ABSTRACT
The Florentine proverb defined paradise as the place where non se ne ragiona about eating-a complicated expression that means the food is beyond reason, without need for thinking. It implies the inescapable fact of life for many Florentines throughout the first two-thirds of the twentieth century-that they always had to fret about eating. Through their ways of talking about food, people identified themselves as Florentines and Tuscans. Sixty-six-year-old Elena, who in Chapter 1 criticized her fellow Florentines for their arrogance, was happy to proclaim her pride in their food: Oh, we eat well in Florence; we eat very well Our cooking is not very refined, but it is delicious. It’s not sophisticated because generally we just do our best and don’t make fancy dishes like they do in many places, in the Italian Piemonte region, for example. There they cook French style and they make refined dishes that are beautiful to look at. But they are less flavorful than ours because they are cooked with lots of butter and have a delicate taste. But our cooking uses hot pepper and pepper, you know. We use olive oil-the really good kind-and garlic, onion, and hot peppers. Yes, yes, we Florentines care about eating.
