What better way to celebrate one’s roots than to describe their food? At the annual New York gathering of the National Organization of Italian American Women, CNN journalist Alisyn Camerota and food influencer and chef Anna Francese Gass presented their books, respectively the memoir Combat Love: A Story of Leaving, Longing, and Searching for Home and the recipe collection Heirloom Kitchen: Heritage Recipes & Family Stories from the Table of Immigrant Women. The common thread linking the two women is Italian cuisine, a quintessential symbol of the environment in which they grew up.
“I believe that sharing our stories in whatever form, whether it is a cookbook, whether it is a memoir, whether it is reporting on the news—since I am a professional storyteller—builds bonds and bridges. We need this right now,” Camerota commented, adding she felt inspired by people’s personal stories to share hers. “I love storytelling. In my teenage years, I kept journalism as my final inspiration and my final goal. And Italians with their food are professional storytellers.” So, she decided to put them together.
“I decided to take on a career in food definitely because my family was always surrounded by food. Even though I went to the French Culinary Institute, and learned how to cook traditional French food, I was always pulled back to Italian. It is so authentic to me,” Francese Gass said. Then she commented on her book highlighting how important it is to know your roots in order to build your own identity. “You do not really know where you are going unless you know where you are from. My mother immigrated here, and I still have a lot of family in Italy. I wonder what my grandmother would have imagined that she would have a granddaughter writing on her little farm in Calabria to honor my roots.”
Recalling the reasons they both decided to write their books, they referred to their family stories. “My grandfather Ugo changed his own name into Eugene because Italians were ghettoized the first time they came here,” Camerota started. “When I was born, my parents gave me the middle name of Lane because they thought that I would have to somehow anglicize my name since my name was somewhat too ethnic for me to be in the light. The truth is the world caught up to us and now I have never anglicized my name, the one I use as my maiden name, and on TV as well. Being Camerota makes me so proud. I called my daughters Francesca and Alessandra to pay tribute to my grandparents.”
“For Heirloom Kitchen, I went around the country meeting and cooking with immigrant grandmothers. I felt like I was sitting next to my mother.” Francese Gass explained that she wanted to tell why women chose to leave their lives, come to the US, and bring their food with them. “Everyone’s love language was cooking for their families.”
When it comes to pasta as a love language, both women are fluent. “My go-to when I am tired is pasta al pomodoro. It is the best. I always keep my mother’s ragu in the fridge so I can just pull it out and I use it with a little Parmigiano Reggiano on top,” Francese Gass shared. Camerota agreed, “I would go for pasta al pesto or noodles pasta with blue cheese.”
The atmosphere at the Columbus Citizens Foundation, which hosted the evening, is pleasant and empowering. NOIAW is a safe space for women to uplift each other and organizes these presentations once a year to learn about our history and to chart a different future for the next generation.
