If you follow us, you already know Elisa Carrer and Mirko Sernagiotto, from the Archivio Giuseppe Maffioli, the Foundation aimed at promoting the story of this gastronome, actor, movie director and writer. Many initiatives were already put in place for this purpose and to allow the new generations to learn from his genius and values.
Who was Giuseppe Maffioli? Why was he so famous?
Maffioli (ed. Padua, 1925 – Treviso, 1985) still lives in his books, in the restaurants that he supported with his advices, in his dishes and recipes. His notoriety is linked to his knowledge and erudition that went beyond his writings as he designed and implemented valuable local promotion projects. Due to his continuous experimenting and inventing, he contributed to shaping the present gastronomic and cultural scenario.
What does it means to be a gastronome at that time?
In those years the Venetian cuisine was in an early stage and he provided a clear direction, gathering in his books thousands and thousands of recipes handed down from family to family. Giuseppe Maffioli introduced the rules in the kitchen and on the work top allowing the recipes to be passed on to us over the years. He wrote a dozen of works, collecting gastronomic formulas and describing the local history, his tradition, the secrets of the “feeling good at the table”. The most popular books are “Il Ghiottone Veneto” (ed. The Venetian Gourmand) and “Storia Piacevole della Gastronomia” (ed. Pleasant History of Gastronomy).
Moreover, he is the certifier master of tiramisu. In 1981 he reported the official recipe in Vin Veneto magazine calling it tiramisu.
What kind of man was Giuseppe Maffioli?
It’s not easy in few lines to describe such an incredible man that innovated and transformed the Venetian cuisine. Man of culture, passionate about cooking, theater lover, writer and humanist. He codified and disseminated the founding recipes of the Venetian cuisine, he reviewed the ones from around the world and he loved to provide to restaurants an innovative vision both cultural and commercial. With his cultural companions, he developed many local food festivals. He designed the concept for the first cooking professional school in Veneto and leaded many Tv and radio shows, performing as an actor into movies.
And what about the Foundation?
We undertook many initiatives linked to food targeting to a younger audience through a comic book that tells the story of our gastronome “Comic Tiramisù. Viaggio nella civiltà delle ville venete con il fumetto di Giuseppe Maffioli” (ed. Comic Tiramisù. A journey into the culture of Venetian villas with Giuseppe Maffioli). We want to present this “Venetian gourmand” through a fresh language. The book is divided into 10 stories that describe episodes of Maffioli’s life reported in his books.
How would the Maffioli end the interview?
At the table, for sure, with his beloved friends, a good glass of wine and some wise words from the books that forged his culture.
