Anthony Capella has written two novels set in Italy. The first, a bestseller called The Food of Love, was an Italian-food laden modern-day reworking of the Cyrano de Bergerac story. His new novel, The Wedding Officer, is set in Naples in 1944. It is a shade darker than The Food of Love but still showcases Anthony's knowledge of and interest in the regional food of Italy. He was recently in Dublin and kindly took the time to answer a few questions from the Historian.
There's an enormous focus on Italian food in both The Wedding Officer and your first book, The Food of Love - why is this? Why are food and love such a potent combination for you?
I suppose it's because they're both about passion, and food is one of the most sensual ways in which we experience pleasure. My books tend to be about people who are discovering the importance of sensual pleasures for the first time, so the enjoyment of food becomes a kind of metaphor for romantic self-discovery too.
After The Food of Love, where there's hardly a page that doesn't mention food, was it more difficult for you to write about wartime Naples where the food was so scarce?
No, it was great - the pleasures of Italian food are even more pronounced to someone who has been eating wartime rations for four years! And food takes on a greater emotional significance when it's scarce.
Even during wartime, your characters love to discuss food. Are some of these actual conversations that you've had with people in Italy?
Absolutely. There's a saying from Parma: "Here you eat twice: once when you have your meal, and once when you discuss it afterwards." Italians care about their food, so naturally they love to talk about it.
There's a hint of magical realism around the food in your books but it's never totally unrelated to the ingredients used. Do you believe that the right food, properly prepared, has these properties?
Yes - but it's also true that when you write about food you soon find yourself in the realm of myth and fairy tale. So many of our earliest stories are about magic porridge pots, gingerbread houses and so on.
Do you think that now is a particularly good time to be writing about food - particularly Italian food - in Britain? When did food become so sexy?
Well, we're obviously more interested in food than we used to be. And Ruth Rogers and Rosie Gray, at the River cafe in London, have trained a whole generation of chefs in a more relaxed style of cooking - people like Jamie Oliver, who have gone on to write books and do TV about it.
I loved the recipes that you had at the end of The Food of Love - was there no place for something similar in The Wedding Officer?
I felt that the Neapolitan recipes were too obvious, but everyone keeps asking me for them. I'll try to put some on my website, www.theweddingofficer.com
What Italian cookbook would you recommend to anyone trying to recreate the recipes mentioned in The Wedding Officer?
Marcella Hazan's books are all fantastic, though they contain recipes from all over Italy. Claudia Roden has a cookbook which deals with recipes region by region. And the River Cafe Easy book is great...Carluccio's books are all extremely authoritative...and Jamie Oliver's books are a great reinterpretation of classic Italian food.
Both books read like you did an exceptional amount of research - especially for the food angle of things! Have you spent a lot of time eating your way through Italy?
Too much! I also write on Italian cuisine for The Sunday Times, recommending restaurants in Naples, Rome etc - the articles are still online, I believe.
The whole idea of a wedding officer, vetting potential war brides, seems completely fictional yet it has its roots in reality. Where did you come across this?
I went to Naples with a group of foodies, including Jamie Oliver, and took along Naples '44 by Norman Lewis, a diary of his time there during the war. One of his jobs was to vet would-be war brides. From there, my imagination took over.
The film rights of both your books have been sold. Have you heard anything about the making of the films or is that still completely up in the air?
Well, I get phone calls from Hollywood occasionally saying it's all going well, but I take them all with a pinch of salt.
And, finally, what would your ideal meal consist of?
It depends on where I am and what time of year. In Rome, in spring,
Lamb and artichokes: in Venice at the same time, pumpkin risotto; in Scotland in autumn, pheasant stew; in Cornwall in summer, lobster and oysters...food doesn't stand in isolation, it's an expression of time and place.
I hope you enjoy your trip to Dublin - and happy eating here!
Thank you - I wanted to eat at Chapter One, but didn't get around to it, but the Cellar restaurant at the Merrion was excellent!
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