![]() ![]() ![]() She was born Marcella Polini in Cesenatico, a seaside town on the Adriatic coast, in the province of Emilia-Romagna (the capital of which is Bologna, Italy's food central), to an Italian expatriate mother from Beirut and an Italian father. Certainly, come the late 1980s, when British cooks began to look away from France and concentrate on Italy as a principal culinary inspiration, Hazan's recipes were widely praised by such leading culinary figures as Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers of the River Cafe whose books, in turn, emphasised the simplicity and freshness of Italian cookery. Her books were influential in Britain too, although Elizabeth David's Italian Food (1954) had given it a head start, later capitalised upon by writers such as Anna Del Conte and Patience Gray. ![]() This was a revelation to Americans, just as their supermarkets, frozen and convenience food and tomatoes "half-ripe, gassed, shuttled great distances and artificially quickened back to life" had greatly shocked Hazan when she first arrived in New York in 1955. She insisted on authentic ingredients, a light touch with stocks (or, more properly Italian, broths), sauces and flavourings such as garlic, and the use of fresh, seasonal produce. In a series of books from 1973, she called time on the masquerade of Italo-American overcooked pasta slathered in viscous tomato sauces and crowned with mountains of inappropriate cheese. Marcella Hazan, who has died aged 89, introduced America to the delights of proper Italian cooking. ![]()
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