#ItalianCulture | Valentina Expressions

No Globalization For Me | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

05 Nov 2011 6 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AltamuraBread, #AltamuraPuglia, #ComeMiaNonnaReturnToSimplicity, #FocacciaBlues, #ItalianCulture, #NicoCirasolaProducer, #PugliaFood, #PugliaTravel, #SinsOfAQueen

(Photos above and below Altamura bajers: http://www.visitsitaly.com/puglia/altamura/altamura-pix.htm)

Last week, at the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, I concluded the series of events dedicated to the celebration of “October Month Of Italian Style” Second year. Last event made in symbiosis with Italian filmmaker Nico Cirasola, my homonymous and not related, was aiming at shining the light on the southern Italian region of Puglia, where both Nico and myself were born and bringing to America our roots, culture and food.
As a self-proclaimed ambassador of my land of Puglia, I centered my talk on the reasons why being an interior designer I didn’t write a design book first, instead I turned to writing two books on food and cooking.

The reason is simple, I explained. I had the feeling when I arrived in USA that not many people in America knew about Puglia as much as they knew about Rome, Florence, Venice and Cinque Terre or Tuscany. That is understandable, tourists always have limited time during traveling, thus they select well-known spots to fill their trips and satisfy their knowledge. However, it irritated me every time I had to explain where Puglia is located and it seemed that if I had come from Mars it would have not made any difference.

(http://www.comuni-italiani.it/072/004/foto)

Italy is made of 22 regions and everyone has contributed to the history and the making of the republic of Italy. My talk continued with flashes of history, architecture, traditional costume and new habits. It ended with the presentation of my books and the benefits of the southern Italian cuisine, so much appreciated in the world without the world even knowing it. In fact most of the Italian cuisine abroad is based on the southern cooking with our olive oil, the “green gold” of our land, as we call it.
My talk was about amusing and informing my audience and as the ambassador the only thing I wanted to do was to encourage people to plan a trip to Puglia and experience my roots and my culture.
That’s why I felt a mission toward my country region to write two cookbooks before a design book.

Nico Cirasola showed his docu-film entitled “Focaccia Blues” with English subtitle.
Nico’s documentary is a hilarious recount of how a small bread bake house in the small town of Altamura was able to induce McDonald, the American fast food giant, to close its doors after only a couple of years of operation. The only McDonald in the world that has closed business!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x_kCavFsbE&feature=related

The small town of Altamura in Puglia is renowned for its tasty, succulent focaccia and bread. For its inhabitants was almost an offense to their traditional food. Of course at first McDonald drew attention to its joint, it was a new food in town, it was yellow, red and big and it was American! Kids flocked to the big M, attracted by the games and French fries in a paper basket. After watching American scenes on T.V. or at the movie theatres, the big Mac now was a reality in their life too. The adult population of Altamura was willing to try it, but with a reservation. In their minds the aroma of fresh-baked focaccia next-door at Digesu’s bread bake house was unsurpassable. After a few times of trying McDonald’s food, people just decided to abandon it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WantccqAFwM&feature=related

The filmmaker Nico Cirasola, who is an interesting and fun person, did not intend to criticize the fast food giant, but to tell a story “a cuor leggero” lightly and heartfelt on how simple food won a silent battle against processed food. The filmmaker’s dry view of the flat land of Puglia mixed with the dry local humor resulted perfect to describe the simplicity of people who have drawn for centuries from the land the resources of their healthy cooking and diet.
As the N.Y Times reported when McDonald closed:
“McDonald’s didn’t get beat by a baker. McDonald’s got beat by a culture.”
And that to me is the essence of what I am expressing here. My southern Italian food is excellent, simple, healthy, once you get used to it, it is difficult to stray away.
My Puglia style of cooking keeps people young, energetic and spunky, with that comes all the positive energy you need.
Focaccia eats hamburger, Puglia food versus processed food wins 10 to 0.

I have embraced globalization even before the word was coined. I have learned to accept other cultures and to be part of the moving world. However, traditions need to stay alive and when it comes to my identifying origins, I know who I am and what I can give to the globalized world. I prefer to keep myself Italian and Pugliese in my cooking and in my style.

The evening in Puglia with Cirasola & Cirasola and Focaccia Blues Film at the San Francisco Italian Cultural Institute concluded as I said earlier the 2011 events of “October Month Of Italian Style”.
Next year events will be bigger and better and will mark year number three.

If you ever need to know more about a trip to Puglia, or even how to decorate in Puglia style (it will be the subject of next article), I shall be here prompt and ready to tell you all about it, just leave your name in the box below. Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens and cooking. She operates in the USA and Europe. She loves to remodel homes and loves to turn unattractive spaces into castles, but especially loves to design kitchens and wine grottos, outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms, great rooms and entertainment rooms. She is the author of two Italian regional cuisine books available on Amazon

Robert Taitano, a friend and business associate of http://www.wine-fi.com says:
“Valentina – an International Professional Interior Designer is now giving you an opportunity to redesign your palate”.

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
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Italy In Small Bites | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

19 Mar 2011 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #150ItalyAnniversary, #ItalianArchitecture, #ItalianArt, #ItalianCulture, #ItalianFashion, #ItalianLifeStyle

This year is the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy as a Republic, such a small country, such a concentrate of art and history, a country where even a shoe shine is an artist in his own way.
Italian emigrants and their strong patriotism have brought many Italian products around the world, shown them, talked about and place them on the market. They have made the “made in Italy” trade mark something to be proud of. It is a symbol of sophistication, elegance, purity and simple classicism.
Italian style of this century is very modern, very colorful and linear while Italians still enjoy walking around and breathing antiquity. The streets of Italy are very historical, but fashion, interiors and cars are not.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

The architectural style of Tuscan farmhouses have been copied in California by the boat load and turned into a mansions style, but the bucolic Tuscan scenes cannot be reproduced. Tuscan style is not about a large home empty of emotions and atmospheres, but it comprises a whole life style, it means going to market everyday, cook fresh food, neighbors popping by for coffee unannounced, evening dinner with family and friends, taking afternoon naps, cultivate the land and most importantly being surrounded by the warmth of the people occupying the house.

Italians put a lot of passion when it comes to design eating vessels, an old custom that goes back to the Roman Empire. Pleasing the eyes before the palate and pleasing the palate with fresh, uncomplicated, nor manipulated food. It’s like a game of pleasures, one following the other as close as possible.

What to say about the decorative art of tile making for flooring, kitchen backsplash, bathrooms, or entryways? Italians have an incredible ability to create stunning combinations of material old and new that no one else can do, or combinations of colors and patterns within the material no one else can even think about. Ideas don’t just come because Italians are clever, their ideas are imbedded in their blood through years of tradition and history. In my design projects I can sleep soundly when I employ Italian tile setters and stone fabricators, I know that even if I don’t observe their work, it will be done to perfection. Their clinical eye is a safe heaven. (Photo right: Romeo Cuomo, Italian Ceramic Art – Via Pinterest).

Fashion is a strong weapons for Italians. We dress very fashionable every day even to go to the market. We feel an immense pleasure and satisfaction to be admired by others, it highly gratifies our self-esteem and with that comes the elegant, flirtatious behavior in both men and women. Fashion is used in office and home décor, but in these areas our fashion is classic, classic contemporary, classic modern, classic eclectic, that type of classic that will not go out of vogue in a couple of years, just to be clear.

The thrill of driving an Italian sport car, or simply seeing one roaring by at the speed of light is revitalizing. I hope Italy continues to make them, even if it is only for the pleasure of few lucky ones. (Photo Lamborghini Countach -http://www.seriouswheels.com/car-terms.htm)

Food is no exception to the country’s beauty. Anywhere in Italy food is excellent, even in a “hole in the wall”. Eat Italian food to stay fit and young. In foreign countries Italian restaurants are considered the best. Olive oil, prosciutto, Parmigiano cheese, pasta, cheeses and wines are the most exported food out of Italy. All of us expatriates, laborious, hard workers Italian people, entrepreneurial at heart have contributed to the good reputation of our high quality products.

This 150th birthday of Italy’s unification as a Republic comes at a time of world turmoil, shifting of economic power and natural disasters, but Italy is also fighting its own battle with its own government, high unemployment, poor immigrants from every where in the world arriving on the coasts of Italy by the thousand a day, causing an economic stress the country cannot support. The most dangerous battle facing Italy is the counterfeit of its original products which are being sold all over the world in the name of saving the cent.

Italy is a vibrant country, all this concentrate of beauty might be a hand full for someone, just take it in small bites, you will learn to love even the noise in the streets and the fatalism of its people. It is still the most charming country to visit and to return to.

As the professional who is always ready, I shall be prompt and ready to help you with any of your needs, whether it will decorating, designing, or remodeling and if you like Italian architecture and décor in your home, I must be the one you should hire. Leave your name in the box below, I shall answer you in 24 hours time. As a new addition to my business, I offer design consultations on-line through Skype line. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Italian Interior Designer in business since 1990. Being Italian born and raised, Valentina’s design work has been influenced by Classicism and stylish, timeless designs. She is a designer well-known to bring originality to people’s homes. As an Italian designer and true to her origins, she provides only the best workmanship and design solutions. Check her books on:
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
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I Survived A 13 Courses Dinner | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

02 Jan 2011 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #italianCooking, #ItalianCulture, #ItalianEndOfYearDinner, #ItalianFood, #ItalianKitchen, #ItalianTableCustom

New Year’s Eve in almost every Italian homes is like history repeating itself. A 13 courses Lucullian dinner awaits to be consumed. Soon after Christmas people start planning their New Year’s Eve, whether it will be in a club, restaurant, or at home with family and friends, the end of the year is an important day of the entire year. It is a common believe that whatever one does on that evening and the first of year, one will do it for the rest of the year, therefore no crying, no paying bills, no arguing, only cooking, eating, laughing and spending a pleasant passage into the new year.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

The street markets and stores stay open at least until 5:00 pm for those who need the last few ingredients, or to find the last-minute outfit for the evening.
The people who stay at home to celebrate with their loved ones, end up cooking all day long. It sounds like an awful stressful activity to do right at the end of the year, but in reality Italian people love to cook in company of other people and even with their guests. Lot of laughter and camaraderie goes on during the cooking and that is one of the many reasons food in Italy taste so good, we make them with love and pleasure.

It is customary at lunch to have a small snack of vegetables and a fruit, but at night the New Year’s Eve dinner is an act of culinary cleverness and serious professionalism. The dinner table is well set, but not overly decorated with useless stuff, the food will take a center stage on the table of this evening.

Orange Appetizer

The dinner for this special night consist of 13 courses by tradition, one for each month of the year and one more in honor of the new coming year. It seems a whole lot of food to brush off in one night, but starting at 6:00 pm when everybody sits down at the table, until midnight when the champagne bottles pop, there are six hours of nothing but food paced with intervals and slow enjoyment.
It starts with many antipasti of different kind, but a mixture of raw and shell-fish is the king for this night, as it is for all the eves before an important holiday.

The evening continues on the note of fish. Any type of pasta with any fish sauce is served as a first course and grilled, fried or baked fish as a second course.

Olives and savory munchies fill the table to help passing time between those courses which need to be cooked fresh on the spot, to encourage conversation and wine drinking. In some families between the first, the second and third course, it is customary to pass a small portion of lemon or orange sorbet as a palate cleanser. What a delightful and fine dinner practice!

After the most important part of the dinner is served, all the minor plates will be parading such as, fried vegetables, fried puffy dough, food preserved under oil or vinegar, dried fruits and nuts, fresh fruit, typical regional home-made sweets and cookies, along with the store-bought sweets.

One specialty must never be forgotten before midnight strikes and that is cooked lentils with a swirl of olive oil and basil leaves. The popular belief is that each lentil represents money, more lentil a person can eat, more money that person will make. Needless to say we consume a large pot of lentils every end of the year just to wish ourselves a good financial stability.

At midnight the champagne is popped, kisses, hugs and laughter fill the air, accompanied with panettone, a typical Italian sponge cake sometimes filled with chocolate, sometimes with champagne cream, or tiramisu’ as I like, or candied fruit.

The 13 courses dinner is over after midnight, but the night is young and it is the first day of the new year. Outside, people shoot fireworks from their balconies and windows. It is important to welcome the new year and celebrate it any way people can. If people celebrate this first day, they will be celebrating many more times during the year, so the old folks saying goes. Then at 5:00 am in the streets is time to taste freshly made croissants, hot from the baker’s oven with a warm frothy cappuccino to fight the cold temperature of this winter night spent in boisterous festivity.
Buon Anno, Happy New Year to all and peace in the world.

I would love to design your kitchen and show you the way to comfort and good cooking through a functional space. Contact me, I am at your service. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer in business since 1990 with a special passion for kitchens and cooking. She operates in the USA and Europe. She loves to remodel homes and loves to turn ugly spaces into castles, but especially loves to design kitchens and wine grottos. She also the author of two Italian regional cookbooks available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Custom and Traditions Of An Italian Christmas Dinner | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

06 Dec 2010 2 Comments

by Valentina in Books Blog Tags: #FoodHistory, #ItalainStyleEating, #ItalianChristmaDinner, #ItalianCulture, #ItalianFood, #SinsOfAQueen, Avaliving

In Italy, in the province of Pavia, Christmas Eve dinner starts with a soup of lasagna mixed with mushrooms sauté in oil and garlic. In old times in Italy newborn babies were wrapped in bands of white cloth to keep their tender legs very straight and prevent them from growing bowed. In the fantasy of the local people this dish represents those bands, it is made in honor of baby Jesus being born on Christmas Eve.

Many specialties follow this first dish: marinated eel salted stockfish and escargot. The small horns of the escargot allude to discord and disagreement between people, therefore they need to be hidden in the stomach of the guests to properly prepare themselves for a peaceful Christmas, as the legend says.
Other fundamental specialties are risotto cooked in any style, roasted turkey, boiled capon dressed with mustard. In the same province of Pavia, going more toward the inland towns and villages, included in the typical menu of the holidays, after a risotto plate, one finds stuffed onions with meat and focaccia bread.

A must-have dessert for the end of the dinner is the Sbrisolona Torte, a typical dessert of that area. It is a crisp and friable torte, which accompanies Torrone, Panettone and Pâte Brisee’ all hand-made specialties found in each home. The Sbrisolona Torte doesn’t really mark the end of the dinner, there are still all the fruits of the season parading on the table: citrus, grapes, and dry nuts. Apples, even though are fruits of the Christmas season, are not eaten because they represent the fruit with which Adam and Eve committed the original sin.

Women bake hand-made bread for the Christmas holidays. The portion to use for every meal is cut and reserved, then all Christmas types of breads are placed on the center of the table and everyone, in turn, must take a piece every day from Christmas Eve until the 31st of December. It is a belief that Christmas types of breads do not go bad, do not grow mold and therefore they are good to cure bellyache.

Every region in Italy has different customs and traditions. In the South, the main item on everybody’s table is fish, cooked in any way possible, in addition to the delicacy of raw fish and shell-fish and it doesn’t matter how much its price sky-rockets in this time of the year, it is a must-have! Christmas dinners last many hours, they could go on for 5 or 6 hours. Italians people spend a lot of money for a Christmas dinner and cook for days to make it ready, but the only important thing is the togetherness of the family, the love for one another, and that in itself is priceless. Ciao.
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

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Valentina Cirasola has been in business as an interior designer since 1990. Her life is a continuous evolvement of colorful events. She will not only design your home, build it, and decorate it, but she will also design your palate with her new productions of Italian regional cookbooks. She is the author of
©Come Mia Nonna – A Return To Simplicity and ©Sins Of A Queen. Both books are available on
Amazon and Barnes&Nobles

Every Trick Is Permitted At Carnival, Just Need The Right Mask | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

11 Feb 2010 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColorScheme, #EuropeanFashion, #HowToDecorateTips, #InteriorDesign, #ItalianCulture, #ItalianLifeStyle, #VeniceCarnivalMasks, #VeniceStyle

In Europe around this time of the year we celebrate Carnevale, or Mardi Gras. The Christian calendar marks Carnevale as the period between the Epiphany and the first day of Lent, this being the day when all the fatty food must end until Easter Day. In Austria and Bavaria, Carnevale called Fashing starts the day of the Epiphany, in Cologne it starts at 11:11 of Nov.11.

At Mardi Gras, the day before Lent, we Europeans consume a variety of meat dish, food high in calories and proteins, lot of fried food and stuffed food, but on the Lent day and for forty consecutive days, until Easter, the diet must be light and lean.
In Carnevale time every trick is expected and accepted. I remember the sugar, or the white flour being thrown at the passerby in the streets, especially if they were wearing a dark coat. Getting mad was out of the question, next street corner it would have happened again. In the history of time, Carnevale has been a magic time of divertissement, debauchery, costume parties, eating, unrestrained sex, and a time during which life challenges were momentarily forgotten.

The etymology of the word Carnevale could be deriving from the Latin “carrus navalis” or from the Medieval “carnem levare” which it means to eliminate the meat from the diet for 40 days as the Lent requires. On Ash Wednesday, Christian people must spread ashes on the forehead as a sign of repentance.
During Carnevale it is a must to wear masks to disguise one’s identity, but the usage of masks is not a novelty of today, it goes back to Paleolithic time, when the chief of tribes wore masks during spiritual, or magical propitiatory rituals to invoke riches, or to get rid of maleficent spirits. Romans celebrated their Gods with Carnevale festivities. The use of masks concealed their licentious behaviors and their social status, allowing old and young, rich and poor, nobles, servants, slaves and prostitutes to mingle and dance together until dawn.

During the festivities of Carnevale, Romans celebrated Bacchus, the God of wines, with rivers of wines and long hours of dances all in the streets of Rome, hence the name Bacchanalia. The gladiators entertained the public and the king of the festivities, elected by the people for only the duration of the feasts, organized public games to which everybody could participate.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

In Italy, masks for Carnevale have been used in theatre plays, especially in Goldoni’s comedies, a famous Venetian writer of the 1700 and in the Commedia Dell’Arte in the second half of the 16th century, based on improvisation on stage. Plays of Commedia dell’Arte are still fascinating and alive in the arts and in the memories of theatre lovers.

Carnevale in Venice, renowned all over the world, is a magical and mysterious event that takes place every year around February, it calls for unruly behavior and the masks are breath-taking. Browsing in costumes through the narrow streets of a foggy Venice is like walking in the 16th century. Everybody is disguised, people laughing, chatting, a glass of wine here, a dance there. Carnevale in Venice is what it was and still is.

Paintings of Venice Carnevale scenes, or paintings of masks can be included into today’s home décor very easily. Think about a room in a total white color scheme with very colorful paintings on the walls as the Geraldine Arata’s art work. She knows how to capture on canvas the mystery of Venice and the complicity of secretive lovers. Her oil paintings are beautifully executed, colorful and unconventional.

(Defiance – Geraldine Arata)

Another example could be a room painted in grey gun-metal faux finish with a modern style décor and Geraldine’s colorful mask paintings just laid casually against the walls, or hung on a wall washed with light. Loose white chiffon draperies swinging in the windows as a sweet melody in Venice would carry two lovers in each other arms.

Find Geraldine Arata at:
www.aratafineartgallery.com

As an Italian born designer and a lover of Commedia dell’Arte, I can help recreating the mystery of Venice, its flamboyance and Bohemian atmosphere into today’s home décor and I can help placing this particular art in a special home. It takes a sunny eye to see the sun light.

Please forward this article to anyone you think might be interested in reading it and let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. Thank you. Ciao,
Valentina

www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior and Fashion Designer, working in the USA and Europe. She combines well fashion and interior in any of her design work. She loves to remodel homes and loves to create the unusual. Author of the forthcoming book on the subject of Colors.
Author of the book: ©Come Mia Nonna–A Return to Simplicity
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles:http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w