINE

her parents’ factory and tried herself, for fun, to make a few dresses, but once an adult her ambitions and curiosity led her somewhere else, around the world.

Sydney, London, and 15 lively years in New York have shaped her sparkling personality and boosted her creativity. Trained firstly as a professional actress, the Big Apple introduced Adriana to new exciting ways of making a living out of hospitality and event management where fashion, food, and art were the hallmarks, often enriched by a VIP touch.

She returned to Melbourne to pursue her own very personal project: purchase her parents former factory, renovate it, and turn it into this cosmopolitan and modern café-eatery named, in honour of her roots, Sartoria.

To create Sartoria, Adriana invested all her energy. “A work of art and heart whose realisation took me more than one year” she stresses. “There's a reason behind every single detail, decor, dish or beverage. My concept is to be innovative, artistic, and unique”.

Characteristic of her creation is its romantic look recalling the warehouse glorious past. Like a museum in motion realia from the old factory are displayed like artwork: sewing machines, school chairs, mannequins, fabrics and lace, scissors and so on.

Amidst this evocative scenography, customers can indulge scrumptious dishes and exotic drinks from a menu where interna-

“

“There's a reason behind every single detail, decor, dish or beverage. My concept is to be innovative, artistic, and unique”

ABOVE Top left: Latte with turmeric and almond milk Top right: Matcha latte Bottom: Hot chocolate with cold pressed beetroot juice BELOW Setting inside Sartoria BOTTOM The Seamstress, A signature dish of Sartoria

Adriana Agricola

tional influences, Italian, Asian, Australian and New Yorker mix harmoniously together to suit and please any kind (really) of dietary inclination.

Back on Monday morning I was moaning in excitement over a Bloody Mary garnished with fresh horseradish and a breadstick with crisp prosciutto when I started chatting with of bunch of pretty, curious girls as thrilled as me about Sartoria. One of them, named Sofia, looked at me with the brightest eyes and said: “This place is so original!! My own dish is... so original!!” She was filled with amazement like many of those who visits this place for the first time.

So don't hesitate and take yourself to Preston for a “tailor-made” brekky or lunch at Sartoria.

FOOD&WINE 11

words AGATA GRIMALDI

TURMERIC that yellow spice that

ticks all the boxes

I

t is time to make most of Turmeric, that yellow spice you may have bought to make curry from scratch to impress family and friends, and that it’s still in your dispenser unused.

Turmeric is extensively used in many Indian regional cuisines. Its use has a mild flavour and its vivid colour adds a visual effect to the dishes. Turmeric is not part of the Italian tradition, but interestingly enough I recently discovered that a food company called “Arancini Art” incorporates this gold spice to their delicious arancini, a widespread symbol of Southern Italy’s food street culture.

Turmeric travels beyond the kitchen fire to embrace a role as herbal medicine, as well as in worship and special celebrations. For instance in Goa, a special ceremony called “Roce”, which involves the use of turmeric is performed the night before a wedding.

Both bride and groom have their skin covered by a paste made by mixing coconut milk with turmeric. It is said that this paste will enhance their beauty and make their skin glow on their wedding day.

This spice is a very toccasana, as my grandmother would say: it ticks all the boxes with its infinitive “anti” effects: anti cancers, anti inflammatory, anti arthritis, anti diabetic, anti depression, anti aging, anti-infertility, antibacterial, antiviral, antiseptic… etc.

One of the most active and well researched component of this spice is curcumin, which is the one that gives that bright yellow colour and distinctive flavour to the spice.

This component appears to benefit also our most hungry, greedy for glucose and oxygen organ, our brain.

12 Food&Wine

It helps our brain in three ways: Firstly, it acts against oxidative stress, which is an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidant defences. Free radicals trigger brain inflammations, which are responsible for neurodegenerative disorders like depression. Turmeric fights the free radicals by increasing the natural level of antioxidants.

“

Secondly, it increases the level of brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF), a molecule responsible for consolidate

Turmeric travels beyond the kitchen fire to embrace a role as herbal medicine, as well as in worship and special celebrations.”

Agata Grimaldi

memory and growth, and protect our nerve cells. Low level of BDNF is associated with degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s diseases and depression, as well as mental fog and poor memory. We were told that we don’t grow new brain cells after passing childhood and that, if a region of the brain gets damaged, it cannot be repaired. However, according to the latest researches, the brain is plastic and can regenerate itself at any age.

Lastly, it modulates the level of neurotransmitters in the brain: dopamine and serotonin are the key chemical messengers responsible for the communication between nerve cells. Individual suffering from mild depression, seasonal-affective disorder (SAD), alterations in mood due to menstruation or menopause, or persistent stress-related anxiety have seen significant improvement by incorporating turmeric to their diet.

Recipe ARANCINI ART PHOTOS HiSylvia

Arancino Classico Messinese Ingredients for 20 Arancini (100g each)

INGREDIENTS for Ragu 1/2 Red Onion

1 Bayleaf

1 Nutmeg

50g Butter

100g Peas

1/2 Teaspoon of turmeric

250g Mixed mince

100g Mortadella diced

1/2 Teaspoon of corn flour

700g Passata

1/2 glass of white wine

Salt and Pepper

Method Melt butter in frypan and lightly stir fry onion, add mixed mince and cook until golden brown. Add white wine and allow it to evaporate. Then add to mince the passata, turmeric and bay leaf.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Allow everything to cook around 1 1/2 hours remembering to add peas 15 minutes before finishing. Finally add the grated nutmeg and slowly add cornflour and

diced mortadella. Take off stove and allow the Ragu to cool down before placing the Ragu in fridge (if Ragu is prepared the day before it will be easier to manage while preparing Arancini).

INGREDIENTS for Rice 4 Teaspoons of vegeta (no msg)

100g White onion chopped finely 1kg Arborio rice 2lt Water

s

7g Saffron

1 glass of white wine Salt and pepper

Mozzarella diced

Method Melt butter in frypan and lightly stir fry onion until golden brown. Slowly add rice allowing to mix in well with onion and toasting, raising flame on stove add white wine and allow it to evaporate. Once this has been achieved, add water, saffron, vegeta, salt and pepper. Allow time for all ingredients to be absorbed by water. At the end of absorption place rice on flat tray and

allow to cool. Prepare the batter with three eggs, 180gm flour and 1/2lt of milk.

Mix ingredients together adding slowly the flour so as no lumps are formed. As soon as the rice has cooled down, we can begin with the process of forming the Arancino.

Take a hand full of rice in one hand, forming a small hole in the middle.

With a spoon full of Ragu fill the hole not forgetting a piece of diced mozzarella.

Take another handful of rice and place it on top of the first hand. Slowly form the shape of a pear.

Place Arancini in batter and then roll them in crumb. Repeat this step again.

Allow Arancini to rest 1/2hr while oil is heating in frypan. Fry Arancini using peanut or canola oil.

Buon APPETITO! FOOD&WINE 13

“

I have a connection and I do not want the craft to die, I do not want to lose the art�

Annalisa Lippis

Shoes designed by Annalisa Lippis. Photo by Ksenia Belova

16 fashion

WORDS Inar Miba PHOTOS Ksenia Belova AND DANIELE CURTO

T H E A R T OF LIVING IN FINE ITALIAN SHOES

Annalisa Lippis . Photo by Daniele Curto

S

hoe designer, Annalisa Lippis’ passion and elegance illuminates as she welcomes me with a big smile. She asks my daughter, who has accompanied me, how she is and immediately complements her on her cherry red winter boots.

Dressed in black with a perfect pair of her self-designed “presentosa black” moccasins gracing her feet she begins by ordering a coffee and telling me her story… I am instantly contained by her vibrant energy and passion for her craft.

Australian born Annalisa studied Industrial Design at UNISA, Adelaide and then worked internationally. Mexico, China and India to name a few of the fascinating countries she subsisted in. However, her appetite for fashion and creating shoes overwhelmed her and in 2010 Annalisa moved to Milan, Italy to master the skill at the prestigious school of footwear design, Ars Sutoria. This is where she learnt and enhanced her technical artistry and recognized her potential. It is also where she met, worked and collaborated with some of the most influential designers and her network was cultivated.

Annalisa’s roots are in Abruzzo and speaking with her it is evident that her roots are at the forefront of her designs. Her inspiration and intriguing logo is derived from the presentosa. A symbol she had been drawn to as a young girl after seeing her grandmother wear the beautiful design around her neck. Now Annalisa wears her grandmother’s necklace, and I see the sentimentality as she tells me of her memories of her grandmother.

It is the Italian in Annalisa that permeates her thoughts and drives her vision to ensure that the craft is sustained in Italy. Her shoes are 100% made in Italy and she is there at every step of the way to make certain of this. For it is her brand and style that she believes is for “versatile women who change the world”. Her shoes or as I like to call it – ‘footwear of elegance and seduction for the empowered woman’ - are exquisite, luxurious and timeless.

Annalisa’s faith in the craft that resides in Italy is undeniable as she describes, “There’s something about the Italian hand”. All her leather for her shoes are sourced in Italy, “It’s hand cut, it is cut by someone’s hand” she exclaims, “I have a connection and I do not want the craft to die, I do not want to lose the art”! She delves further into the relationship she has with her craftsman, “It’s like family and we discuss all the little things”, then in a moment of redemption, she proclaims, “you can’t really understand unless you love shoes, unless you’re Italian”!!! I did understand – I love shoes! However, I am not an Italian, but am married to one so I did comprehend, the culture, the passion, and the art of – living, in fine Italian shoes!

Annalisa dreams of one day owning her own studio, designing for her-self and having different lines, including sneakers and bridal shoes. “To create the design it-self is a short time” she reveals, “however it is the technical aspects that take time. To be a designer” she admits “is the technical knowing, knowing the line and form, shape and height of the heel. It is about being thoughtful and comfortable!

Comfortable can be beautiful!” Her latest collection was inspired

by Scanno a town in the Abruzzo region, in which she elucidates about the way the people move and dance around the village. It is based upon traditional farmer footwear, with the exciting lace up design. I ask about fashion and how does she know not to push it too far. “Following trends are intuitive”, divulges Annalisa and it is in that moment that it is clear to me that she absolutely was born to create.

Her current market is women between the age of 30 to 50 still working and looking to bestow upon their feet graceful and comfortable shoes for any day of the week. The versatility in style is evident in her clients who sought after her shoes, from brides to celebrity rock’ n ’roll musicians.

Annalisa Lippis’s sketchs . Photo by Daniele Curto

Her shoes are stocked at stores in Adelaide and while Annalisa continues to try to make her mark in Melbourne and nationally they may be purchased online at www.annalisalippis.com. fashion 17

WORDS GERARDO PAPALIA

An eighteenth century amphitheatre and marbles of dead poets:

THE STAGE OF AN ITALIAN EXAMINATION I

will always remember my first exam at an Italian university. I had barely been seven months in Italy. I had arrived on a scholarship from the Italian government, enthusiastic and fresh-faced, just after graduating in Italian Studies at Melbourne University. It was the 28th of May, a bright and windy spring day and the subject was “Letteratura italiana 1”, a cornerstone subject for the degree in “Lettere”, or Arts. The subject focused on early Italian literature ranging from the poetry of the Sicilian School to Petrarch.

The exam was entirely oral, consisting in an interrogation by a panel of academics, much like a serious job interview. It was also the only form of assessment for an entire subject. The exam mark was out of 30. An 18 was a pass. The difference between a high and a low mark rested on whether an examinee, or a ‘candidate’ could elaborate a complex, articulated response that showed a firm recollection, some understanding and an ability to connect the themes informing the subject.

The exam was in two parts: the first was a general overview of Italian Medieval literature, covering all the known poets, from the minor to the major, from those writing in Tuscan, to those writing in other dialects.

This part of the course was mostly based on a single anthology, an encyclopaedia of authors, ordered according to their region of origin and chronology. I would have to memorise each entry and, if possible, at least some excerpts of their work. The second part of the examination was the specialised or ‘monographic’ part. This was based on a single article by an English scholar, written in Italian, on the different extant versions of Petrarch’s most well known work: his collection of Tuscan poems called Il Canzoniere.

This too was to be memorised. Class attendance was optional, and indeed, considered a waste of time by many students. It was better to concentrate one’s efforts on memorising, most suitably in extended sessions with another student, where each would take it in turns to read aloud, underlining the textbook as he or she went, and then from memory repeating orally to the other student, who would have the textbook in front of them, checking the accuracy of the recitation. For months I had prepared, sharing my time and a textbook with another student who was almost at the end of her degree in Philosophy, and for whom this exam was one of the compulsory optional.

On the appointed day we took our seats in an eighteenth century lecture theatre, steep and semicircular with rungs in dark wood.

Our fellow students, ranged along its curved rows, were separately murmuring to themselves, heads bowed over books whose scripts

18 regulars

they had heavily underlined, coloured and annotated. From the theatre’s windows overlooking the internal courtyard of the university complex, I could see brooding marble statues standing silent and pale, monuments to dead poets, scientists and scholars.

In the pit of this theatre was a single table accommodating three people who sat facing the amphitheatre’s funnel that rose above them. These were the examiners: in the middle grey haired and distinguished was the “Professore”. On either side of him sat the Assistants, two women not much younger than he. On the other side of the table, with its back facing the amphitheatre, there was a single empty chair. This was reserved for the candidate whose mind, on its entry into the Elysian fields of knowledge, could only be admitted white robed and pure.

One by one an assistant would summon a candidate by calling out a name from a long list retrieved from a noticeboard where students had written their names, sometimes scratching or cancelling, and rewriting them, according to when they felt they would be ready to be examined. This could be on day one, two, three, or beyond, depending on the length of the list and the severity of the oral interrogation.

Sometimes students would fill in their names where another name had been cancelled, inserting it above or below the dark mark, to bring forward their ‘moment of truth’.

When a name rang out, the candidate to whom it belonged would glide down past the semicircular rings, feet barely making the wooden steps creak, despite the weight of the facts crammed into their brain, down past each rung into the pit. A soul aspiring to the laurel leafed crown of salvation must first pass through Hell.

At the appointed hour, my name was called and I descended the creaking steps. My memory was blank and I was in shock. How would I be able to navigate the hundreds of pages, verses and dozens of poets whose names dotted the Ptolemaic constellations of Italy’s medieval firmament, some shining brightly, some a little, and some barely at all?

How I did it or did not, is another story. However, one thing was for sure, my success would depend on performance, on being able to take the stage without failing my lines, and to dance enough between them to enthral and entrance my audience.

As everywhere, but perhaps even more so in Italy, theatre is the true metaphor of life.

Gallery

A Destination You’ll Love to Discover Bini Gallery

Contemporary Jewellery 62 Smith Street, Collingwood Vic 3066 Tel. 03 9486 0145 www.binigallery.com.au

WORDS Ivano ercole photos Ksenia Belova

Natale AND Natalina, a royal couple without a sceptre or crown

20 COVER STORY

T

here are many stories of Italian migrants who came to Australia with nothing more than a suitcase and were able to achieve great success in their business undertakings: stories of hard work, endurance, determination and, in some cases, extraordinary fortitude in the face of dire circumstances.

Such is the story of Natale Ieraci, the founder of Campoli Foods, a fine food and grocery wholesale company located in the Melbourne suburb of Reservoir. He is a couple of months away from his 96th birthday and, incredible as it may seem, he is still involved in the family business and goes to work every morning with his 80-year old wife.

COVER STORY 21

He was born in a small mountain village of Calabria called Agromastelli in the municipality of Caulonia whose origins go back to the Greek colonisation of Southern Italy in the 8th century BC. In 200 BC Caulonia was destroyed by the Romans after it sided with Hannibal during the Punic Wars. It later came to be known as Castelvetere until it resumed its ancient name after Calabria’s annexation to the Kingdom of Italy in 1862. One of Natale’s forbears made a name for himself as a staunch local supporter of Garibaldi during the famous “Expedition of the Thousand” that freed Southern Italy from the Bourbon regime.

He had to wait til the end of the war before returning once again to Italy and take his wife and child with him back to America. But, as fate would have it, his young wife died during the dreaded Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1919 and Vincenzo became a widowed father with a six-yearold son to look after. His American dream seemed to have vanished forever until Teresa, a sister of his dead wife, accepted to marry him.

The plan of going back to America was revamped and Vincenzo embarked on a new journey across the Atlantic Ocean to set things in order before being joined by his new wife and son.

At the end of World War Two, the people of Caulonia, most living in dire poverty, rebelled against greedy landowners and proclaimed a republic of their own. It was a short-lived undertaking, soon crushed by a full scale military operation involving both Allied forces and carabinieri units. 350 citizens were captured and put on trial for sedition. Most were ultimately pardoned, but their leader, a primary school teacher named Pasquale Cavallaro, was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Life seemed to smile again on Vincenzo but he was going to suffer another stroke of bad luck. When he arrived in New York, the US senate had approved new legislation blocking the admission of new immigrants and Vincenzo was forced to sail back to Italy and return home empty-handed. However, he was not a man willing to surrender to a life of hardship and privations. He had heard of another country, called Australia, much farther away than America, where he could try and build a future for himself and his young family. He needed time to save money for the long journey and he did not earn much working as a labourer in Caulonia’s countryside.

Hence, some years went by and Vincenzo became father of a few more children.

When this dramatic episode was taking place, Natale Ieraci was in Australia and had just regained his freedom after spending five years in internment camps for enemy aliens. He had been arrested in Perth shortly after the Italian Fascist government had entered the war siding with Nazi Germany in June 1940. He had arrived in Australia one year before to reunite with his older brother Orlando who had left a few years previously.

Natale’s father Vincenzo had an even more dramatic tale. At the age of 16 he found his way to the United States where he joined members of another Agromastelli family called Fragomeli who had moved to America during the years of the great wave of Italian migration to the new continent. A few years later Vincenzo returned to Italy to find a wife in Agromastelli and return to America. He married Carolina, a young woman of the Fragomeli family clan and in 1913 his first son Orlando was born. He then returned to America preceding his wife and child who were to join him after he would send the money for the sea passage but the outbreak of World War One made the plan impossible.

22 18 COVER FOOD&WINE STORY

ABOVE Natale Ieraci BELOW Natalina Dimasi, Natale’s wife

Natale, his second-born son, was about five years old when the fateful day of his father’s departure for Australia arrived. He still holds a vivid memory of him walking downhill until his image faded away in the morning haze. He was too little to imagine that 15 years later he would follow in his footsteps. However, as he was growing up in Agromastelli, the idea must have come to his mind even though the news from his father were anything but rosy.

Due to the 1929 Great Depression, unemployment in Australia more than doubled, reaching 21% per cent in the early 1930’s. Almost 32% of the adult population were unemployed. Vincenzo had to struggle to find work and send some money to his family back in Agromastelli. He worked in the mines of Tasmania and the sugar cane plantations in Queensland but the little money he was earning was hardly worth his

efforts and in 1933 he went back to Italy.

Nevertheless, his older son Orlando, who was now over twenty years old, decided to give Australia another go. His younger brother Natale followed him a few years later.

It was May 1939 when the 19-year-old Natale left Italy on a British ocean liner he boarded in Naples. He must have felt the excitement of a young and confident man putting out to sea for an epic voyage. On his way to Naples he had set foot on a train for the first time and now he was boarding a ship headed to the far end of the world.

He had no money at all in his pockets and, in one of life’s little ironies, during the journey he found a wallet on the floor of the dining hall containing banknotes to the value of some 70 pounds, in those times a large amount of money. He showed it to one of the waiters who suggested they should share the money. Natale rejected the suggestion and made sure that the wallet with the money was entrusted to a ship officer and returned to its owner. Honesty was one of the fundamental values he had been taught in a poverty-stricken village of Calabria.

After his arrival in Fremantle, Natale

received help to find some casual jobs that enabled him to survive until he could reach his brother Orlando in Kalgoorlie, 600 kilometres away from Perth. He worked for a while in a potato plantation and then returned to Perth where in June 1940 he was arrested as enemy alien and sent with other Italian immigrants to a shabby internment camp in Rottnest Island, off the coast of Western Australia.

Living conditions were appalling: almost no water and meagre, foul food. Fortunately, three months later, the internees were moved to another camp at Harvey, 140 kilometres south of Perth. It housed around one thousand men, most of them Italian.

They were miners, farmers, fishermen, tradesmen, businessmen and professionals. The camp was closed in 1942 after an inquiry by military authorities found its administration inadequate. The internees were transferred, first to Parkeston near Kalgoorlie, and then moved to a new camp at Loveday, South Australia, approximately 200 kilometres east of Adelaide.

Natale had heard that a cousin of his was among the Italian prisoners of war, and during the long transfer by train to South Australia he wrote his cousin’s name on a

piece of paper with a message saying that he was trying to track him down. He left the message on the carriage floor in the hope that it would be found by somebody who knew his cousin. It ended up instead in the hands of a military officer and after the arrival at Loveday, Natale was interrogated and punished with solitary confinement for two weeks.

Natale was to remain in Loveday until the end of the war and on top of the misery of living behind barbed wire, he had to endure another harsh punishment when he refused to fell a tree during a day of labour in the bush. Upon returning to the camp he was sentenced to remain standing under the sun for many hours, resulting in permanent damage to his eyes.

His brother Orlando was also at Loveday.

He had saved a little bit of money before being interned and, being a music lover, used the money to buy an accordion for a prisoner who could play it and render the time in the camp less miserable.

Among the non-Italian prisoners there was a Hungarian master musician who offered to teach music to Orlando, Natale and some other Italian inmates. He also man-

Ieraci’s family photos

COVER STORY 23

Natale and Natalina in their house in Carlton North

aged to find a few instruments in the camp.

His lessons were so productive that in a short while a little band was formed and started providing music entertainment to the camp population. When the internees were released at the end of 1944, Natale and his brother had become competent players and for a while continued playing at social gatherings and functions.

perfect match: a bright and level-headed 17-year-old girl from a family called Dimasi, which had a long history of migration to Australia. Even her first name, Natalina, matched that of Natale! Her maternal grandparents and uncles, named Cavallaro (possibly related to the leader of the ill-fated Republic of Caulonia), were living in Queensland.

Six years had gone by after Natale’s arrival in Fremantle but the day he left the Loveday Camp was like starting a new life in Australia. He went back to Perth with his brother and they both found work in a newly opened Italian restaurant, though they received little pay beyond their meals.

The economic climate was bleak in the post-war years especially in a relatively small city like Perth. Eventually they decided to move to Melbourne where they hoped they would find more work opportunities. Natale got a job as a waiter at the Menzies Hotel and later at Ciro’s Night Club in Collins Street. Finally, he was earning good money but he couldn’t send any of it to his family in Italy because at that time money transfers overseas were restricted.

He could only save what he earned and in a few years he had saved enough money to buy some real estate in North Carlton.

Natale and Natalina married on the 28th of June 1953 and started their new life in Melbourne in mid-December of that year.

It was the beginning of an amazing union that would generate seven children (two sons and five daughters), 25 grandchildren and so far, 12 great-grandchildren. On top of this prolific family tree, Natale and Natalina were able to set up and run together a thriving food supply and distribution company which currently employs over 70 people, a dozen of whom are members of their extended family.

In 1952 Orlando went to Italy to visit his parents and get married. After his return to Melbourne, it was Natale’s turn to do the same and in Agromastelli he found a

24 COVER STORY

It all began from a small warehouse in the back of the home in North Carlton where the young couple took up residence in 1963 and still live today. From this address, Natale left every Monday morning at the wheel of a truck loaded with local and imported food products he sold door-todoor throughout regional Victoria. Natalina was in charge of the warehouse and the business administration, an activity she carried out with absolute dedication, at the same time raising one child after another.

Natale would return home on Thursday night after completing his weekly tour. It was a gruelling work schedule but, after going through the ordeal of the internment camps, Natale had developed plenty of stamina to endure it.

He carried on his solitary rounds until his two sons were old enough to join him and allow the activity to expand. Curiously enough he had given his company the name of “Ieraci & Sons” before his two sons were born. In 1975 the warehouse was moved to a larger building in Brunswick Road, East Brunswick and the door-to-door sales went on until 1987 when the focus of the business moved to the independent pizza market. 2004 marked another important development when the company headquarters were moved to a huge industrial building in Reservoir.

This is the extraordinary story of Natale and Natalina Ieraci, a story that continues and still sees both of them actively involved in the business. Every morning, one of their children picks them up at their old house in North Carlton and takes them to their company office in Reservoir. Despite their remarkable achievements, they maintain the unassuming and humble attitude of two migrants from a small Calabrian village and continue to live a simple life.

Yet, they truly are a royal couple, a king and a queen without sceptre or crown, but with a wonderful family kingdom.

words Fabrizio battisti

“

“The visit of Juventus FC is part of a wider project that has made Melbourne the centre of Bianconeri’s future activities in the whole Australasia region”

Fabrizio Battisti

I

n recent years, European football seemed to realize the big potential of Australia in terms of future growth and revenue. In 2012 the choice of an icon such as Alessandro Del Piero to join the A-League with Sydney FC reached a milestone for Australian soccer, which has started to be followed beyond the national borders, too. The Melbourne International Champions Cup joined last year by worldwide-known soccer clubs such as Real Madrid FC, AS Roma and Manchester City reflects the growing importance that international soccer is giving Australia, to the point that Melbourne has been chosen again this year to host a tournament that has seen local team Melbourne Victory challenging Totteham Hotspur FC, UEFA Champions’ League’s vice champions Atletico Madrid and Italian Serie A champions’ Juventus FC. Unlike the other clubs joining the competition, the visit of Juventus FC, is part of a wider project that has made Melbourne the centre of Bianconeri’s future activities in the whole Australasia region. In 2012, in fact, a partnership among Juventus FC, Brimbank Stallions Football Club and Sunshine’s “Club Italia” Sporting Club has been launched with the aim of creating the first official Juventus Academy in Melbourne. The project, first born in the form of School Holiday Camps, has grown to the point that Juventus FC has decided to send to Club Italia four coaches from their Italian Juventus Camps in order to follow the progress of the enrolled players.

Sebastiano Disco, Marcello Mortillaro, Lorenzo Santoni and Pier Filippo Zanichelli - plus the former Sampdoria’s midfielder Nicola Carofiglio, are the coaches dedicated to raise Brimbank Stallions’ kids, spreading Juventus' values and methods beyond the Italian border.

and the Club Italia Sporting Club of North Sunshine is a showpiece among Melbourne soccer schools. The Club has two full-size FIFA standard pitches plus two training grounds. In 2009 more than $200,000 was spent to drought-proof the facilities. A scheduled maintenance program ensures the highest possible quality standards and an approval has already been given to work on a synthetic pitch due for completion in 2017.

Currently, the partnership between Brimbank Stallions and Juventus FC counts about 250 enrolled members, divided into age groups from 7 to 16 years. The Senior Team plays in Division IV and at the time of writing is leading the board by a wide margin.

Juventus Academy soccer program takes place every year in February and it has been set up to develop participants' skills through the Juventus training method - applied according to the age and level of the players. The cost of the annual registration is $925 for Under 11 to under 16 classes and $725 for Under 7, Under 8, Under 9 and Under 10 ones, inclusive of training and playing uniforms.

Not many people know that Brimbank Stallions have a great success story among their kids. The 19 year-old Mathew Leckie, who was a regular with the Socceroos team, currently plays for FC Ingolstadt in the German Bundesliga and is considered one of the rising stars of Australian soccer. Perhaps your kid is the next Del Piero!

We are speaking of an ambitious project here, which has seen Juventus FC creating the first and only Juventus Academy in the whole Australasia region out of the 22 that are currently scattered throughout the world. Carlo Mastellone, Juventus Area Manager for Oceania, carries out periodic visits in Melbourne in order to ensure that the program is faithful to the guidelines of the agreement signed between Club Italia and the “Bianconeri” club. The coaches themselves draft some reports to send to Turin with the aim of monitoring the progress of the young members, too.

The choice of hosting the Juventus Academy at Brimbank Stallions’ home Club Italia was not a coincidence. Worldwide, Juventus FC selects only structures with very high quality standards SPORT 25

WORDS Laura d’angelo

Maurizio Spallina

“

THE TIMELESS FASCINATION OF STREET FOOD

"This is the essence of street food. An outdoor habit that dates back into the mists of time and that we Italians have had in our DNA all over the centuries" Laura D’Angelo

Caption

Maurizio Spallina. Photo by Daniele Curto

I

miss it. I really miss that feeling of wandering around, as I used to do in my home country, stopping, as soon as I’d get peckish, for a quick bite & chat at one of my favourite street food traders, no matter the time. No need to sit down nor spend a fortune for a snack on the run that can easily turn into a main meal, and only for a couple of bucks!

That is the essence of street food, known in Australia to be artisan-finger-fast food mostly sold in stalls at markets or special events rather than on the actual streets, as custom dictates. An outdoor habit that dates back into the mists of time and that we Italians, plus a huge, large slide of the world’s population, have had in our DNA all over the centuries.

I’ll give you an example: Pompeii. If you have ever been there, I am sure you found yourself astonished by the beauty of this still well-preserved ancient city but... have you noticed the high number (hundreds) of thermopolia? What are they, you may ask. Well, thermopolia are considered forerunners of the modern fast-foods where extremely cheap ready-to-eat food was sold, especially to the poor whose humble houses lacked one important room, the kitchen. They represented a must-feature in ancient Rome, but similar on-the-move

26 FOOD&WINE

eating shops popped up in several other countries, each one distinguished by a particular food, and behind the food a specific story and tradition.

In time of crisis street food could represent a valid alternative to expensive restaurants.

However, it seems to be one of the latest trends for food lovers and chefs travelling every corner of the globe to re-discover local humble dishes and transform them into a unique delicatessen. A few years ago VirtualTourist.com, one of the main travel community websites in the world, compiled a list of the “Top Ten Best Street Food Cities”, ranking Palermo as number 5 among the world’s top destinations and crowning it as the European Capital of Street Food, cibo da strada. A good score for this vibrant town where grazing in the streets is a centuries old tradition and expression of a proud community. In Palermo an array of street food hawkers with minimal toolkit are scattered all over the city, especially near the most popular and oldest markets such as Vucciria, Ballarò and Capo, just to name a few.

To better understand the variety of food you can find in Palermo, we met Maurizio Spallina, a Sicilian deli expert and chef in one of the most popular restaurants in Melbourne. Maurizio started his career as chef driven by a true passion for food that led him to work in almost every European capital, until reaching the Australian shores two years ago. “As soon as I finish the military service I moved to London to work in a restaurant. In only a couple of weeks the boss promoted me from dishwasher to commis chef”. A meteoric rise for Maurizio who, still very young, went back to Palermo after a few months in England to open his first rosticceria (deli).

Yet in Melbourne, the foodie city par excellence, where multiculturalism widely expresses itself through an endless variety of Moorish flavours, the authentic Sicilian deli is nowhere to be seen, except for the arancini, and one of Maurizio’s desires is propagating and sharing his passion in Australia, and who better than him? He has enough experience, skills, love and energy to spread the culture of the Sicilian rosticceria in a foreign land.

As he explains, “Sicilian street food consists of many different deep-fried or oven-baked finger food specialties where the use of a special puff pastry is the basic criterion”.

PEP BAKING EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES

PIZZA LINE

Puff pastry, in Italian “pasta sfoglia”, is a half sweet halfsavoury soft and elastic dough made combining sugar, salt, flour, water, and pork lard. What makes the difference is the way it is shaped and filled.

Here’s a little sampling of the pieces typically available curbside in Palermo (and that will make you hungry): sfincione, a thick Sicilian pizza, topped with tomatoes, onions, anchovies, and caciocavallo cheese, seasoned with a dash of oregano; pizzotto, a round-shaped pizza-like topped with tomato sauce and cheese with ham and mozzarella as filling; spiedini, deep-fried rectangular sandwiches stuffed with ragù, and mattonella, a baked brick-shaped pizza usually filled with tomato sauce and mozzarella and topped with sesame seeds.

“Palermo cuisine is the reflection of the foods introduced in the island over the centuries by Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Spanish, French... The connection to tradition is so strong that changing ingredients and methods is forbidden. Creativity and variations are welcomed but some recipes must remain the same to guarantee quality and authenticity”.

words and photos Daniele Foti-Cuzzola

The resurgence of Little Italy

in the Perth suburb of Northbridge

Francoforte Spaghetti Bar

F

or decades Northbridge, an inner city suburb of Perth, was affectionately known as “Little Italy”. The streets were filled with the aromas of roasted coffee, the scent of baked Italian goods and the sound of Italians chatting away as they went on their daily passeggiatas. By the 1990’s a lot of the Italian character that had charmed Western Australians had disappeared - with the exception of a few Italian restaurants, butchers and delicatessens.

The Little Italy of the past was no more. An attempt to commemorate Northbridge’s Italian heritage, included the construction of a “Piazza” which resembled nothing like its Italian namesake. As we entered a new millennium, it seemed the memories of “Little Italy” would simply remain just that, a memory.

Fast-forward to today and Northbridge is re-embracing its Italian roots, thanks to the innovative minds behind eateries like Dough Pizza, No Mafia, Francoforte Spaghetti Bar and ChiCho Gelato.

Gone are the days of checkered tablecloths, faded Ferrari posters and outdated Azzurri memorabilia. These eateries have espoused a new wave Italian style. They respect tradition, but embrace change and have established eateries with a menu and fit out that are chic and sophisticated, and most importantly classically Italian.

Locals would have thought Dough Pizza owners Sacha and Shelly Grewal were out of their minds, opening an authentic pizzeria in an area where Italian restaurants had been closing left, right and centre for over a decade. The restaurant is on the outskirts of Northbridge away from the bustle of where Little Italy stood, as in the 90’s the suburb transformed from an ethnic neighbourhood into one of Perth’s most violent areas, due to the increasing number of nightclubs. Four years on and the number of pizzerias, like any good dough, continues to rise.

“We like to make people feel like they’re in somebody else’s home having dinner”, says Dough manager Seonaidh Murphy. And as someone of Italian background, it’s hard not to feel at home. The pizzeria is decked out with wallpaper of black and white family photographs, vintage movie posters and a collage of Italian playing cards, that makes one fondly recall the briscola matches of their 26 28 FOOD&WINE FROM PERTH

childhood. The fact that families are dining in Northbridge again is an achievement in itself, as it was no longer deemed a family friendly area.

Dough is popular among newly arrived Italians. Tommy Colombo, who hails from Milan and works front of house, says it’s their modern approach that makes it popular. “What I see in Italian restaurants abroad is it’s all about tradition and origins, which makes it boring… here there’s quality, there’s not that old feeling...There’s a mixture of traditions of food and wine, and the way it’s laid out is new and funky”.

Another William Street hotspot, No Mafia has topped the list of local foodie's most popular restaurants since it opened. Part-owner Emma Ferguson believes it’s Australia’s familiarity with Italian cuisine that has seen a renewed interest in Italian food. “Spaghetti and lasagne are part of Australian heritage now. I think we’re all familiar with it but when you sort of focus on it that little bit more people become more interested in it”. While Ferguson is not Italian, she claims “Italians just do it best”. “Nothing beats an espresso at 3:00 in the afternoon or a Campari at 5:00…it’s just classic. We just don’t eat like that”.

Ferguson’s travels throughout Italy inspired a number of menu items, including their infamous ‘Nocello Limonade’. “I got really lost and walking for hours near Porto Cervo… there was so much food growing, I was picking fennel, lavender and lemon, and so I came up with a cocktail, that was lavender and limoncello”.

The restaurateur credits Palermo’s street markets as the inspiration for their seafood dishes.

“I believe street food is the best way to eat…and I believe Palermo is one of the best street food cities in the world”.

Restaurateur Julian Stal-

LEFT No Mafia ABOVE ChiCho Gelato BELOW Dough Pizza

tari’s parents operated Dino’s Coffee Lounge on William Street in the 60’s, and now Staltari is making a name for himself with Francoforte Spaghetti Bar. Francoforte’s impending launch was rocked

by Jamie Oliver’s announcement that Jamie’s Italian was opening up nearby. “We opened up at the same time, but people compared us better than Jamie’s, even without fresh pasta”, he said. As Sofia Loren famously claimed, “everything you see, I owe to spaghetti” and the same can be said for Staltari, who is opening a paninoteca next door.

Like any true paesani, No Mafia and Francoforte have welcomed the newest addition on the block, ChiCho Gelato with open arms.

The gelateria of husband and wife duo Cesare and Carly De Bartolo has collaborated with the restaurants on a “Tre Amici” campaign, where patrons embark on a progressive dinner through “Little Italy”, with antipasto at No Mafia, a primo at Francoforte and dolce at Chicho. The campaign is one of several collaborations that Chicho has been involved with since opening in January. The store supplies gelato for several bars in the area and frequently collaborates with local chefs on unique flavours like maple bacon with marshmallows and Manjimup truffle with honeycomb. “We see ourselves as quite original and innovative”, says Cesare. While ChiCho offers innovative flavours there are also the classics. “All the Italians line up for Sicilian Pistachio to test me”.

And the Italian community have embraced ChiCho, which serves gelato in the traditional pozzetti. “When we first started we had fig on the menu…these Italian ladies would drop figs off and I’d have to chase them. Even though we had suppliers these ladies would drop figs off to our shop…it’s very special when we can connect to people like that”.

The future of Little Italy is in safe hands with these creative entrepreneurs. Unlike the competitive owners of the pizzerias and coffee lounges of the past, these new wave restaurateurs are unique and work collaboratively with one another. They’re not afraid to be innovative, yet they have maintained that classic Italian flair. It seems La Dolce Vita has finally returned to Northbridge.

FOOD&WINE 27 FROM PERTH 29

WORDS Deirdre Mackenna (Director of “Cultural Documents”)

Connecting the present with the forgotten past The concealed histories of our vegetable patch and the fascination of migrant seeds

T

his Spring, as you turn over the soil for your cabbage patch, stop for a moment to think a little about where your seeds come from and what they mean to you.

Through two different approaches, artists Lauren Wells and Maria Thereza Alves are exploring how the histories of commerce and labour have led to the wealth of choice we now take for granted in our domestic vegetable gardens.

Born in the USA in the 1980s Lauren Wells has travelled extensively throughout Europe and is just one member of a globalised and mobilised generation of young professionals who understand travel, study and work as one and the same experience. Working in the USA, Scotland, England, Portugal and Italy in the space of just a few years, Wells realised the distinctiveness of food culture in each new territory she visited and gradually, she started organising events which enable her to find out more about the food produce and customs she’s encountered. To learn the local names attributed to fruits and vegetables, she organises food-forage walks, inviting people to visit private vegetable patches, meet the owners and hear their secrets to a bountiful harvest.

Moreover, as a way of coming to terms with her own constant sense of dislocation from her familial culture, Wells produced the programme of evens ‘Tasting Home’. This project enabled her to follow the stories of sisters Anna, Alba and Maria Izzi and their history of growing up during the 1970s between the mountain village of Cerreto, Molise in rural Italy and the city of Brussels.

When Wells started working in the village of Filignano, near to where the Izzi sisters live now, she invited them to an introductory dinner made using local organic produce but following recipes from her childhood in the USA. Colleague Teresa Buono interpreted as Wells talked about her motivations for making artworks, and the significance of the recipes she had chosen. The sisters reciprocated with curiosity about the nuanced changes to flavours they were familiar with, and soon, the group was

• THE BUTCHER KNOWS BEST •

sharing stories about their everyday choices in preparing dishes, and how these are an expression and reinforcement of their family histories and identities today.

Far away, on the other side of the world, Brazilian artist Maria Thereza Alves, grew up adapting to a different kind of migration: the profit-motivated immigrant companies which extract native resources for international commerce with little or no consideration of the environmental and economic impact left behind in their wake. It’s no surprise that Alves has built an internationally acknowledged career making artworks, which unravel the stories of environmental exploitation for capital gains, and her works are now found in exhibitions and collections throughout the world.

In her recent project “Seeds of Change: A Floating Ballast Seed Garden” for the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol, Alves gently sign-posts the provenance of the hybrid nature of today’s communities, the legacy of centuries of international commerce.

Ballast-flora is a category of non-indigenous plant species that have become established in foreign lands after unintentionally being carried in the soil used to weigh-down empty mercantile ships as they crossed the oceans. Upon arrival at port, the ships would be emptied of their soil as expeditiously as possible, often sold for land-fill or just thrown away onto the nearest patch of unused land. Season by season, the seeds within the soil would become acclimatised to the new environment, explaining why today many ‘migrant’ species can be found growing successfully throughout the world.

Working with the local botanical garden, Alves collected and nurtured seeds from ballast-flora growing wild around Bristol and made a floating garden; a place where people from all backgrounds can now meet to share the stories of the plants and produce they grow and enjoy every day.

So, whether it’s maris pipers, ladies’ fingers or cavolfiori, next time you’re planting out your seedlings, why not pause for a moment to think about where they have travelled from, and when ripe, invite your neighbours to share the bounty and stories of Tasting Home.

WORDS Josie Gagliano

Here comes the wog With the good grog!

R

obert Dessanti is the director of the wine importer company Euro Concepts and parent consumer brand The Wog with The Grog. While the word ‘wog’ has lost the derogatory connotation it once had towards South Europeans and ‘grog’ it is a very Australian word used for alcohol. Robert recalls that people used to be taken aback by the pairing of the words for a brand. But a few years in, “The Wog With The Grog” is now very much a visible part of the beverage industry.

too. I am always eager to create my next masterclass, my next event and show people what Italy in Australia is about.”

Robert’s background in food and wine has crisscrossed food and beverage many times.

He took over the ownership of a Sydney pasticceria, turning it into an even bigger success. He has managed top international hotels in his role as food and beverage manager. He continues to consult for restaurants by providing advice to restaurateurs as they open a new business, attempt to turn around a failing one, or consider major changes.

“Almost three years ago, I founded this consumer-focused company I named The Wog With The Grog, which I coined from friendly jibes from fellow wine buffs who’d see me turn up at trade events, and yell out: “Here comes the wog with the good grog!”

I remember thinking: “That’s a highly marketable brand, right there. At a base level, it says who I am and what I do, and will always be an ice breaker when I introduce it to a conversation. I was right. People will almost always have a chuckle, and really embrace it immediately. I think it takes guts to identify with a heritage that, while it has almost always been respected in Australia, the ‘wog’ moniker was not, in the past. Now, it is, and is said in genuine jest, and as a compliment.”

Robert’s heritage is from the north: his Italian-born parents are from Piemonte and Friuli. Whatever the geography, Australian-born Robert was keen to stay close to his roots, and uphold that very Italian approach towards one’s heritage. Where Italo-Australians proudly extoll their virtues, and do so by creating cooking classes to get people cooking the way their nonna did, or holding wine masterclasses on various regions, or making a constant pilgrimage back to the motherland, even visiting the streets and homes where mamma e papà grew up.

Robert did just that, and joined a group and became president of the Giovani Giuliani, an association of young men and women who headed back to Italy once a year, and immersed themselves in the culture of their parents.

Says Robert on his passion for all things Italian: “I live with passion in everything I do. My passion for Italy - for its culture, food and drinks - is innately part of who I am. I am always longing for the day I return for my next visit - and I travel to my parent’s motherland

annually. I ascribe this obsession to my family’s culture. Watching my mother and grandmother in the kitchen formed the basis of my love for cooking and creating. It made me question where ingredients were from, how they could be best used, how to cook and present the very best meal possible.”

“This was later fuelled further by my very first visit to Italy at the age of 14, when I discovered the true meaning of food, culture and “La bella vita.” I was hooked on and enamoured with the country and its people, and how they approach food and drink and life.”

“My passion for cooking, is, I believe, not only propelled by my heritage, but also by feeling that I have a responsibility to the culture, to deliver good food and wine, which in turn is served up to consumers via the wine and food brands we import. The various incarnations of wine and food from the Italian culture, thanks to the different regions all fiercely represented in Australia, provides us with unlimited possibilities to give the end user, and this is what makes me love what I do for a living. I always see great possibilities for it,

While the Young Giuliani group may now be defunct, its raison d'être still lives on in all of the members: no doubt as restaurateurs, and wine bar owners, and pastry chefs, and more. Continuing to spread the message on the Italian culture, they may well instead be accountants or office managers, but they all have one thing in common: whether they are taking the best angled food photo with the most flattering filter, or mixing up the best Negroni for Australian friends who come around for the full Italian cena experience. It’s their heritage they continue to present in a glass or on a plate, which keeps all that is Italian alive and well.

Robert continues to uphold this, sharing his passion for fine wine with connoisseurs and novices alike, and making it his life’s work through the wholesale and distribution company Euro Concepts, and the consumer-focused brand The Wog With The Grog. Whether people get the pun or not, is irrelevant for Robert. ‘Wog’ has become a term of endearment for South Europeans and is now part of the Australian vernacular. It could even be used as an acronym for ‘Wine Of Genius’.

FROM SYDNEY 31

WORDS I. Elenoire Laudieri Di Biase

The rise of young and beautiful women

in Italian politics

T

he appreciation of female beauty has been at the heart of Italian art and culture for centuries, and continues to be relevant in contemporary Italy. The feminist idea that glamour works against women, famously argued by the American author Naomi Wolf in her book “The Beauty Myth”, has never taken root in Italy. As a matter of fact, physical attractiveness gives Italian women a better chance of finding a job and developing a successful career. It also appears to be a determining factor to make it in politics.

Silvio Berlusconi was famous for appointing models and actresses to cabinet and more recently the current Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has been accused of appointing female ministers based purely on their looks. Many of them were placed in heavyweight roles. In a country that has never had a female prime minister or head of state, the choice was strikingly symbolic.

A crucial ministerial post was given to the 35-year-old Maria Elena Boschi who regularly graces the cover of magazines such as Vanity Fair while Marianna Madia, 37, Minister for Public Administration, has drawn comparisons to beautiful female figures painted by the Italian-English artist and poet, Gabriel Dante Rossetti.

Maria Elena Boschi drew much media coverage back in 2014 when Matteo Renzi appointed her, at age 33, minister for constitutional reforms. Many people thought that her performance as a minister wouldn’t match her glamour but, since then, Boschi has shown that youth and beauty is not incompatible with political stamina.

She overviewed the legislative process for a historical reform which is named after her. The “Boschi Act”, if approved by a popular referendum in November this year, will put an end to a system where the two houses of Parliament have equal powers, which means lengthy procedures and, often, government inertness.

32 FROM ITALY

Like many of Renzi’s acolytes, Boschi, a lawyer born in Tuscany, had to overcome many obstacles in her first parliamentary test. A regular talk-show guest, she has avoided political gaffes and has even taken the liberty of differing from her mentor. On civic rights, for example, she is in favour of gay marriage, whereas Renzi is more ambiguous. No wonder some already see her bound for even higher positions. “She could even, one day, be the next prime minister,” says Renzi’s biographer, David Allegranti.

Recently though, her image has been tarnished by a controversy linked to the collapse of Banca Etruria, a regional bank in central Italy where Boschi’s father, Pierluigi, served as vice-chairman.

She survived a no-confidence vote in the lower chamber of parliament that was demanded by the opposition. She staunchly defended herself saying she is “proud to be part of a government that expresses a very simple concept – those who do wrong, must pay, whoever they are, without any differences or favouritism, If my father did wrong, he must pay.”

She has depicted her family as victims of the bank’s collapse, noting that the shares they held were now worthless. “I possessed 1,557 [shares] that were worth €1,500” she said. “Now they are worth zero, they are scraps of paper.”

Given the tendency by Italian media to objectify women in power, some say there may be an element of sexism in blaming her for the alleged activities of her father. Since the day Renzi’s government was sworn in, and a fake image of Boschi with a G-string showing above her trousers circulated on social media, her looks and lifestyle have been the subject of considerable media speculation. Voluptuous paparazzi photographs of her in a bikini while on holiday have filled the pages of celebrity magazines.

Two new young female stars of Italian politics have emerged

LEFT How the real shot of Maria Elena Boschi as she was signing the document of her swearing into office, was “photoshopped” exposing her underwear TOP The new Mayor of Turin, Chiara Appendino ABOVE LEFT The Italian Minister for Constitutional Reforms, Maria Elena Boschi ABOVE RIGHT Rome’s new mayor, Virginia Raggi

in more recent times. One is Virginia Raggi who, last June, was catapulted to fame after becoming the first female mayor Rome in Rome’s history. The 38-year-old lawyer belongs to the anti-establishment party founded by the former TV comedian Beppe Grillo and known as the Five Star Movement, and won a landslide victory.

She came into politics when she was elected to the Rome City Council in 2013 and sat in opposition to Ignazio Marino, a Democratic Party mayor who was forced to resign last year over an expenses scandal.

Her looks have received a lot of attention in the Italian press, but she insists that she wants to be judged on her political accomplishments. She is estranged from her husband and has a sevenyear-old son, and apparently it was his birth that egged her into politics, as she wanted to shake up the city to give him a liveable environment.

Another ascent in the Italian political scenario by a young and good-looking woman is that of the 32-year-old Chiara Appendino who was surprisingly elected to the position of mayor of Turin, one of the major industrial towns in Northern Italy. She also belongs to the Five Star Movement and is the mother of a baby girl born last January.

A graduate of Bocconi University and an executive in the company owned by her husband Marco, Chiara Appendino led a campaign without the yelling and the “go screw yourself” typical of Grillo’s movement.

The last few days of the campaign saw an end-of-an-era climate, evidenced by an unexpected media aggressiveness by the outgoing mayor, Piero Fassino, a long-standing leftist politician who was expected to be reconfirmed in power. Two visions of the city clashed during the electoral campaign, one claiming full success in transforming the city from an industrial, car-producing city to a city of services and culture — and the other challenging that narrative. “The city centre,” Appendino said, “has been subject to noticeable re-qualifying interventions, a front-view window. However,

the suburbs, where the economic indicators appear as being dramatic, have been neglected. We’d like to create a polycentric Turin, where all the neighbourhoods, even the most external ones, can be the subject of economic and social development.”

Such statements indicate that being young and beautiful does not necessarily equates with dumbness or incompetence. It is actually often the opposite. According to many sociological studies, the common belief that what a woman may lack in looks, she can make up in intelligence or personality is more a myth than a fact.

Research by the evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa published in the professional journal “Intelligence”, that “physical attractiveness is significantly positively associated with general intelligence.” In what many would regard as a controversial perspective, Kanazawa says that “our contention that beautiful people are more intelligent is purely scientific” and “it is not a prescription for how to value or judge others.”

Other researchers argue that making judgments based on physical attractiveness is not a bad thing, particularly for women. Catherine Hakim, a professor of sociology at the London School of Economics, and author of the book “Erotic Capital: The Power of Attraction in the Boardroom and the Bedroom”, advances a controversial perspective, suggesting that professional women should use their “erotic capital”—beauty, sex appeal, charm, dress sense, liveliness, and fitness—to get ahead at work.

Charles Feng of Stanford University claims, “In society, attractive people tend to be more intelligent, better adjusted, and more popular.”

Whatever the reason, the notion that attractiveness correlates with success rings true. Yet beauty is not always advantageous, for beautiful people, particularly attractive women, tend to be perceived as more materialistic, snobbish, and vain.

For better or worse, the bottom line is that research shows beauty matters; it pervades society and affects how we choose loved ones. Thus, striving to appear attractive may not be such a vain endeavour after all. Even in politics.

FROM ITALY 33

WORDS ENRICO MASSEI & Elizabeth Wisser

AMALSA MAKES THE LAW WORK FOR YOU The debate around the genuineness of

the 457 Visa applicant From the Director's desk – Enrico Massei It seems like one of the “hot topics” in migration law is establishing that the position for which a 457-visa applicant has been nominated is “genuine”.

It seems like the reason that this requirement has been so controversial is because it allows scope for a huge amount of subjective judgment on the part of a case officer, or, for that matter, the Tribu-

nal, to determine what is genuine, and what is not.

Is this one of those situations where the answer to the question of whether a position is genuine is: “I’ll know it when I see it?”

This article explains the red flags, which tend to prompt further investigation by the Department of Immigration.

From our Migration Practioner’s Desk – Elizabeth Wisser LL.B, GDLP, Registered Migration Agent MARN: 0959122

Occupation Certain occupations attract a higher level of attention from Immigration, and hence require a higher level of supporting evidence.

These occupations include: • Cafe and Restaurant Manager • Program or Project Administrators, • Specialist Managers NEC • Accountants and Marketing Specialists • Customer Service Manager Cafe and Restaurant Manager The Department has a policy that the duties of Cafe and Restaurant Managers should include the planning of menus with chefs, as well as the planning of events or functions.

The Department will also want to see that the business is operating as a cafe or restaurant and not as a takeaway food outlet.

Accountants and Marketing Specialists We have seen the Department target positions nominated as Accountants and Marketing Specialists.

The Department’s view is that these should be very senior-executive level positions so, if your position involves lower level duties which are not included on the 457 occupation list, they may be inclined to refuse the application.

Program or Project Administrators, Specialist Managers NEC These occupations were previously, frequently used as “catch all” options for positions that did not clearly fit in a CSOL occupation. They now require a formal skills assessment, which most applications would not be able to pass.

Customer Service Manager This is another occupation, which was frequently used, and it is only appropriate where the sponsored person is responsible

34 REGULARS

for managing a team of customer service staff. It would include hiring, training, setting policies and procedures and other high level tasks. If your 457 applicant is actually serving customers, they are unlikely to be fit under this occupation.

ary above the English language exemption threshold - currently set at $96,400 - may incur further investigation. The Department may suspect the salary offer is inflated simply to avoid meeting the English language requirement and secure a 457 visa.

Sponsorship of a Related Person

You will need to show that the position is at an executive level commensurate with the salary you have offered the applicant.

If evidence suggests the market rate for a similar position and location is disproportionately lower, further investigations will be conducted to determine whether the position is genuine.

Recent changes to the immigration policy means that it is much more difficult to sponsor yourself for a 457-visa if you are a business owner or company officer (“self sponsorship”). This covers situations where: -the visa applicant is a director or owner of the sponsoring business -the visa applicant is a relative or personal associate of an officer of the sponsoring business In the above cases, the Department may suspect the nominated position is being created purely for the purpose of securing entry for the owner or family member and will seek further evidence from you to evidence the position is genuine.

Business owners may consider other options such as GSM, Business Migration, ENS/RSMS.

Salary Level Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) Whilst 457 applicants must be paid an annual base salary that is at least the relevant TSMIT - currently set at $53,900 the Department will look unfavourably on your application if your base salary offer is exactly $53,900 or very close to it.

Unless you can evidence that the market rate for a similar position and location is exactly $53,900, you will incur suspicion as to whether the position offered is genuine.

High Salary and the English Language Exemption Similarly, offering your applicant a base sal-

Your applicant will also need to have a skill level commensurate with the salary offered.

Location and Nationality of Applicant Overseas applicants from certain passport countries may merit investigation, particularly if they have no prior connection to the business. In this case, the Department is likely to raise questions about how the applicant was identified as being suitable to the position and why they would be the best person for the role. Immigration may suspect that the 457 applicant may have paid for the position to be offered, or that they are a relative.

It also appears that certain nationalities receive extra attention from Immigration - perhaps because these practices are perceived to be more common.

Recommendations Whilst any one of the above scenarios may not necessarily result in your application being a target or refused, it is important that you understand why the provision of additional documents may be recommended to satisfy Immigration that your nominated position is genuine.

www.amalsa.com.au enquiry@amalsa.com.au

WORDS Mariantonietta Rasulo

THE COMPASS OF OUR RIGHTS

What students or temporary residents should know before

g n i l l e w d a leasing T

he first step for students or temporary residents after their arrival in Australia is finding a place to live in - usually a single room, a room to share or, for those who can afford it, an apartment or a house.

Often, the rush to settle or the fear of losing a place that is readily available induce wrong decisions - for example, to accept a lease “in nero” (paying cash) or to pay the deposit before signing the contract. Here, as in Italy, there are people who take advantage of these circumstances. Therefore, it is important to know that in Australia there are precise regulations pertaining to residential leases, which ensure the protection of renters’ and landlords’ rights.

Even when we live in a foreign country we maintain our rights as consumers, which of course are regulated by local legislations.

When taking out a lease on a property, a rental or lease agreement must be signed by both the tenant and the landlord, whereby the contractual arrangements are specified. This includes the bond to be paid in advance, the duration of the contract, and other rules and conditions agreed upon by both signatories.

A bond, which is equivalent to one-month rent, must usually be paid in advance by the tenant and both parties have obligations.

The tenant is required to maintain the property in good order and should any damage be caused without repair, the tenant may risk losing his/her bond, in whole or in part at the end of the lease.

Conversely, it is important to know that also the landlord has maintenance commitments.

The Residential Tenancies Bond Authority holds all bond payments. In addition to this, it is imperative for a condition report to be completed by the real estate agent, acknowledged, and signed by the tenant.

A recommendation: before you move, undertake an inspection of the property and check for possible flaws or malfunctions - for example, cracks or marks on the walls or broken handles. Have the landlord or the real estate agent sign a written list of flaws within three days of taking possession of the property. Within 15 days from the date of your payment, you should receive a receipt for your bond.

This is an important document, the only one that at the end of the lease will allow you, to have your bond returned to you.

Another aspect to be aware of are property repairs. Is it the landlord or the tenant's responsibility? The answer to this question depends on the urgency of the repair, similar to that under Italian contracts.

Urgent repairs are those that are dangerous or render the property uninhabitable, for example damages to the enclosure of swimming pools, electrical equipment, heaters, water or gas leakages, or the breakdown of hygienic services. The landlord is responsible for these repairs and if they are uncontactable immediately, the real estate agent has prior authorisation from the landlord to undertake repairs to the maximum cost of $1800.

Non urgent repairs are managed differently: the tenant is required to send an email to the landlord or real estate agent explaining the problem which they have approximately 15 days to fix.

When you decide to leave the property, you must advise the landlord or the real estate agent in writing and within the required period of notice.

For further information, you can visit the Consumer Affairs Victoria website, www.consumer.vic.gov.au.

When we live outside our own country, we must not lose "the compass" of our rights and make sure that they are respected.

REGULARS 35

WORDS and Photo Archimede Fusillo

Future In Their Past part 8

Fond memories of a toilsome, yet rewarding experience of an Italian migrant

A

ngelo Savino was 31 years old when he decided to follow his sister to Australia. After a ten-year absence and during her brief visit back to Italy she had been one of the very first in the Post-war era to take advantage of the call for migrants. Having made a life in her adopted country, she felt Australia and its opportunities would also appeal to her brother and his young family.

“Parlando con mia sorella mi sono convinto, e nel 1962 sono partito, lasciando mia moglie e due bambini di 4 e 2 anni qui in Italia” (In 1962 speaking about Australia with my sister I was convinced, and I left, leaving behind my wife and children aged 4 and 2). He nods as we sit and share a few moments of what is still a very significant part of this 83-year-old man’s life journey. “Ho fatto 28 giorni di nave partendo da Napoli. Dura questa partenza, solo, senza mia moglie, senza i miei figli. Anche se c’erano degli amici, non fu un viaggio privo di dubbi e malinconia”. (I spent 28 days at sea, having left from Naples. It was a difficult parting.

I was alone, without my wife and children. Even though there were friends, it was still a voyage filled with doubt and sadness).

a pleasant thing to be separated from one’s family, even if I did have my sister and her family. My family was far away, I was alone).

Initially residing with his sister in one of Melbourne’s inner city suburbs, Brunswick, a suburb which was then filled with Italian migrants just like him, and where it was possible to mingle with likeminded people who had come to Australia in similar circumstances and therefore understood the state of mind of a newly arrived resident. His sister’s move to outer Pascoe Vale made his life difficult - particularly his commute to work.

“Pascoe Vale era un bel posto” he reminisces, “ma per uno come me che aveva bisogno dei mezzi per andare a lavoro era scomodo. Allora me ne sono andato ad abitare a North Fitzroy, vicino la Chiesa Di Santa Maria, lì a Nicholson Street”.

(Pascoe Vale was a lovely spot, but for someone like me who needed public transport to get to work it was inconvenient. So I went to live in North Fitzroy, close by the Church of Our Lady - Help Of Christians - in Nicholson Street) His mind is sharp and Angelo describes the church for me in detail, asking if it is as he remembers it.

I am pleased to tell him it is and he smiles with satisfaction at this obviously vivid recollection.

Angelo Savino, a native of Marsicovetere, has fond memories of Australia, particularly the manner of the Christmas celebrations and the orderliness of the official institutions where people respected authority and the need to wait one’s rightful turn. “La gente australiana era generalmente molto gentile verso noi stranieri. Non ho avuto grandi problemi, a parte la lingua che non era semplice. Infatti, lavorando nelle fabbriche ho imparato il calabrese più che l‘inglese”. (Australians were overall quite friendly towards us strangers. I didn’t have any great problems, apart from the language, which was difficult. In the many factories where I worked, I actually learned more Calabrian than English).

“Ho lavorato più di tre anni come cementista” he says and his tone darkens slightly. “Lavoro pesante.

Pesante. Lavoro che tanti australiani non volevano fare. Infatti tanti di loro facevano una giornata e basta. Lavoro molto duro. Ma non avevamo scelta.

Noi immigranti dovevamo lavorare ad ogni costo” (I was a concrete layer for more than three years. Hard work. Very hard. A kind of work many Australians didn’t want to do. In fact, many of them lasted just one day and then they had had enough. But we had no choice. We migrants had to work).

Angelo gives a hearty laugh at the memory of working at the Ford factory and then at a tannery in Footscray, where he earned what he termed a good income because he did a great deal of overtime, working laborious jobs many others refused to undertake.

We are sitting across the kitchen table on his farm, sharing a coffee, and Angelo Savino frequently breaks off his conversation to gaze around. I ask him if he has any regrets and he looks at me right in the eyes as he answers.

What he didn’t like was the manner in which migrants, and in his particular experience, Italian migrants, were given work that non-migrants either didn’t want to do because it was often backbreaking, or felt beneath them to do.

“Ho portato buona moneta in Italia. Mi sono sistemato. Però mi sembra che uno sta meglio dove è nato”. (I took good money back to Italy. I set myself and my family up. However, it seems to me, that one is better off in one’s native country).

“Sono andato in Australia per migliorare la situazione finanziaria della mia familglia” he tells me. “Lo scopo era di mettere soldi da parte, una cosa non possibile nell’Italia di quel tempo. Volevo caso mai richiamare la famiglia in Australia, essere insieme di nuovo. Non è una cosa bella essere separato dalla famiglia, anche se avevo mia sorella e la sua famiglia. I miei erano lontani. Ero solo”. (I went to Australia in order to better my family’s economic situation.

The aim was to put money aside, something not possible at that time in Italy. I wanted to call my family out to Australia, to be reunited. It was not

Therefore, it was that after some six years in Australia, Angelo Savino decided that despite all the positives of his experience in Melbourne, his heart and mind were constantly drawn back to Italy, and to his young family whom he missed intensely. It was a return journey he made via Argentina, where he spent a mere two days with a brother who had migrated there, but with no intention whatsoever of even considering putting roots there himself after his economically successful but personally challenging time in Australia.

36 REGULARS

words Bronte Dee Jackson

CULTURE BITES Discovering the beauty of winter sipping a cup of cioccolata calda

W

hy do Italians survive winter without going to Queensland (or Puglia)?

The first time I was served a hot chocolate in Italy I thought I must have asked for the wrong thing. For a start it wasn’t liquid, my spoon could stand up in it. Secondly, it was covered in a tower of whipped cream. And underneath the white, fluffy cream rapidly melting into liquid foam, there was a dark, earthy colour like truffles or mud. Lastly, it tasted like no hot chocolate I had ever had before.

It tasted like something deep and soulful, not sweet and not savoury, but with the flavours of deep rich cocoa, extracted from a bean, taken from a plant on a warm semi-jungle hillside. It sent a deep, strong, hot sensation expanding out from my chest and down to the soles of my feet.

After it had gone down there it went up into my heart and made me glad and happy, and then it gave me wings. It made me feel I could climb a mountain with my skis under one arm, or run a marathon around a frozen lake, or preach to hundreds of depressed, cold people about how winter is really a time of rejuvenation and laying the foundations for new growth in the spring. It gave me hope and strength, and a deep peace that it was Ok that it was winter and that I did not have to book a holiday to Queensland, or run off to Puglia and pretend that winter wasn’t happening.

I was amazed. The hot chocolates of my youth were brown and runny, overly sweet and came from tins that read “Ovaltine”, “Akta-Vite” and “Milo”. They left me feeling slightly sleepy, upset my stomach, and as soon as I was old enough I never drank one again.

But when in Europe I thought… everyone seems to drink cioccolata calda here, even grownups… I should try one.

So I stood perplexed and looked down at what was in my cup the first time I ordered a cioccolata calda in Rome, and checked with the barista that this was what I had ordered. I then watched and waited. How was I to eat/drink this, I wondered? Where did you start? Did you use the spoon or try and drink it? How did you get around the cream, and surely I was going to be sick with all that chocolate and cream? And then I just dived in and for a few moments was in my own private cioccolata calda heaven as I sipped and licked, and waited for the cream to melt some more, and stirred some in, and ate some from underneath, and just generally got acquainted as to how one has a cioccolata calda in Italy.

After that experience I understood the ability to stand around outside in the freezing temperatures chatting with friends and neighbours. The capacity to still do “la passeggiata” in the chilly evenings and partake of daily outdoor market shopping and other staples of Roman life, even though the sun didn’t melt the ice off the ground until nearly lunch time. It was the cioccolata calda. It gave everyone fortitude, strength, and hope to carry on even if you couldn’t go to Puglia, or Queensland for a week and lay in the sunshine.

I prefer to experience the full depth of the seasons. I don’t need or want to take a break from them. I have been trained by my two decades in Rome to brazen out the winter and not to escape.

However, to do this in Melbourne I need my Italian cioccolata calda, which now comes out of a tin that reads “Ciobar”.

REGULARS 37

words JOHNNY DI FRANCESCO

Stockist list HANDS on FIRE

MELBOURNE AIRPORT WEST

The pros and cons of expanding a business

BRAVISSIMI SCHOOL 1/93 Macnamara Avenue Airport West Vic 3043 ALBERT PARK L’ ALTRO MONDO RESTAURANT 125 Victoria Ave Albert Park Vic 3206

W

hen people talk business success, bigger is often seen as better. Expansion, growth, increased revenue and turnover, they are the key to measure and determine how well your business is doing. Don’t get me wrong, if your business is growing then you are clearly doing something right – but that doesn’t mean that expansion is all positives and no negatives. A bigger business more often than not means bigger problems, bigger stresses, and bigger bills.

And that’s something I have learned first hand!

One of the biggest cons of expanding is finding the people to help you do just that. If you think staff is already your biggest concern or issue when running a small business, try finding enough good people to keep a much bigger ship steady! Staff is the most important asset of any business, and if you want your business to grow, you have to have good people with you.

Finding and managing those people is a challenge, and it’s sometimes easier to let poor staff slip through the cracks at a bigger enterprise. Staff who don’t perform, or worse, damage your business through negative client interaction or theft, are a genuine cost to you – and the more staff you have, the more likely you are to end up with a few of these people in your ranks.

Being on top of your staffing is imperative as your business grows for this very reason.

ARMADALE GIORGIO’S RESTAURANT Street Armadale Vic 3143 BEACONSFIELD SERGIO CARLEI WINERY Albert road Upper Beaconsfield Vic 3808 BRAESIDE Freccia Azzurra Club 784 - 796 Springvale Road Braeside Vic 3195 BULLEEN VENETO CLUB 91 Bulleen Road Vic 3105 BUNDOORA FILA OUTLET Brand Junction 2 Janefield Drive Shop T18 Bundoora Vic 3083 CAMBERWELL ANGELUCCI Prospect Hill Road Camberwell Vic 3124

On the flip side, getting to hire more people to do the day-to-day tasks so that you can focus on your bigger picture is most certainly a pro! If you can find the right people, having a great team of supportive staff who share your vision is not only going to benefit your business financially, but it’s the makings of a family that will make work an absolute pleasure.

MONACO’S CONTINENT AL DELICATESSEN & FOOD STORE 525 Camberwell Road Camberwell Vic 3124

In the example of my own business, expansion has meant the establishment of multiple locations. This has the brilliant advantage of an increased brand presence as we reach new markets.

The downside to this is more complex logistics. Rather than being consolidated in one place, we now need to replicate our offering across various venues in spread out locations – but there is still only one of me! This links back to the need for great staff and another big concern - as my business grew, I needed to ensure that the quality of our product remained unchanged. It goes without saying that the more sales you make, the more money that comes in – but the more sales you make also means the more product you actually need to produce. Finding the balance between meeting demand without compromising on quality is a difficult one, and not one that’s unique to hospitality.

Boss Pizzeria 25 Cookson Street Camberwell VIC 3124

I could go on forever, but realistically, for every challenge, there is most certainly an opportunity. For me, I can’t think of much that has made me happier than seeing the expansion of Gradi Group to where it is today – and knowing that growth is continuing thrills me to the core. I love what I do, and I love that other people also love it enough to allow me to grow my business in this way.

NERO CARLTON 204-218 Lygon Street Carlton Vic 3053

Send your questions to Johnny at: johnnydifrancesco@segmento.com.au 38 REGULARS

COFFEE MAX Burke Road Camberwell Vic 3124

CARLTON/BRUNSWICK READINGS 309 Lygon Street Carlton Vic 3053 BLACK ORANGE BOUTIQUE 380 Lygon Street Carlton Vic 3053 CO.AS.IT. 189 Faraday Street Carlton Vic 3053 MUSEO ITALIANO 199 Faraday Street Carlton Vic 3053

LA LATTERIA 104 Elgin Street Carlton Vic 3053 NEWSAGENCY 3/4 Lygon Street Carlton VIC 3053 FORZA ITALIA 204 Lygon Street Carlton Vic 3053 400 GRADI CICCHETTI Lygon Street Brunswick Vic 3055

400 GRADI PIZZERIA Lygon Street Brunswick Vic 3055 Abruzzo Club 377 Lygon Street East Brunswick VIC 3057 Nino’s & Joe’s 317 Victoria Street Brunswick VIC 3056 Juliano Lawyers 19­21 Argyle Place South Carlton VIC 3053 CBD

ELWOOD

PASCOE VALE

ZANINI PIZZERIA 106 ormond Road Elwood Vic 3184

Piedimonte’s Supermarket & Liquor 366­368 Bell Street, Pascoe Vale, VIC, 3044

ESSENDON

PRAHRAN/TOORAK

400 GRADI Shop 1, 110 Keilor Road, Essendon VIC 3040

CAFÉ LATTE 521 Malvern Road Toorak Vic 3142

FILA OUTLET Direct Factory Outlet Bulla Road Shop T19 Essendon Airport Vic

LA CAMERA Shop MR2 Mid Level East End Southgate Avenue, Southgate CentreSouthgate Vic 3006

FITZROY

MACCARONI TRATTORIA ITALIANA Manchester Lane Melbourne Vic 3000

FITZROY NORTH

GRADI AT CROWN Shop 25, 8 Whiteman Street Southbank Vic 3046 FILA OUTLET Direct Factory Outlet Shop G016, 20 Convention Centre Place Southwharf Vic 3006 +39 Pizzeria 362 Little Bourke Street VIC 3000 CLAYTON HOME MAKE IT 4/158 Wellington Road Clayton VIC 3168

FILA OUTLET Nicholson Street Fitzroy Vic 3065 MACCARONI OSTERIA ITALIANA 201 Queens Parade Fitzroy North Vic 3068 GLEN IRIS MINITALIA LAB 200 Glen Iris Road Glen Iris Vic 3146 HAMPTON LA SVOLTA 450 Hampton Street, Hampton VIC 3188 HAWTORN QUINTI - TUSCAN LIFESTYLE 636 Glenferrie Road Hawtorn Vic 3122

COLLINGWOOD

SANTONI PIZZERIA 634 Glenferrie Road Hawtorn Vic 3122

THE CRAFT & CO 390 Smith Street Collingwood VIC 3066

KEW

BINI’S GALLERY 62 Smith Street Collingwood Vic 3066 DANDENONG FILA OUTLET Direct Factory Outlet Corner Centre Shop T59, Dandenong & Grange Road Cheltenham Vic 3192

CIRCA900 PIZZERIA NAPOLETANA 321 High Street Kew Vic 3101 MALVERN SAGRA 256 -258 Glenferrie Road Malvern Vic 3144 READINGS 185 Glenferrie Road Malvern Vic 3144

ROMA DELI 32 Gladstone Road Dandenong Vic 3175

CAFFE’ LA VIA 252 Glenferrie Road Malvern Vic 3144

DOCKLANDS

ETTO PASTA 216 Glenferrie Road Malvern Vic 3144

WATERFRONT DOCKLANDS RESTAURANT Tenancy 9, 800 Bourke Street The Promenade Victoria Harbour Docklands Vic 3008 FILA OUTLET Waterfront City Harbourtown S/C Shop SCG03 Docklands Vic 3008 FILA OUTLET Direct Factory Outlet Level 1 - Shop T78 201 Spencer Street Docklands Vic 3008 DONCASTER ZERO95 PIZZA BAR 904 Doncaster Road Doncaster East Vic 3108

NORTHCOTE MARCIANÒ MUSIC 453 High Street Northcote Vic 3070 LIEVITÀ 98 High Street Northcote Vic 3070 IL MELOGRANO 76 High Street Northcote Vic 3070 BAR NONNO 83 High Street Northcote Vic 3070 NORTH FITZROY

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Piedimonte’s Supermarket & Liquor 37­49A Best Street, North Fitzroy, VIC, 3068

FILA OUTLET Direct Factory Outlet Level 1 - Shop T78 201 Spencer Street Docklands Vic 3008

Newagency at Piedimonte’s First Floor 37­49A Best Street, North Fitzroy, VIC, 3068 First Floor 37­49A Best Street

OFFICINE ZERO – SLITTI 534 Malvern Road Prahran Vic 3181 PRESTON DAVIER HAIR ITALY 4/103 High Street Preston Vic 3072 HOME MAKE IT 256 Spring Street Reservoir VIC 3073 ­Sartoria Melbourne 115 Plenty Road Preston VIC 3072 RICHMOND SYLK HAIR BOUTIQUE Shop F36 Victoria Gardens Shopping Center 620 Victoria Street Richmond Vic 3128 SOUTH YARRA ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI CULTURA 233 Domain Road South Yarra Vic 3141 CONSOLATO ITALIANO GENERALE D’ITALIA 509 St Kilda Road Melbourne Vic 3004 ST. KILDA I CARUSI II 231 Barkly Street St. Kilda Vic 3182 SORSI & MORSI 29 - 31 Blessington Street St Kilda Vic 3182 IL FORNAIO 2 Acland Street St Kilda Vic 3182 THOMASTOWN THAT’S AMORE CHEESE - CHEESE SHOP 66 Latitude Blvd Thomastown Vic 3074 Thornbury Lola Lovely 692 High Street Thornbury VIC 3071 TOORAK +39 Pizzeria 517 Malvern Road VIC 3142 CANBERRA Ambasciata d’Italia 2-12 Grey Street Deakin ACT 2600 Perth No Mafia 189 William Street Northbridge WA 6003 ChiCo Gelato 180 William Sreet Northbridge WA 6003

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