Finding Paradise

or

How I Ate at the Best Restaurant in Sicily, Wound Up Publishing Two Amazing Women, and Helped to Save The Most Beautiful Place I've Ever Seen

by
Peter Gethers

The publication of the second cookbook by Wanda & Giovanna Tornabene, Sicilian Home Cooking, will mark the 10th anniversary of my first visit to their restaurant and inn, Gangivecchio--a place as near to a culinary Eden as any place on earth.

As with most worthwhile occurrences, this one was purely accidental. I was traveling in Sicily with my lovely girlfriend, Janis, for a week. Before we left, someone had sent me an article in the New York Times about a restaurant in Sicily. It had my name written all over it: it was in a 14th century abbey, it was extremely difficult to find, and it had the best food on the island. There was no way I was going to pass on this one. So we took off from Taormina and drove for a good three hours along winding mountain roads (getting lost at least 17 times along the way) and eventually found ourselves pulling up to a magnificent structure that looked as if it had been standing since the Middle Ages (which, in fact, it had).

The restaurant was in a long room at the back of the abbey, with huge windows that overlooked acres and acres of wild red poppies. It looked as if the mountains were on fire. As wondrous as the view was, it was nothing compared to the meal we feasted on. We sat, and were told to just sit there while they decided what to bring us. And then we ate like never before. First was a mound of Spaghetti with Pesto Sauce. But this wasn't pesto that we'd ever tasted. This one had 5 different nuts ground up in it, which gave it not only an exquisite taste but a crunchy texture that added a whole new dimension to the pasta-eating experience (this recipe happens to be in the Tornabenes' James Beard Award-winning first book, La Cucina Siciliana di Gangivecchio, as are all the foods described in this little essay). That pasta was followed by another: the Sicilian specialty, Pasta Con Sarde (pasta with sardines, and let me just say two words about that: OH BABY!!!!!!). After that came Rolatini (veal rolls), followed by cheese, and then cannolis that made me ashamed to admit that I ate them on a regular basis down in New York's Little Italy. And, just when you thought it was impossible to eat one more bite, out came something called Sofficini, which is dough fried in lard and stuffed with warm lemon cream. I promise you one thing: as long as you do not think about the world "cholesterol" when you bite into a soficini, you will be the happiest person on earth by the time you've finished eating one (much less four or five. Or twelve.).

We left Gangivecchio full and happy. And four days later we found ourselves in the southern part of the island looking at a spectacular string of Greek temples when Janis noticed that I was. . . er. . . um. . . how shall I put it?. . . cranky. She asked me what was wrong and finally I admitted that I didn't want to see one more Greek temple or mosaic or piece of art or spectacular building. When she asked what I did want to do, I had to admit this: I wanted to do whatever it took to go back to Gangivecchio and eat another one of their meals. And so we did. We got back in the car, drove three hours north, found the place a second time and showed up just in time for lunch. This time, the food tasted even better, and we also got to speak with Wanda and Giovanna, the mother and daughter who owned and ran the place. Wanda, the mom, didn't speak a word of English. Luckily, Giovanna did. So she was able to translate my question as we were about to leave: "Would you like to write a cookbook?"

Wanda's immediate answer was no. For one thing, she assumed I was simply buttering them up so I didn't have to pay for lunch. For another thing, even if I were telling the truth, she didn't ever want her neighbors to get their hands on her extraordinary family recipes, so she said she would never allow them to be printed.

Thus began several weeks of cajoling. Two things finally changed Wanda's mind. One was that I told her we wouldn't publish the book in Italian. Since none of the neighbors spoke English, her recipes would be safe. The second thing was that I happened to be traveling with my cat (with whom I went everywhere) and Wanda was an animal fanatic. She decided that anyone who took his cat to a restaurant in a foreign land was worth trusting. And working with.

Back in New York, I found the perfect co-writer for the book, a woman named Michele Evans who had written many superb cookbooks on her own and who actually learned Italian so she could work on this project. Michele basically became a member of the Tornabene family, worked with Wanda and Giovanna for several years and finally, in 1996, the book was published. Wanda (who still didn't speak any English) and Giovanna went on a nationwide publicity tour, appearing on Good Morning America, among many other TV shows, and preparing special "guest dinners" at such restaurants as Alice Waters' Chez Panisse and Nancy Silverton's & Mark Peel's Campanile. The book went on to win the 1997 James Beard Award for Best Italian Cookbook and also changed Wanda and Giovanna's lives. Not only were they the newest stars on the American cooking scene, but thanks to all the publicity generated by their tour and by the book, their restaurant was now full. Every day. They soon were able to convert the stables on the Gangivecchio property into a 9-room inn (with a second restaurant added there, run by Wanda's son Paolo). And two years ago, they were able to refurbish a 200+ year-old stone cottage, which once was lived in by the caretaker, into a luxury suite that was a perfect addition to the inn.

This was not the end of the fairy tale, however. It continues. . . because their second book is now finished and being published. Sicilian Home Cooking is even better than the first book, in my humble opinion. The recipes are just as good (make the fried cheese--trust me) and the stories about the ex-abbey and its history are warm and wonderful and charming, just like the Tornabene women.

Gangivecchio is a magical place. Publishing the books has been a magical experience. And I think that reading and cooking from both of these books will bring quite a bit of magic into your own homes.

--Peter Gethers