Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
The recently published English translation of an Italian book gives fascinating insight into how Italian prisoners cook in their cells with the few resources that are available to them. “Cooking in Maximum Security” was published by Half Letter Press in November.
The Italian original was compiled by Matteo Guidi, who worked with people detained in high-surveillance sections of Italian prisons through an exchange of letters between 2009 and 2013.
“Making kitchen tools before one can even begin to gather ingredients is a priority in this cookbook,” Half Letter Press explains. “In addition to identifying the necessary utensils, this book also describes how to construct them. Simple objects acquire a whole new value. A broom handle becomes a rolling pin, shoelaces tie rolled bacon for curing, and the cupboard or stool becomes an oven. Even the heat from an old cathode-ray (television) tube helps dough for pizza and bread to rise in the cold environment of a prison cell. The recipes themselves, for all kinds of classic Italian pasta dishes, sauces, meat preparations and pastries, reveal a whole new level of skill and ingenuity when the reader learns how they are made in defiance of the discouraging experience of detention.”
Guidi is a visual artist trained in cultural anthropology. Born in Cesena, Italy, he now works in Barcelona, Spain, where he teaches at the European Institute of Design. He also teaches at ISIA (Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche) Urbino, a graphic design and visual communication school in Italy. For more, click here.
