Giorgio Locatelli > Quotes

“Until Garibaldi landed in 1860 and the unification of Italy that followed meant that the church’s land was confiscated and many convents were forced to close down, the sisters were the powerhouses of pastry and confectionery. In aristocratic families with many daughters, if only one dowry could be afforded, the other daughters would be sent to the convent, and money would be given to the order to keep them in quiet luxury. But they also needed an occupation, so the tradition of making pastry to give away to the people on saints’ days and festivals grew up. There was a great competitiveness between the convents, each of which had their own speciality, such as virgin cakes, made in the shape of breasts. So hot was the competition, that as far back as 1575 it is said that the diocese of Mazara del Vallo had to prohibit the making of cassata by the nuns during Holy Week because they were doing more baking than praying!”
― Giorgio Locatelli, Made in Sicily: A Sicilian Cookbook with Arab, Spanish, and Greek Culinary Influences

“When he mentioned his new recipe to me me, and I asked when he had made it, he said, “Five years ago.” Imagine. That is Sicilian, so resistant to novelty for novelty’s sake, so determined not to make something up to impress or shock; so true to the Sicilian idea that everything should simply be about allowing the flavors to come through and the land to talk.”
― Giorgio Locatelli, Made in Sicily: A Sicilian Cookbook with Arab, Spanish, and Greek Culinary Influences

“I think the sweetest tooth in the whole of Italy is to be found in Sicily. Whereas in the simplicity of the savory cooking there is always a sense of harking back to cucina povera-literally the cooking of poverty, when whatever ingredients you had needed to be used cleverly-when it comes to the pastry, no! Everyone goes crazy. It is a complete celebration of the Baroque, and the harking back is not to poor times, but to the arrival, with the Arabs, of sugarcane, which was planted all over the island and provided an alternative to honey as a sweetener, making possible all kinds of new confections, such as the almond paste that the Sicilians love.”
― Giorgio Locatelli, Made in Sicily: A Sicilian Cookbook with Arab, Spanish, and Greek Culinary Influences